Disconnect

P 3305 The heart of the matter.

/ DVH

Sin starts in our minds and imagination, but it can quite rapidly drop down from our thinking, into our hearts where it pollutes them. Actions aren’t far behind thoughts. Meanwhile satan could care less what you and I do, so long as it is not what God wants for us! A lifetime filled with distractions, suits him! But when we take this life seriously, that’s when we will meet opposition. 

At the same time we could discover that our hearts, just like the Israelites in the wilderness, are yearning for the onions and garlic of Egypt – instead of wondering what our Promised land looks like! Have you ever asked yourself, what does OUR Promised land look like? Here and now, day by day? The Lord wants to take everything we know about Him in our heads, and drop those things into our hearts, with our co-operation. Our heart is the issue, and it needs protecting.

The bible says in Proverbs 4:23: “Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.”  What does that mean? It means we need to guard the springs of His Spirit life, the Holy Spirit is revealing in each one of us. Then we can daily draw fresh water out of that well. We drink from it ourselves, and we give this water away to other thirsty people. 

We excuse our behaviour at our own peril! We simply can’t afford to let other things take over the focus of our hearts – Jesus is our focus…not things like entertainment! That other stuff is a waste of time. Proverbs uses the word vigilance when it comes to the things of God, which means: “the action or state of keeping careful watch for possible danger or difficulties.” In other versions that word is translated — diligence. That is the quality of working steadily, carefully, and with great effort to complete a task properly. We need both. God’s Word needs to become flesh in us … that only happens when we prioritise His Ways.

Here’s the good news — Jesus came to earth, lived and died, and rose again, to give us the power to have this kind of vigilance and diligence. We don’t have to do this alone. He will help us! Just like a compass points north, our hearts need course correction and focus. This is why I cannot tell you what to watch on TV for instance —  enforcement of rules will not cover it. It’s about our personal choices. It’s not a mandatory thing — it’s a passion for Jesus thing. What my heart objects to, and is influenced by, won’t be the same as your heart’s response. I strongly suggest each one of us watch TV, play video games, listen to the radio, or use social media –welcoming the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

Only you, together with the Holy Spirit, can discern what pushes bad buttons in your heart.  Please note, sometimes we can remain undisturbed because of one very troubling fact. We’ve become hardened in our hearts and fallen asleep. The best answer is to find those buttons, and disconnect them, but I don’t have enough space to tackle that here. I can only give you examples to help prime the pump, so to speak. However, we cannot tackle the insidious influence of media, without the pure wisdom that comes down from above. 

James 3:17 expounds what that wisdom looks like, as it flows out of us: “But the wisdom from above is first pure [morally and spiritually undefiled], then peace-loving [courteous, considerate], gentle, reasonable [and willing to listen], full of compassion and good fruits. It is unwavering, without [self-righteous] hypocrisy [and self-serving guile].”  You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but you can see from these blogs that I am not drumming up customers for any church, or some Christian group! I have no agenda here, except to see the Body of Christ wake up at the appropriate time with their lamps filled with oil, so whenever the Lord does whatever He is going to do next, we will all be ready.

Our enemy is a deceiver. he is called the father of all lies. Yes, even the iddy-biddy no harm, no foul ones! There’s no such thing as a white lie, or even an OK lie. Because satan is the originator of lies, imagine what agreeing with them will produce? It won’t be good fruit, trust me! he will never come at people who love Jesus and want to serve the Lord, with this kind of thought: ‘let’s go rob a bank.’ Or ‘your neighbour is a pain, let’s put poison in his coffee!’ he is far more likely to whisper that it is‘ OK to cheat on your income tax because everybody else does it and the accountant said it is legal,’ Or you could end up in a conversation with someone else assassinating a third person’s character, and calling the idea prayer points! 

Almighty God is searching for a people who will honour what He wants and likes, above what they like or honour.“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are blameless toward Him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9. I know He’s searching all of our hearts, even as I write this. He’s looking for a people who are serious about loving and serving Jesus. He doesn’t care what nation we are from —  or whether we are poor or rich, old or young, sick or well. He desires a people who will do more than just say ‘Amen’ to what the pastor says. These people will go out and LIVE AMEN in their daily lives to their own hurt. 

We cannot afford to gloss over those things that will lead us nowhere and profit us nothing. Let’s choose to make strong specific God-given choices, and stick to them. Father God is tenderly looking for a people who will choose Him first, that’s the heart of the matter. Bye. 👋

P 3196 Connections.

/ DVH

 I have had a number of disconnected relationships in my life. Because of that, I have had to put down whatever I would love to see happen, and leave those things with the Lord. I joke to my hubby that there are some people in this life where the only way anyone can ever love them – is to throw love over the very tall electric fence they have constructed – not to mention the rabid Rottweilers!  Writing about these things is hard for me, because I believe human beings were made for connection — with God and others. We can disconnect from Him, by our choices.

The thing is, talking with Jesus is a little like talking to a beloved family member on the telephone, all the time. He loves us so much He will never put His end of the phone down. He simply will not hang up on us. Jesus  waits and longs for us to meet with Him, purely because He loves us. He loves to hear from us. And the loveliest part is this, you cannot replace me, and I cannot replace you in His affections! Whatever we have done to break intimacy with Him can be cast aside the minute we turn our eyes and hearts even slightly back toward Him. Running home is always our best option.

What Jesus has done, and continues to do for us, is called devotion. He takes His role as our Saviour, Redeemer, and Advocate, far more seriously than most of us do. Love is not only His Name, it is the way He thinks and acts toward us. This is why we need not fear correction – anything the Lord does is done from LOVE.  At the same time any problem that might occur is always at our end. I am not defending the Lord’s  motivation. I am simply describing something that is clearly laid out through the length and breadth of the bible. His kind of love has no end, and even when He has had to let some people have their head, it hurts Him deeply. 

In the course of my life I have come to understand that our present generations are all extremely careless about the value of love. I think, BTW, that’s why the younger generation texts one another. It is much easier to break up with someone when you aren’t looking at the other person weeping their heart out. Instead they are simply represented by letters on a page, which can be misread or misinterpreted. Those words have no actual substance, but they do allow us to hurt one another from a distance. 

This superficiality has had a huge cost on our society, because human beings were made for connection – “Let us make man in our image.”… These words show us the Trinity was deeply connected before mankind ever took its first breath. We can blame whatever we like;  the past, our upbringing, current teachings — but the truth is this, many times we still choose to continue to make choices that hurt others. We desperately need His help to be discerning, but LOVE has to take precedence. We can even fool ourselves into thinking that we are the victims – but in reality, maybe our faith is small, and we would rather avoid connection because we think we are protecting our right to stay in the position we have chosen for ourselves.

My point today is a simple one. SomeOne loves you and I so much He took every evil, spiteful, careless, unyielding, unforgiving thought, word or action we did and it was nailed to a cross – in His own Body. Jesus had to daily live with many people misunderstanding His actions, theology and motivations. Yet He was the one to Whom evil was a theory, not a practice! When He chose to become our substitute – He did not do it for obligation, or to force us into compliance. Jesus Christ did what He did to “demonstrate His love for us while we were yet sinners.” (Romans 5:8) He did it to connect us with Himself, His Father, the Holy Spirit, and others.

Connections can be broken when we take what other people say and do, out of context. The way OUT of this is to pick up the ‘phone’ and talk to Him. None of us have enough experience or understanding of what has happened to someone else, in their private daily lives, or even where they are coming from now. Broken people hurt people. And it is way too overly simplistic to expect someone else to change the habits of a lifetime, when we have the Greater One living in us. Nor can we afford to claim our hurt is preventing us from walking the extra mile. Our love for Him is expressed in the way we love others. Let’s remember, the more we do something, the more it owns us.

We need to move on from there and allow our connection with the Lord to change the way we connect with other people. When we choose to follow Jesus we are saying the same thing Ruth said to Naomi. “And Ruth said, Urge me not to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God.” Ruth 1:16. This connection Ruth had with her mother-in-law was so strong it changed her whole way of life. Our connection with the Lord Jesus is designed to do the same thing. 

We won’t ever look, sound, act, or react the same way we did before we met Him, because we have chosen to cherish loyalty to Him and His ways over any immediate benefits to us. Otherwise we may become like an old person who has lost their hearing aid … the words and the world around them, get more and more unclear. 

Connection is vital. God has not abandoned us, despite who we are and what we have done, try remembering that instead of going over and over someone else’s sin against you. Remember, love bears all things. Bye. 👋