Door

P 2866 Priorities.

/ DVH

In the Beatitudes, Jesus may as well have said this: When your life is less than this world’s idea of successful, and filled up with the sort of things other people avoid — (don’t panic) — blessings from our Heavenly Father will still be coming toward you. He indicated that there are much bigger, more important things to look at – God’s kingdom.

Luke 6:20-23 “Looking at His disciples, He said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man, “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.”

The Lord is teaching us that some of the things we try desperately to avoid can spiritually be a good place;  because poverty or difficulties of any sort makes us aware of and desperate for His riches, the things that last.  His provisions, His Way of life. Now in the natural, we all avoid poverty. Maybe some of us actually think we are poor, but we have so much more than we have realised. Here’s that question thing I like to do. Do you have a bed to sleep on? Have you  food to eat? When it rains do you have a place you can shelter?Jesus is explaining that LACK is not the worst thing that can happen to us because it can open the door to His provisions, His kind of blessings.

For years and years my thoughts were more about what I didn’t have – and that definitely included the concept of being a “good Christian.” I was focussed on the negative. I didn’t think I was a very good parent. I fretted about whether I was making attractive, tasty nutritious meals for my family. Or making sure my washing, and my home, were clean because someone was bound to notice. I totally missed the main point! I had a home, I had washing, I had food, I had a bed etc. I had a family! I was already rich and I didn’t see it. I let the enemy steal away my blessings by letting him inflate the importance of other things.

It is obvious that many people all over this world don’t have the things we have — but let’s not stop there, because if we stop there we will be giving into guilt… Let’s move on and see that not having stuff is the very best place to be. Jesus just said that! He said LACK makes us eligible for greater things. No, I am not talking about a bigger better bed, or fancier food, or a fantastic car etc. I’m talking about every day lack as an opportunity to prioritise what is really important – spiritual fullness.

The quest for more can overwhelm what we already have. Knowing God personally, intimately, is the most important thing any of us will ever do in this life. It is what we are here for. I’m just going to let those remarks sit there so we can all think about them! 

God’s kingdom is ours when we are poor in spirit: EG. when we are hungry for the things that last, or reduced to tears about how pathetic our lives are, or saddened by our many attempts to somehow please God and gain His favour. It’s definitely sad – but we’ve missed the real reason – because in those moments we have forgotten we are rich! We already have His favour. We are kingdom dwellers, even we lack material things or when other people hate us – we are rich in the things that last.

Here’s my end thought today, Jesus repeated this theme again in Luke 10:41,42.: “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”The most important thing we will ever have, or participate in is His kingdom. We cannot be poor when we have Jesus in our lives. Our God is with us, and we are forever rich. Let’s check our priorities – Him first, last and always! Bye. 👋

P 2783 THIS is what I was trying to say yesterday!

/ DVH

Matthew 7:13-20 MSG. “Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention. 

“Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don’t be impressed with charisma; look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned.

“Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with Me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our super-spiritual projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use Me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress Me one bit. You’re out of here.”

Hi! Has this ever happened to you? You dearly want to explain to someone how precious Jesus is, and so you waffle and wander about trying to find the right words, bouncing from one incomplete thought to another…But the next day, you read a verse, that you already know … in another version … and boom! 🤯 Lo, and behold it’s all in there!  And you’ve been  rendered speechless again. I landed there today. After all I said yesterday, I found these verses in the Message bible, and it blew me away … again!

God’s Word is like that to me. Some people find reading the bible boring. I have the simplest solution to that malady, start doing what it says. Suddenly you are on an adventure with God. That will change the colour of your day, trust me! We talk about God’s benefits in the church, this blessing, that gift — like we are negotiating business deals – when in reality each promise in His book is an opportunity to co-labour with Him. We have the power to bring heaven to earth, by simply obeying Him.

That’s another reason I love His book – I have my own feeble limited thoughts, and then I read in His book about His love for everyone, some part of me inside, takes a huge breath. His Word is fresh air to our spirits. I think that is why many preachers preach. They have found some fresh air, and they want to share it with everyone who will listen! Meanwhile, if we are so inspired by just a glimpse of Who He is, imagine what heaven is like! 

I sometimes think about all those people who have left this world behind them, and they are now with Him. The trouble with theology is that it divides people and it insists that its POV is the only one. I love this verse in Ephesians 3:10&11 it says:“His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”Manifold wisdom! I like it.

‘That word manifold in the original language means to be multi-coloured. It was used when describing the many colours of a painting or a tapestry in the ancient world. When speaking about God’s wisdom it describing the many angles, hues, and dimensions of God’s knowledge and its application to all things.’ (Google.)

So, in the light of the above interesting remarks, I’ve decided to cling to those words that Jesus spoke once to a dying man, who was hanging right next to Him, the day He died. The verse I mean is in Luke 23:43:“Jesus said to him, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Well, now, that’s not a bad place to hang your faith is it? 

When we are finally in His Presence, we too will have fullness of joy. Good place for a full stop, right here. I cannot possibly imagine what the people I have loved dearly in this life, are experiencing in the next. I may feel very sad when I think about my own loss of time with them — however, they are way too busy enjoying Jesus and each other! Death is a door, not a destination. 

So, here at the bottom of today’s page I want to leave you with my final thought. We too can experience glimpses of heaven down here, when we choose to live this life dead to what we want and alive to Him. There are no shortcuts in our redemption – we simply need to choose to live it out day by day and let His Word work on us! This often happens right in front of people who have no idea about what we are giving them. But when heaven visits here because of our serious obedience —- Aahhh! Glory!!

That’s the thing I was trying to say yesterday, this life has a purpose, let’s not get distracted by this doctrine or theory. Jesus is longing for you and I to live our lives sold out to His calling. We are still here, to RE-present Him, so others can see and know Him too. Bye. 🕊️

P 2700 Let’s keep our eyes on forever.

/ DVH

The bible tells us to “… above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.”Proverbs 4:23. When I watch over my heart I am watching over who I am and what I produce!

Sometimes the hardest thing to watch over is our own heart. From my limited experience, other people often tread on someone else’s heart unknowingly. However, whoever started whatever has happened, if someone is offended, it means that there is something we both need to look at..Sadly, we can mistake somebody else’s motivation for evil intent, when the truth is this:… a whole lotta people are just big dummies, (like me), and they talk without thinking.

It goes without saying that forgiveness is the key that opens the door to understanding and reconciliation, but we all have people in our lives who are repeat offenders. So today I want to talk to the offended as well as the offender. Have you noticed how easy it is today to take offence? My first bit of advice to the one who is offended, is that forgiveness will require resolve, it will take self-discipline. There’s a happy thought! However, this is how we mature, and grow the fruits of self-control and patience…  by hanging on firmly to the VINE – true forgiveness is in that vine.

So we: “…set our mind on the things above.’ Colossians 3:2. Most growing points in our lives are a matter of forgiveness. The thing is, people aren’t doing whatever they did AGAIN – if we really forgave them in the first place! There may be some times when we read this bible stuff and say to ourselves, “yeah, yeah, great thought, but how do I do that?” I wish I had some snappy whizz bang methodology, that took care of our instant responses – but I don’t.

Here’s my advice for the one offended. My experience in this area of forgiveness has come down to two words – DO IT.  Don’t expect to feel good about it – just do it. Deliberately, and with great resolve, take authority over all the mean, niggly things you want to say to that offender, and ZIP IT. 🤐 When Jesus hung there silently on that cross for us. He gave us the power, by what He did, to shut up when we desperately want to put someone else in their place or comment on their behaviour.. 

Seriously, don’t give into your feelings for a minute, because you will find yourself circling the plug-hole going down for the last time! The bible says SET your mind because sort of kind of hoping the conflict will magically go away, will not work! Let me clarify this – we are changing an internal mindset in our lives, and doing that is not easy. Mindsets change when we consistently ask Him for His help,  use our faith, and keep our anger to ourselves. I say to myself: “I wanna be like Jesus and this is the Way to get there.” People who have no self-control haven’t totally realised what He gave us when He died for us. We already have forgiveness – LEARN TO SHARE. Read Romans! The more we die to self the more we gain!

Transformation takes hold when we find we can say something positive to the person who is jumping all over our last nerve. The bible says: “Bless those who curse you, do good to those who despitefully use you.”  Look, we are not talking about a walk in the park, we are talking about pressing into God until you forget what you were mad about! It IS hard! Hullo!! I say to myself at this point: “Oh there’s that thing that I am not going to remember, because it is a trap sent to distract me!”  That scripture from Colossians is not just a nice thought – it is an essential part of victorious Christian living! Why would we hand our enemy a loaded gun to shoot us? Disarm the gun.

Now to look at the offender: If something is your fault. If you opened your big mouth and hurt someone else and they tell you what you did … then don’t make excuses, and don’t give endless explanations… simply APOLOGISE. Humble yourself. You are not the judge of what hurts someone else! Actually we are not the judge of anything — read the book. Ask what you can do to make amends. People can easily forget that “I’m sorry” is not what the bible says. It says repent. Repentance involves humbling yourself and taking responsibility for what you did. Hurting someone else IS a big deal, because we don’t live by this world’s standards, now we live by His! And He clearly tells us not to make each other stumble.

Offending people is a big deal! I’ve met many people who say they are sorry, but they don’t go that one step further to usher in reconciliation. The aim of repentance is reconciliation. We need to remember that in this Christian life our hearts belong to Him. Father God takes this stuff seriously – it cost Him His life!  When people are mean to you they are being mean to His child. This means we need to pray for them!  Christ’s ministry is all about love and reconciliation, and that is our ministry now too. To live this way, it will help us to keep our eyes on forever, instead of just the here and now. Bye. 👋

P 2614 What are we asking for … ???

/ DVH

“For every persistent one will get what he asks for. Every persistent seeker will discover what he longs for. And everyone who knocks persistently will one day find an open door.” Matthew 7:8 TPT. And here’s the more generally known version: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” NIV.

I am pretty sure that these verses have not been taught, or expanded as widely as they can be –  I think they include many things other than material things. Meanwhile, I don’t think they are about fish, stones, bread or snakes either! I urge you to read around today’s text to explore what I am talking about – the bible says that a wise word is like “an apple of gold in a setting of silver.” Proverbs 25:11. Perhaps we are putting a bit too much focus on the APPLE, and not enough on the SETTING. We have translated what Jesus said into physical, tangible items, when I believe they have a much much wider application. 

Immediately above these verses about ‘asking, seeking and knocking,’ the Lord Jesus is talking about not judging others. He uses the illustration of logs and specks to show us how important it is to assess our personal attitudes and situations truthfully and clearly. Immediately after the ‘ask’ verses, He goes on to mention that we need to be careful not to give important, precious things to undeserving recipients. 

Speaking for myself, I love the wider application. I know I need His help when it comes to judging or trusting, or even changing my mind. I’m opinionated … like you didn’t guess that! 😶 So I need to be aware that my thought processes and words can lead me into judging others. Nowadays, I use that ask and keep on asking verse as my go-to ‘help help’ prayer for the many, many things that trip me up. There are moments in my life when I feel I am standing right at the edge of somewhere that I have absolutely no right to be — and I need to fling myself into reverse very quickly — otherwise I will end up going the wrong way – fast.

Today, again, 😊 I want to talk about reading the bible, because I think context is extremely important. It seems to me that Jesus through these verses, wants to stress that Father God longs to be active on our behalf – in all our lack and inadequacies. The Lord wants to help us. He knows we can bumble into the wrong attitudes and lose our God-given right to be a blessing to others. So right here I think the Lord is saying “Ask for the Grace you need. Maybe you need long-suffering, or patience, self-control, or some other fruit of the spirit. ASK!” We need to show the Lord we are serious about transformation by persisting.

My point is — I don’t think this verse is a grab-all handle to claim everything material we think we want or need, and use the Word of God as a battering ram to do it! Jesus goes on from this “asking verse” to talk about the fact that there is a narrow gate and a wide gate. He exhorts us to squeeze through the narrow gate so we will become one of the few that find it. None of that sounds like a lear jet, a yacht, or someone dripping in diamonds, or a 500 sq metre house to me! I’m not saying we can’t ask for those things, however, I am saying that these verses in this chapter are ALSO about attitudes, not just acquisitions. So we know that we can ask for His help when we are tempted to give in to our baser emotions. 

And what’s more the verses talk about being persistent when we ask for these spiritual graces. In other words, instead of dismissing our faults, or hiding them — we need to ask Him to help us with them. Imagine asking for deliverance from judgment, or help with our mingy attitudes. What a bonus that would be! Instead of throwing up our hands in despair, and letting fly with stuff nobody wants to hear… Why not take Jesus’ advice and persistently ask?

And one of those questions includes, where do we actually have the most need? Now if you have nowhere to live then pray away! I’m not saying these verses don’t mean what we think or hope they do, I just want to point out that they have a much wider application than we have managed to grasp so far! Instead of focussing on material things we need to focus on all the things we desperately need – perhaps we lack love toward someone?

Instead of living quiet lives of despair, because of our own nasty little ability to fly off the handle and yell at someone else, why not use this particular sword to get free? Like I’ve said before, the Holy Spirit has a million translations we have yet to find. Let’s not stop at the gimme one. Instead let’s move onto the transform me one, as well. “For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” That, BTW, is also three different ways to be spiritually blessed. Bye. 👋

P 2507 The time has come to pay attention.

/ DVH

You know, sometimes I wonder if we have been so busy building, or maybe even re-building, our own little kingdoms … not to mention trying hard to look like good Christians … that maybe we have run out of OIL and we didn’t notice. Now satan has boxed us into inactivity. Lemme tell you a thing or nine … that box we think we can see, is a fake. Nothing can hold any of one of us captive without our permission.

Yes, I know it’s been hard at your house, it’s been hard at mine. But the reason it has become so hard is because we’ve kind of let ourselves get soft and flabby spiritually speaking. There have been difficulties flying at us like snow in a snow storm and they have been coming so thick and fast, perhaps we have not been able to stay in overcoming mode. Life got hard when Covid smacked us in the head, praise God – and now we need to wake up, or go under.

BTW, I said ‘praise God’ because we have been in a time of shaking. Christianity is not designed to be an established routine:  with Church on Sunday, bible study on Monday, prayer group on Thursday etc. Christianity is about an Army. An army can accomplish very little half-asleep on its feet! Our job is to defeat the enemy and our side already won – because the King of glory is in us.

I am greatly cheered by the story of Gideon. It starts with a guy whose faith is about a quarter of an inch high, yet he became the God-delegated leader of 32,000 men. Then the Lord Himself whittled those men down to 300. 😱 Almighty God carefully walked that man into such an incredible place. He did that to show Himself strong to His children. Meanwhile, if anyone had told Gideon that’s where he was going, I think he might have freaked out!! However this man draggled along, willingly and sometimes unwillingly, following God’s instructions, step by step – despite his own fears and misgivings.  

In my heart I know that right now, we are in a time like it was back then for Gideon. Almighty God has a way through our apathy and inactivity – He hasn’t caused it, but He will definitely use it! However, we will always need the Holy Spirit’s leadership. Father God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us with difficult times, as well as our own weakness. “And in a similar way, the Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. For example, at times we don’t even know how to pray, or know the best things to ask for. But the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super-intercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words.” Romans 8:26 TPT. 

Praise God, right at this moment, the Holy Spirit is praying for all of us, and boy does HE know how to pray! Hallelujah! The bible tells us that when we are weak, then He is strong. Nevertheless, our obedience is essential. Gideon had to obey God and send men home, some of them for the most ridiculous reasons. Father God also called Gideon a mighty warrior, and that was something he would never call himself. Our God sees us differently than we see ourselves. He has no problem with faith! He knew what Gideon could do when he was empowered by the Holy Spirit.

You and I may feel that we have little to offer the Lord … we can’t preach, or teach, or prophesy, or heal the sick, or raise the dead… or so we think! But Gideon shows us that an obedient, weak person in God’s hands has far more power than they can imagine, because God is on their side. You and I are never alone. We walk with the One Who made the moon, stars and universe. We know His Name and He knows ours. 

Our problem also has never been about power, He gave us power. Our problem is about per-cep-tion. Just like Gideon. He had no idea Who he was dealing with, but as he was led along by the Holy Spirit, that man saw miracle after miracle. The God of miracles is waiting for you and I to rise and be strong in the Lord, and in the power of HIS MIGHT.  If Christians started to live their lives the Way Jesus lived His, purely for our Father’s will … we’d see what Jesus saw …transformation, souls saved, and miracles. 

It isn’t who we are – it is WHO WE KNOW. The time has come to pay attention and begin to practice taking faith steps. His power is let loose through our obedience to Him. Bye 👋

““Ask, and the gift is yours. Seek, and you’ll discover. Knock, and the door will be opened for you.” Matthew 7:7 TPT

P 2455 Give up cherry-picking!

/ DVH

There is no point in faithfully reading the Bible every day if we are only going to cherry-pick the verses we like, and just obey them… and leave out the ones we don’t particularly like or understand … AND not even TRY to obey them! Prayer is the answer, not avoidance. The whole point about the verses we don’t understand is we need to take the time to find out what they mean – which means we will spend time with the Holy Spirit asking questions. 

I’ve been nagging the Lord, for years about some stuff I still don’t get. However, the Bible is best understood when you read it bearing in mind all the other things that are written in it! Otherwise it is far too easy to take stuff out of context. Misreading this particular book can lead to all kinds of nasty errors. One verse needs to be read in the light of others. Look for themes and principles not just verses: “I really like.” Maybe we ought to throw out all those comforting ‘gimme’ verses, and look for challenging ones instead! And my point was (?) – cherry-picking verses that benefit me is one way to stumble off into error! 

When we read inspirational books that explain this or that verse, or some big thought we’ve never seen before, we are eating someone else’s stale bread. It’s food, but there is nothing like the smell and the taste of fresh bread … especially if you are hungry. Stale bread is only good for puddings or toast! Our God is so gracious, He can take anything we read and make it into bread, even someone else’s leftovers. But that is not the optimum way to get bread from God. We really need the word from His mouth that was sent to help US get through THIS day!! 

On the other hand, our pastors produce fresh bread every single week, that’s why we need to be prayerful when we are listening to someone’s sermon. We pray that God will give us eyes to see and ears to hear to what He is saying to us. It is not about sermons being interesting or fun! … Tickling our ears is not what we are there for .. we go to church, because  “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Our pastors bring us that mouth-of-God-word every single week. That’s their job. 

In the light of our pastor’s effort and our own daily bible study, obedience has never ever been an optional response. Dying to self still means what I want is now dead …  And that includes my own comfort and sometimes even my safety. PS… I’m definitely SAFE when I’m dead! However, when we treat the Bible like any other book we are opening ourselves up to double-mindedness, and a double-minded man can’t get anything from God because that person is too busy trying to find the right angle to benefit HIM! It is far better to assume that there will be something in there that we need to take the time to find out about. Something that will help us grow to be like Jesus.

We don’t have to read reams of the Bible in order to be fed anymore than we need to sit down to an eight course dinner every meal, every single day! We simply need to trust the Holy Spirit when we sit down to read that He will give us what He has for us. Then when we get to the daily bread bit, suddenly something we couldn’t understand — even if we stood on our head and read it fifty times — becomes clear. The next step is that the word that jumped out at you – is actionable. That’s the Holy Spirit speaking – we cannot afford to ignore Him. So we apply what we’ve read to our hearts and minds etc., we pray over it, and then we go and do it. Well, you might want to skip being whale food … but you get my meaning!

When I share what the Lord gave me today, with you, it may not be pertinent to you. After all it is MY daily bread but it may not be yours. Perhaps this is why sometimes your friends and family do not cheer and get excited when you share something the Lord told you. Maybe that bread was not for them. While it is okay to share with others, it is far better to encourage other people, including your kids (!), to go after their own bread. To start with, if everyone became bread-seekers and gathered their own, we would have so much more of the “many-sided wisdom of God” to enjoy! (Does that sound like gathering ‘manna’ or what?)

There is no point in taking on board the value system of this world and fitting it in around what the Holy Spirit says in the Bible. The Bible needs to be our yardstick – our plumb-line – not this world or its customs. The hard chewy bits of this book are the best bits. If you don’t understand stuff, then start cheering. “Ask, and you shall receive, SEEK and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.”  Please, give up cherry-picking and go looking for your own bread! 👋🏻