Energy

P 3176 Sounds like a laser to me!

/ DVH

“For we have the living Word of God, which is full of energy, like a two-mouthed sword. It will even penetrate to the very core of our being where soul and spirit, bone and marrow meet! It interprets and reveals the true thoughts and secret motives of our hearts.”  Hebrews 4:12 TPT.

Yeah, that last bit is a bit of a doozie! The writer is talking about those inside, hidden-in-our-heart bits we sort of kind of know about, but we do our best to hide them from ourselves, and others! You know what I mean, the things that we suddenly glimpse, and we try really hard to instantly forget them because they look like the Great Wall of China and it’s all too hard! We all know a Godly life is a priority. We must remember that stuff like this is a distraction. The thing is, those hidden things I’ve mentioned, flavour our lives and our points of view …to the extent that we end up seeing bad motivation where there is none. Then we end up trying to escape or debate over the issues of the very things that can transform us.

We know that God’s Word will go straight to the heart of any matter and, at the same time it lays our phoney, self-serving excuses bare. So there we are … uncovered and exposed, feeling lower than a snake’s belly in a wheel rut. Guess what? In those self-discovery moments we must remember that Jesus died for every stinky evasive attitude we have as well. We will lose our way when we stop listening to the cues that the Holy Spirit gives us. He wants to lead us back into true fellowship with Jesus and our Heavenly Father. That’s the only safe place for us. Our God is always for us.

When we choose to allow His Word to work on our hearts, it will do the kind of surgery that will affect our minds emotions and bodies. It can expose errors between what the Lord says, and what we think. It often shows us the way we think is shooting us in the foot spiritually, especially when we choose to take it seriously! His Word takes the doubt out of what we believe because it reveals to us the Way the Lord thinks, and what He wants from us. Plus it separates our way of thinking away from the world’s way of thinking. All that happens because this morning we decided to prioritise His Word – reading it until something strikes us in the heart. Then we choose to go out and act on what we read. 

The acting on it bit is incredibly important. James 1:19-27 exhorts us to not just hear what the Lord says but go out and do it. “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 

For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Looking into God’s word and persisting with it, until we identify how to act on it, means we are moving away from being a hearer, into being a doer. We will begin to walk with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God never theorises – He acts! It is in His nature to be active for us and others. The people who choose to follow Him, act like Him. They know they need His help, because they know themselves clearly enough to realise that they can be deceived so easily.

These people are not driven by emotion, instead they manifest what righteousness before the Lord, looks like. The Word working in them and on them changes the way they react! They truly love the Lord, because they have discovered His love is a love that is like no other. ‘Listening and doing’ people deliberately set aside anything that remotely looks like it might hold them captive. They know that Godly actions bless them and others, as they participate by working with Him. His kids understand Who the Lord is, who they are, and they are realistic about this life. They constantly remind themselves that Jesus died for their inadequacies.

These people James is talking about are never self-deceived because they don’t trust their own opinions – instead they use the bible as their permanent reference book. They are well-aware that life and death is expressed through what they say, so they pray and watch over the way they use their words. Their desire is to bless others and if what is said won’t bless anyone, then they refuse to say it. His kids love to honour the Lord in everything they do, simply because He has revealed His heart to them and they’ve fallen in love with Jesus and the Way He does things. They can never forget that the poor, hungry, homeless among us are our responsibility. 

The Holy Spirit’s leading and freely given understanding are just like a laser, cutting through our wishes and wants, to expose who we really are, but without any fear or shame. Bye. 👋

P 3166 Judgment kills faith …

/ DVH

… Even when our judgment includes whether Christians can or can’t eat MEAT! Sometimes human beings seem to love to make up rules, especially where there are no rules. These man-made rules tie themselves and others up in knots. But Father God is far more concerned about our attitudes toward each other, than He is in splitting hairs over whether we order a vegetable or meat lover’s pizza! Order both and share. Here are some verses to think on, in Romans 12:1-4&23b. 

“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge SomeOne Else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.”… …“and everything that does not come from faith is sin.”

I cannot stress enough how highly dangerous judgment is to our spiritual lives. We won’t always understand the people close to us, or even the ones that live around us, the way He does. This means we will have no idea how this person, or that person arrived at the way they think, because only the Lord knows their hearts. Drawing conclusions about someone else, is a waste of our God-given time and energy. Yet it is incredibly easy to do!! We simply must learn to celebrate each other’s strengths rather than point out any failures.

Let’s choose to remember what the above scripture in Romans says: not all of us have great faith! Some of us have faith in some areas, and zero to none in others. At the same time, life daily deals every one of us crushing blows, so putting weights on someone else’s feet when they are tired, or sick, or overwhelmed, and still trying to run, is cruel and unfeeling. It seems to me sheer honesty about your own flaws is far more useful! I think we do things like this to justify our own position, or give us an excuse to keep on doing the very thing we should not be doing. This attitude is not worthy of Jesus’ disciples. He was compassion personified when He walked among us – if anybody was right – He was! But He didn’t use what He already knew to make someone else feel small – His compassion set them free instead. 

I enjoy meditating on this next scripture. It is meaningful to me, because I mess up a lot — and I know I need wa-ay more patience toward other people. I really get tested when someone else hurts the people close to me, and then they want authentication for their own aggressive stinky attitudes. That’s like asking me to put a bow on a pile of manure. Not.Gunna.Happen! Isaiah 42:3 says this: “A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not quench; He will bring forth justice in truth.” If the God of all the Universe is so particular and watchful over each one of us, let’s do our best, with His help, to remember that our careless words affect others. I don’t care what they said – my real problem is this – how did I reply?

Verse 3 illustrates what walking with the Holy Spirit looks like, He sees the broken, and the broken hearted. He is so gentle, and easily grieved. Nastiness and judgment immediately takes us away from His influence. BTW my theory is this – at the same time that we choose to get uglier about someone else, we can longer see what He sees, and we also get deafer and deafer to Him. But, hallelujah! Heartfelt repentance opens the door to restoration of fellowship with Him and others. Words are like bridges, they can join people together, or break us apart. So let’s ask for understanding to go hand in hand with wisdom. Like Romans says above, we must learn to accept each other in our weaknesses. We need to come alongside others and help, not undermine.

Here’s more from Isaiah, 35:3-5, and it’s a great exhortation for all of us today:  “Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way, say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, He will come with vengeance; with divine retribution. He will come to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.” Miracles can be side-lined when we sail off into judgment! I believe that our faith in God’s power through us, very much depends on allowing His Word to minister to us first. Then humility stretches out its hand to someone else and says: “May I help you up?” 

Personally, I think it is deadly to faith to look down on one another. Instead, we need to practice, corporately, every time we are together, looking up at Him. We need the practice! Judgment, even when it is unspoken, hinders the flow of the Spirit between us. His freedom IN me, means I’m not scared to deal WITH me first. So when we get alone with Him, let’s ask Him how to fix things in us, first. Remember – our log has to come out so we can clearly see to help someone else with their speck.

Lastly, I cannot recommend highly enough reading the bible purely for your own benefit unless you want to get a word of blessing for someone else. Using God’s word as a club to beat people into submission to your pet theory is ungodly. We are exhorted by Paul to come alongside one another and bear each other’s burdens. Judgment kills faith – but the Spirit always brings life. Bye. 👋

P 3165 Learning to be satisfied.

/ DVH

“I’m not telling you this because I’m in need, for I have learned to be satisfied in ANY circumstance. I know what it means to lack, and I know what it means to experience overwhelming abundance. For I’m trained in the secret of overcoming all things, whether in fullness or in hunger. And I find that the strength of Christ’s explosive power infuses me to conquer every difficulty.” Philippians 4:11-13 TPT.

Trouble can train us – if we will just choose to listen to Him and trust in Him. We cannot afford to waste our energy running about like headless chickens looking for an exit. May I suggest that we use our energy going after Jesus instead? He’s always the Answer! Let’s learn to recognise and accept the Lord’s correction and  discipline. That stuff isn’t always fun when it is happening, but it is sent to train us in righteousness, and peace, as well as leading us into a real, viable, lively fellowship with the Holy Spirit. His correction and discipline helps us sort out our motivations. People love to hear things from Him that they want to hear, but will we listen to what we don’t want to hear?

Today many human beings think correction and discipline are bad things – which is why we have decided that smacking children is a no-no! Unfortunately, now we are reaping the whirlwind …and so are the poor kids! I’m not talking about randomly whacking your kid simply because you had a bad day, and YOU are out of sorts. I am talking about the careful and thoughtful, considered hand-of-reason being applied to the seat of learning. Kids need to learn how to monitor themselves, under your loving supervision. And with some children, saying “stop” won’t do it! Life has penalties. If you pinch a car you go to jail. It is better to teach little Agnes or Angus how to restrain themselves, when they are small. However, I admit some do learn quicker than others!

Discipline when it is too strong, and it is done for the wrong reasons, can let the enemy in and have an adverse effect. Things like: “now you have ticked me off,” are not the right reason to whack your kid. That’s because at the bottom of that sort of discipline it isn’t about monitoring the kid, and leading them into making better choices. Instead, the reality is, you are trying to create a carefree, easier, happier environment for you! The point of discipline is to learn to monitor yourself – your own behaviour – with God’s help. So prayer needs to accompany discipline – pray with your child, teach them to repent. Model it in front of them. The bible is clear, discipline and correction are part of God’s love in our lives. They are His wisdom entering into our lives through our circumstances, lovingly exposing where the enemy of our souls can get at us. 

On that loving note, just to clarify another thing: God doesn’t make anyone sick. He does not and will not “send’ sickness to us to teach us something! However, He will take all that bad stuff and make it work together for our good, as we let Him do it! Bad things happen because satan is loose – he hates people. So if you blame yourself for illness, then you may have fallen right into satan’s cleverly laid trap. Our God loves to reason and interact with us in every aspect of our lives … He especially loves it when we talk with Him, personally. So we need to turn to His love and wisdom, and ask Him what this or that is all about, and always pray for healing! 

Whether we receive healing on the spot or not, is far less relevant than our ongoing attitude toward Him. We can’t afford to let a lack of healing stand in the way of real growth. Holiness has the smell of sacrifice on it. In the past when the Israelites wanted to restore their relationship with God, the Jewish people had to have a specific beast or bird killed, and then it was burnt — skin, feathers and all! If you have ever been to a tannery you will understand that it wasn’t the sweetest smelling BBQ in town! Let’s stop thinking that God only likes what WE like, otherwise we are shrinking Him down to our size — and that’s BAD.

If we choose to look at the Lord through the eyes of fear, we will find there is plenty of that to go around! In the Old Testament, there is the odd example of God smiting someone. But King Hezekiah once turned his face to a wall and prayed for deliverance from a fatal disease, and God heard his prayer and the king was given more time. Time to change his ways, perhaps? Let’s stop looking at prayer as a one-stop-shop and start looking at the Holy God we are talking to!! Maybe He has more than one thing going on at the time, and because we are mortal we simply don’t get it. 

I have learnt to be satisfied with praying about any situation, so I give it to the Lord, and then I leave it all with Him. This one action has created trust in me. Like I said: sometimes God is doing something else! After I have prayed, I walk away. And if I happen to get caught up in thoughts like: ‘what if’ or ‘maybe this or that,’ then I give everything back to Him and walk away again. What I am saying is this: ‘I trust you Lord to have the best answer and I am not going to mess around trying to fix something I can’t fix.’ If He tells me to repent of this or that, I don’t argue, I repent. If He wants me to apologise and make reparation, I do that.

He’s Almighty God and I believe He has the very best answers for me. I don’t always understand them …but my mind is like the size of a speck of dust in comparison to His infinite wisdom. When it comes to smarter than me – HE WINS! Let’s learn to be satisfied, and then release things, to Him. Then we can watch what He will do when we yield. We just might learn to be content, no matter what. Bye, 👋

P 3162 This is true worship!

/ DVH

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2. True and proper worship starts and ends with ME, voluntarily laying myself down on His altar, daily. All day, every single day. The secret to walking with the Holy Spirit is to deliberately surrender your life, even when things are good as well as when they are bad. Then I pray: “Your will, Your way Lord.”  I’ve found it is best to have no other agenda but His.

When we follow Jesus it means our lives change. It is our obedience to God’s Word that causes that transformation. As we read it, we begin to realise that worship from His POV, requires more from us than just happily singing songs of praise and worship … it is about giving Him the gift of YOU. Your time, your energy, your obedience, your love, your family, your sometimes-present difficulties. Our families are so much better off in His hands, no matter what is going on around us. We put them in His care – and we leave them there. Obviously I am not talking about whether the kids need a bath, or not, and Jesus won’t be cooking the dinner! Everything  we do we do in service to Him. “Whatsoever you do, do it with all your heart, as though you were doing it for Jesus!”

Realistically speaking, in today’s climate, we know that very few people have spare time! So the reality is like this — to honour Father God with our whole self, we will have to put something else aside. Those things we need to put aside are often important to us. And at the same time, we can have interruptions that need attention. Like, if your toddler falls on its head, that’s an important thing! But, the phone can wait. Leave that somewhere else, turned off. You can tell your pre-school child: “I’m reading the bible, I will be with you soon.” Showing little ones that we also need to pray and read the bible, is just as important, as doing it with them. 

We simply have to make reading the bible and praying, a priority, just like we make family times a priority. My hubby’s dear mother used to sit in the middle of chaos, people coming and going, the phone ringing off the hook, squabbling everywhere etc – and there she was, in the middle of it, bible in her lap, with her eyes closed because she was praying. Her alone time with God is sacrosanct. The things that dear lady has taught me without saying one word!!

We all know that God’s Word requires our obedience. We simply need to read it to find things to do, not just to tick off a daily quota. That translates into – read it, then do it! Or read until you find something to do. Actually I read until something stands out to me. This is part of putting our bodies on His altar. Don’t  dismiss these things because you haven’t got time to pay attention to them, instead make it a priority to act on them. It is a delusion to think: “I will get around to doing that.” Trust me, you won’t. We have an enemy who loves to distract and interrupt us. Make a plan to obey while you are with the Lord. Ask Him: “How do I do this Lord?” However, when it comes to repentance, do that right away, including fixing and repairing it with the other person if necessary. Never postpone repentance. Repentance blows away the cobwebs over our hearts. 

If we want to know God’s will, then we must align ourselves with Him. It’s simple. Most things about the Lord look like this… stay out of the stuff that is going to drag you down, and cling to what He has said instead – and don’t move from that place. We need to recognise some things are a distraction or temptation, and avoid them. Just because something is demanding, that does not mean we must give it our attention. Paul said: “…I die daily…”  That’s what laying our lives on the altar looks like. God’s great love and provision for mankind, has been clearly demonstrated to us, through watching how Jesus lived His life.

Jesus laid Himself on that altar by everything He did. We don’t even get a recording of the Lord’s private  thoughts or opinions in the Gospels! He didn’t even go on Israel’s got Talent! 🤣🤣 Instead, He validated God’s Words for our benefit by the Way He lived. He knew the Father so well, He could see what His Father was doing, and then He went and did it too. Ten lepers were healed once – Jesus saw His Father healing them before it happened! BTW, the Lord didn’t want the lepers to thank Him, Jesus wanted the lepers to thank Father God for what happened to them!“Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Luke 17:18.

If we want to see what Jesus saw, and do what He did, then we need to live like He did, and do whatever our Father tells us to do. Obedience is one of the growth factors for flourishing faith. Our true worship is to lay our lives down for His sake, even as we sing and praise Him in our hearts. We are to be continually filled with the Spirit. And! We should take care of widows and orphans … James chapter one. All those good things are set into motion when we choose to lay our lives down, daily, for His sake, Galatians 2:20. Bye 👋

P 3017 Priorities.

/ DVH

““But whether I live or die is not important, for I don’t esteem my life as indispensable. It’s more important for me to fulfil my destiny and to finish the ministry my Lord Jesus has assigned to me, which is to faithfully preach the wonderful news of God’s grace.” Acts 20:24 TPT.“And yet I will show you the most excellent way.” 1 Corinthians 12:28-31… That way is LOVE! Don’t let how you feel about someone else’s behaviour steal away the joy of serving Him.

There is no point trotting about advertising fabulous spiritual gifts if we do not have love. Love for the Lord, love for our brothers and sisters, and love for the lost. Love is a VERB not a noun. It is an action, not a perception or a feeling. For example … “God so loved the WORLD that He GAVE…”  If we want to be like Jesus then there’s the starting point. Love is not enthusiasm, which runs out at the first sign of pressure. Or even charisma – which falls on its head if someone peeks behind your bullet-proof curtain and finds the real OZ. 

Love is not a feeling, it is the way we deliberately regard and treat others. Many people in the body of Christ do not develop their ministry gift because they get stuck in the enemy’s sticky mire of: “I can’t ever love this or that person. I hate them. I hate what they say, I hate what they do. I even hate what they stand for! If you wait a minute, then I will tell you why I hate them, and then you will hate them too!” That boggy mess is worse than quicksand. It is endlessly self-suffocating.

What if someone looked at YOUR life under the kind of microscope you are applying to others – how would you do? “But but but … you don’t get it, they really are evil and they keep on hurting me.” Actually, I DO get it! I have hard-to- love people in my life too! But I gave up keeping score up of other people’s nasty ways. I gave it up because I decided that I love Jesus far more than I hate them! You can always tell when someone else is stuck in their feelings, reasonability goes right out of the window. They simply must vomit all their yuk over you – because it is so poisonous, even THEY can’t keep it down! 

That stuff will drown you quicker than an anvil tied to your ankle when you have fallen into deep water. It will keep you so busy focussing on the other person’s faults, you cannot even begin to see your own. You’ll hear every sermon wishing they were there because …‘they need to hear this!’ Regularly rehearsing other people’s faults in your head – and even out loud – can easily lead to telling them about what you think you can see. It creates anger, and it’s called … judgment. Nobody needs to go down that nasty little rabbit hole trust me!

The only Person who had a total right to judge each one of us — let us go free. Is this a good time to mention He expects us to do the same for other people? Otherwise we will end up their captives!  Who do we want to serve? The person we hate, who probably hates us, or they are too dumb to know differently – or the Lord Jesus?  It takes a great deal of energy to maintain that kind of hatred and anger. The worst bit about this kind of scenario is that good people get hog-tied into hate, bitterness, resentment, and anger etc. and they can’t even conceive of an exit, because their beloved granddaddy hated those guys too! Now we have a new kind of inheritance – hate and revenge! 

As long as we keep score of the bad things that person does, it will disturb our peace, and we become the other person’s prisoner. Keeping lists is hard work! Chuck that junk in the sea of forgetfulness, where your sins are, and let’s look at what Jesus came to do for us, and in us, and through us instead. He came to set captives free, and give us all life in abundance. That means when we put our dear little head on our pillow we will have a clear conscience. 

Now we are destined to leave behind the sweet smell of Christ – healing, forgiveness and acceptance. We were given that for free from Jesus’ sacrifice, and now we have so much of it, we can give it away. I’ve looked at some people that I quite literally used to run away from, and thought: “You poor schmuck, you can’t help it can you?” I recognised the trap they were stuck in. They think that nasty, ugly person is who they really are! Finding our best selves with His help is a joy-filled way to use our time. Loving someone does not mean you approve of their behaviour. It simply means you are His obedient kid!

I enjoyed the original cartoon movie ‘Mulan,’ where Mulan is fighting the bad guy on the roof and has set him up to get a rocket in his underpants and she says this to herself as she runs away…”get off the roof, get off the roof, get off the roof!”  

My friend. My very dear, dear friend, brother or sister:  “GET OFF THE ROOF!” Any minute now there will be a giant explosion and you will be caught up in it. God is telling you today, you have better priorities. You have places to go, people to meet, things only you can do for His kingdom. And glories to tell about His love and forgiveness … don’t get bogged down in the mud of intolerance and hate. We need your gifts.  Bye. 👋

P 2984 I haven’t got time for what you think of me.

/ DVH

Yeah, I know, cheeky eh? I’ve learnt that there are huge blessings in getting older — it’s like the biggest secret ever. Your bones may snap, crackle and pop, and your brain can’t always find the file you need in your head. But  I try not to concentrate too hard on the fact that my cheese is slowly sliding off my cracker! Mainly because I also run out of energy easily, so I have had to learn to prioritise.

I think that’s why some older people go doodle-lally as they age – they think they need to keep desperately trying to do the things they’ve done all their lives …  Old bodies aren’t designed to do the things young ones can do. I think of it like this – I’ve had my turn on the stage of life, it is time to stand in the wings and encourage the younger players. You don’t have to bow out, just be a mentor to someone else! You could start by teaching grandchildren to cook, most mums are too busy juggling a hundred things and trying not to drop one of them.

Meanwhile, brain cells dying off are actually a real thing! Don’t feel bad about it, or try to stretch yourself so you look like you are still 21, or 44, or some made-up end-figure. If you are older, you have other benefits to replace the instant clarity you enjoyed when you were younger. Things like this: you don’t feel the urge to constantly rush about, because you’ve learnt things have a way of taking care of themselves. You also hopefully learnt it’s OK to make mistakes, mainly because nowadays you can’t help doing it! 

Moses made a huge mistake at the end of his life… let’s just leave that out there, and say no more. After all He WAS Moses! Abraham kept playing pass the parcel with his poor dear wife Sarah – who was a very patient woman if you think about it.  And let’s not go into Job either … yet that old man ended up wiser in the end than he was when he started out. Just don’t ever give up on learning about, and from, the Lord!

And … here comes another benefit … when you get older, meditation comes more easily. At least once a day I end up meditating on the back of my eyelids – it’s really productive. I feel refreshed afterwards. It’s OK, by the way, my eyelids are both still there and functioning, I just can’t control when I close them as well as I used to. When I was younger I was always busy, but I also remember that being younger and having a family, you are often too busy facilitating other people’s lives. The only thing you end up meditating on is the rapidly growing pile of unpaid bills.

So, here is my text for today:“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. 

And here’s my observation. If there is a time for everything, then God has His eye on everything and we don’t have to worry about it. Which is why: “Oh well,” is rapidly becoming my new favourite saying. I know that  rich king, Solomon, who wrote this book said … ‘there is a time’ a lot.  He was a bit repetitive, but I find his sayings strangely reassuring. It means we need to take a breath when one of the aforementioned tough things land on us. When you get older you have time to sort stuff out and pray over it. There are lots of advantages to being older! Some of those things make me feel better about not being able to cash in on: “there’s a time to dance. ” I grew wa-ay past that place … ages ago!

Hallelujah! I am so glad there’s a time for everything and anything – even opposite things. Some Christians act like some of these ugly things aren’t in the bible. We all feel hate, just don’t camp there. Jesus would not have told us what to do about hatred etc. if we didn’t need to know it! My advice is don’t build a village around your feelings … move on. It’s OK to cry, just don’t let it be your lifestyle. There are so many sides to life’s spectrum – enjoy them all. The bad things make the good things even sweeter.  

Jesus had wa-ay more wisdom than Solomon anyway. Check out what He said about these negative things. However banning things, and making rules, usually encourages people to hide what’s going on when they can’t seem to avoid how they feel! This collection of verses totally reassures me that God knows about everything that goes on down here on planet Earth, and He has a plan, a purpose, an end-game for each one of them. YAAAAAAAY! SomeBody Else is in charge and it doesn’t have to be me! Remember, our God understands ‘old.’ He’s not called the Ancient of Days for nothing! 

In this later season of my life I am learning that bad things are total time wasters that can leave you feeling unfulfilled, ashamed and guilty. You wish you had never stuck your head down whatever rabbit hole that popped up in front of you, because your head can get stuck in there. Reflection comes easier with age. But, the truth is, I haven’t got time for what you think of me, because you probably DON’T! You are way too busy, and you have better things on your mind —- good for you. Bye. 👋

P 2938 The benefits of walking with God

/ DVH

“God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him.”Philippians 2:13 TPT.

“Above all, constantly echo God’s intense love for one another, for love will be a canopy over a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8 TPT. “You were God’s expensive purchase, paid for with tears of blood …” 1 Corinthians 6:20a.

The bible itself urges us ‘to forget not all His benefits.’ in Psalm 103:2. Anyone can see what’s wrong with this world, but the people with real vision, His vision, can see the potential to do good in the midst of the chaos. What a benefit that is! We’ve personally discovered in our travels, that all this trouble and strife has opened up other people’s hearts to a point where they are happy to share their sorrows, suffering and disappointment with complete strangers. So we get to pray with them … what a benefit!

Our God is so precious, as we go along through this life choosing to walk with Him, living His Way instead of our own  — our wrong way of thinking, even our superficial thoughts, fall off. It is as if we switch focus, and we start to become singular in our devotion to Him. That does not mean we exclude others, like we are in some sort of exclusive club — it means our hearts are stretched and pummelled by the Word of God into a bigness we never even dreamt about! His servants don’t have to try to be better, kinder, nicer – they just are! Now we look for the good in others because it delights us to find it. That kind of observational skill benefits everyone!

People who live like this wouldn’t dream of wasting their time on pettiness, or hiding their faults from others to save face. Imagine the energy someone wastes trying impress others, when we all know full well, WE aren’t all that. Self realisation is a huge benefit! Yet another benefit of walking with Jesus every day, is humility. I stop being afraid to tell you I’ve failed, or I can’t do it, or I have no idea what to do next … instead I ask you to pray for me! Sometimes I pray:  “I can’t wait to see what You are going to do with this mess I’ve made Lord! Because I know You make all thing new.” Sadly, sometimes our level of pretence is preventing us from going deeper with Him. But we have the incredible benefit of His ongoing forgiveness covering us, because Love Himself adopted each one of us. The benefits abound!

Often human beings are the sum of their choices and history. But, we aren’t stuck there. Instead we daily benefit from walking with Jesus. And that means we become more and more honest – because we are living in proximity to honesty Himself, and His goodness rubs off on us. So if someone corrects us, or points out a fault, we have the inner freedom to be grateful because they have given us the opportunity to look at ourselves through their eyes. But what if what they say is not true? My advice is to let God fight for you. Our King cares about what we care about, let Him take care of you. Now there’s a great benefit to thank Him for!

Our feelings make a very poor, inaccurate guide – the benefit of reading His book is that it diagnoses our inaccurate world view every time we read it. He gives us His wisdom so we know how to avoid pitfalls. Wisdom is an incredible benefit. Over the years, I’ve met so many people who underestimate who they are IN God. Anyone who is prepared to live acknowledging their lack, can have wisdom. Just ask Him! Wisdom is a benefit with eternal ramifications. I don’t have to try to give God glory for what He does in my life, because I spend my time watching Him snatching me out of this trap and that stupidity! I am eternally grateful that He continually saves me from myself. 

Before I met Him I had nothing worthwhile to give to others. This is another benefit I’ve learnt – God gives us gifts to use to benefit other people. We are living beneath our heavenly calling when we verbally pull other people apart like wild dogs snarling over their breakfast. God’s gifts to men are to benefit others not to pull them down so we look equal to, or even taller than they do. We dare not use His gifts to benefit ourselves. What do we have that He didn’t give us? And when you have Him you have everything you will ever need. Maximum benefit right there!

God’s Word has also been given to us to diagnose what’s wrong in our hearts and lives, and His Word pulsates with the power to heal. It has not been given to us to accuse ourselves, or others. That’s how the other guy operates. We are to build one another up, and we exist now, to live this life for their benefit, like Jesus did. To do that we will have to see them through His eyes. Because our eyes and ears have been trained by trouble, strife and sorrow in this world – we can do so many unnecessary things to protect ourselves. However, when Jesus came and died, He threw His living body/blanket over each one of us, just like Boaz protected Ruth when she was vulnerable. I can’t afford to take my eyes off everything He has done for me. He sustains me in difficult times.

Our cup is full of His benefits, pressed down and running over.Psalm 103:1-2 “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy Name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:…”  Bye. 👋

P 2906 Humility is essential.

/ DVH

Luke 19:3-10:“He wanted to see Who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see Him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”So he came down at once and welcomed Him gladly. 

All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Zacchaeus gave up his former life at warp speed, no questions asked! Here’s a little thought about this man. He had invested his energy in being able to see Jesus properly when he ran and climbed that tree. I’ve heard people debate what the tree means … I could care less. What I see is a man who wanted to see Jesus. We pray for those kind of people when we go on the road, that we would find the ones searching for Him. Something was happening in that man’s heart that prompted him to get a better view. 

First he climbed the tree, then Zacchaeus came down when Jesus called him. Immediately afterward, his validity to have Jesus come to his house for dinner, was questioned. So he started cleaning up his sins on the spot. After all, his sins were calling Jesus’ wisdom into account. Then he went one step further than simply fixing his sins, he became outrageously generous.

After that this man repaid four times over what he had cheated out of others. You can see his faith progressing as Zacchaeus began to understand the honour he had been given. Jesus was honouring this man with His Presence, owning him, in front of everyone. And this guy shows what true repentance looks like! Repentance requires turning around not just sorrow – Judas was sorrowful.

OH! That we would understand the honour we have been given when Jesus chose to save us! It is not something to be pushed aside and treated lightly. It needs to be the focus of everything we do. Pharisees etc. expected to be treated well, have the best seats, and have their thoughts and lifestyles admired by everyone. But we must remember, we serve a God Who SEES. He sees through our uppity attitudes, into whatever is in our hearts and half the time even we don’t know what has crept into it!!

Some times we feel bad because what we did was bad – that’s called conviction. I’ve learnt to pray this prayer from Psalm 51:10-13 often, because I want the best attitude. I need to spring-clean myself from sin, selfishness, ambition, and the need for recognition. I don’t have to do anything else but confess my sin, repair things with other people, and then I rely upon His faithfulness!

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your Presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.“

The thing is, we cannot even have a clean heart without His help! This Psalmist’s reverence for God comes through his words, and so does his heart. He has a desperate need for God to help him achieve what his heart desires. And He values God’s Presence more than anything else, and wants to always remember, that he has been saved from who he was and God has restored him. There is no value we can put on being able to respond with such humility. And we see this in Zacchaeus and a woman who washed Jesus’ feet. She is perfect example of repentance and humility in action.

You know we can have this opinion and that thought, but the way God thinks about people often escapes us. Jesus was incredibly loving and supportive to this woman. She washed His feet with her tears and dried it with her hair and she did it to honour Him.  She broke the most valuable thing she owned and poured it over Him. Right in the middle of a dinner party where she stuck out like a sore thumb! She did not care, she was testifying to His Sovereignty, His God-honoured total right to be glorified. And she had gone there to be forgiven and worship Him – then she humbled herself because He was worth it. That’s called having an open heart!

Spiritual eyes and ears are incredibly valuable. Any one of us, at any time can be in His Presence, at home, in church, in the car — and yet we can’t hear His voice, because our hearts have hardened — maybe we think we’ve heard it all before — the thing is — we aren’t listening. Maybe we are too busy critiquing the message!! Big mistake. It’s one I have made more times than I care to remember. The Lord is looking for humble hearts, a people who will put His needs above everything else. These people won’t care if whatever they do is ever seen by anyone by Him. Here’s a big thought: … if HE is the only One Who can see it, then it is true worship.

Humility is essential, otherwise we wander along, never changing, and blaming others. Instead we lay ourselves at His feet and wait to hear what He will say. Bye. 👋

P 2872 Let go of bad stuff, quickly.

/ DVH

Our relationship with the Lord God Almighty, gives us greatly needed assurance. “So now, beloved ones, stand firm, stable, and enduring. Live your lives with an unshakable confidence. We know that we prosper and excel in every season by serving the Lord, because we are assured that our union with the Lord makes our labor productive with fruit that endures.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 TPT. What a mighty, loving God we serve! He has already made provision for us to be stable, and to stand firmly upon what Jesus has already done! I love that “unshakeable confidence” bit in these verses.  

You know sometimes it is good to just pause and think about a particular phrase in the bible, and think about what it  means to you. When I think about these verses they remind me of some poor sod on a ladder, and down the bottom someone else is shaking the daylights out of the ladder to dislodge the person at the top who is helpless to stop them because they are at the top! Life is sometimes like that. Things happen that shake us so badly we aren’t sure where UP and DOWN are anymore!

But at other times, nasty distractions come along that gnaw at our faith like squirrels chewing on electric wiring. The difference between those two circumstances is that in a severe trial we cry out to the Lord for help almost immediately, but the giggly things that nag and gnaw at us, can be easily overlooked … they pile up around us like snow drifts. Yet surprisingly those little things can do a great deal more damage to our faith.

Years ago, when we were overseas, we heard stories about how cute little fluffy-tailed squirrels are a right-rotten pest, because they love to gnaw on things. Apparently they particularly enjoy chewing on electrical cables — you’d think the little blighters would get electrocuted!  Maybe they do. Dumb critters. You know when I was thinking about those pesky squirrels, the thought occurred to me that there is also a parallel for all of us there, because there are times that our lives feel like they are being chewed on by circumstances. 

This kind of stuff is probably not one BIG thing, but a whole lot of little things that are besieging us. Night and day, without any mercy, threatening to cut off our air supply! One thing seems to rapidly follow another, and you begin to feel like that tormented ladder guy I mentioned above. You are holding on for dear life, afraid of what will happen if you let go. Big things, small things, terrifying things or things that simply annoy the life out of you – I believe every single one of those things have the same solution.  LET GO AND FALL DOWN. Just plan to fall at His feet! … But … let go!

Trying harder to manage uses up whatever energy you have when this life is battering you. And mentally stressed people often make truly terrible decisions based upon how they feel. God says what I just said like this in Psalm 46:1-5 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall;  God will help her at break of day.” Because we know He will always catch us, our faith needs to give us confidence to let go and let Him be God.

In verse 10 of that Psalm, it says,“Be still, and know that I am God;…” That’s great advice, I would advise anyone – including ME – to hold onto it. Even if that dreadful storm of events is not breaking when you need it to, just keep telling yourself that … “He’s got this.”  That’s how faith grows. Meanwhile, resisting things will hurt even more. It is better to lie back and float on His Word and keep reminding yourself that He loves you, than to flail about against the circumstances, increasing your blood pressure and losing your peace. Don’t give in to the enemy’s threats of worse  – trust in the One Who will always love you!

This BTW IS THE REAL REST. It’s that stuff Paul talks about in Hebrews 4. The stuff that the Lord says we must learn to enter into. When we enter into it, we become spectators of what He is doing and we just sit back and watch. Let go of bad stuff quickly, resist the enemy and deliberately choose to trust the Lord to get you through whatever it is -and don’t give in to a pity party or entertain fear … those things are from our enemy. Bye 👋

P 2832 Get ready to be stretched.

/ DVH

Years ago, a young fellow who had no family and would have been all alone for Christmas, joined us for Christmas lunch.  And when he started in on his third helping of a heaped plate, we started to suspect something was amiss. In those days we didn’t know a lot about the munchies, but the evidence spoke for itself, so we sort of kind of figured it out. The sad part was his everyday behaviour was often all over the place, even though he was part of the leadership team, yet nobody had ever noticed that this poor kid was hooked on Marijuana!

Did you know that in Proverbs 11:25, it says: “A generous person will prosper; Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.” Today I want to present what I think could be an interesting idea. Ask someone who lives a lonely life, to Christmas lunch. Have you ever prayed: “Lord please show me something I can do for You?” Well, asking someone you don’t know very well to join you and your family for lunch at this time of the year could open a door to deeper relationships and possibilities, and it just might stretch you … all at the same time. Plus, bonus buy, everyone could make a new friend.

Over the years our family has learnt to have an elastic house. One year a young person slept on a fold-away-bed in our lounge, because his family had chucked him out. This dear young man could break things better than a compactor, but he was the most sweetly natured person. Eventually, after he left us, he matured, he married and now he is a plumber. Only heaven knows why his folks chucked him out – he was a great kid! Having him live with us was totally inconvenient, we lived in a tiny cottage, and we had to move his bed whenever we wanted to watch TV!  Plus at that time I was as sick as I could be. The immediate years post-liver transplant were not fun. But helping out people who were virtually homeless brightened up all our lives. Living an extra-ordinary life is challenging, but the rewards outweigh the negative bits. Especially retrospectively. 🤣

The thing we’ve noticed is that we can’t afford to let our own circumstances, govern our generosity. Back then, our lives were made so much richer by the people who came to live with us … even at the worst of physical and financial times – by God’s Grace we all managed. Father God is not trying to interrupt our carefully planned existence … He wants to enrich us. Other people and their unusual ways of thinking, being, and doing, will stretch us and bring us out into that bigger place mentioned in Isaiah 54:2.“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.”

We can pray that scripture for ourselves, and then wait for Him to do it for us until we are blue in the face, but the truth is, WE must learn to stretch our tents open and take risks… It is blatantly obvious that this kind of stuff is supernaturally natural, because Jesus Himself told us that when we do these things:“…for the least of these…”we are doing them for Him! Hands up anyone who wants to minister to the Lord? OK, you have your instructions. 

Just settle in your heart that it will be inconvenient, and put stuff away if you don’t want it broken! Actually, the surest way to discover the things that we are unreasonably attached to, is to have someone else break them! I learnt that the hard way!!  BUT … no matter what, we cannot lose, because of what we win… “Everything … everything … EVERYTHING … works together for our good, … for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.”

His purpose is to find willing vessels to fill with the Holy Spirit’s love and power! He doesn’t need experts — Jesus Himself chose ordinary  fishermen, a taxman, a former prostitute to be His followers  I mean, did you ever ask yourself Who taught Peter to speak like he did  in the book of Acts? The Holy Spirit did! The Lord is not looking for perfection – He doesn’t have to, He already is!

Like I said before, we will have to stretch ourselves to find His purpose for our lives. Remember, Jesus was homeless,  because there was no room at the inn. To me that means that you will never know who you could be taking in! Maybe a homeless angel, or a lost kid whose life was so painful he had to smoke his way through it. 

I think the poor are so poor, they have no time or energy for pretending, they are simply trying to survive. From a distance, it is easy to be put off by how they look … but God sees people clearly, He knows exactly who they are. We’ve found that poor people don’t need to be convicted of sin, when they are confronted with His Loving holiness, they know. The poor are easier to save than middle class people who think they are mostly pretty OK. 

Christianity is neither a hobby or a part-time job … it’s a life well lived. It’s a life lived the way Jesus would live it. I exhort you to begin to stretch your home and take in someone who might have Christmas dinner alone – or maybe even a bed for somebody who needs a safe place to sleep. That’s the way to get elastic houses. Bye. 👋