evidence

P 3495 Don’t let the mountain be bigger than the Lord.  

/ DVH

In a lifetime, most of us face a great many spiritual mountains, and also some valleys. Some of these things seem easy, we just follow Jesus up the mountain of difficulties we face, and then stand at the top, arms uplifted, and grateful that we managed to survive that one. 

But then suddenly we might find ourselves facing a mountain that seems insurmountable. We know that He has led us here but we don’t understand why? For some reason, we can’t seem to find Jesus on this mountain. First of all, this situation is not about sin, it is about growing our faith. However, our question could easily be… are we on the wrong mountain? Are we facing something that was not ours in the first place? Is it possible we somehow staggered blindly around, with the sound of the last victory in our ears, plus the sweet smell of success yesterday still present … and we got lost? No!

Here is a scripture to think about carefully. “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He MAKES my feet like the feet of a deer, He ENABLES me to tread on the heights.” Habakkuk 3:19. Without Jesus we can’t and probably won’t, try to face things. He knows that better than we do. So the first thing we must do is to remind ourselves that He will never leave us or forsake us, and then we have to move. It’s time to take a tentative faith step forward. Be like that deer, who just leaps about knowing it can manage the terrain. This is how faith grows. First we hear the word of God, and then we act on it. So we take our wobbly little foot and plant it in front of the other one. This is how we move up bigger mountains — prayerfully and carefully, one step at a time.

New things are scary. It is so easy to rejoice in everything He has already done, for us and in us, but then we hit that wall of … I’ve never seen this before … then we can feel flattened and frightened about what might come next. Why would the Lord send us here? … To strengthen our faith. If we already know what to do, then we don’t need to lean on Him, and we will lean on what we already know. Faith is a journey that requires ever increasing boldness, and a big heart that keeps going despite the circumstances. 

‘Faith that is not tested is not faith, it quickly becomes something unstable.’ Listen to Peter in 1 Peter 1:6,7. “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”  

So-oo-oo-oo, this stuff has happened to prove our faith is genuine – it is not just fair-weather, waiting-on-the-answers-to-our-prayers, faith … We want genuine faith that desires God to get all the glory for the great things He has done in our lives. Here’s a big thought. Dead people don’t need applause – living ones thrive on it.

This whole issue, every time it happens, reveals to me that I am not all dead yet. If I cannot hold fast when I cannot feel Him, see Him, or even hear Him, then my faith needs further perfecting. My faith is not about what Jesus does, it is about Who He is. What He does deserves our praise, acknowledgement and worship. Who He is, reminds us He is our living God embodied in a Man, for us to praise, worship, look at, learn from, and follow. 

Sometimes our grief and inability to believe, clouds His faithfulness to get us to where He said He will take us. When you find yourself staring at something so big you can barely comprehend it, then you have entered a possibility. When we read Hebrews 11 carefully, we will see that everyone mentioned in that chapter had faith that God would carry out what He said He would do. But most of them died before that promise the Lord made them was fulfilled. Faith is not about claiming promises, it is about taking God at His Word. It is not about the strength of our ability to hold on, it is about His ability and strength to hold us! Praise God we have a book full of His life-giving Words!

Bigger mountains mean that Father God has pruned, fertilised, watered and fed us, and now He is trusting us to press forward into what comes next without visible evidence. We are ready, whether we feel like it or not. Like Hebrews says, the seeing, the evidence, comes after we use our faith, not before it. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things NOT YET SEEN.” Hebrews 11:1. Our faith in action proves God is Who He says He is, and that has become our aim – not just our answers to prayers.

If you feel lost and that mountain seems too high, remember, God is calling you to unknown places – things you have not even thought about. Now is the time to focus on the fact that He’s good! This calling we have is not about miracles – or looking clever or even knowing what comes next. It is about finding out how much we love and trust Him. We take these steps because He asked us to. “Faith learns to see beyond the moment, to the work of God unfolding within it.” (Anonymous)

Don’t let the mountain be bigger than the Lord – He knows you can take that next step. We all love to follow Jesus and He climbs mountains every single day. Bye 👋.

P 3492 I know life can be difficult…

/ DVH

…it has not been so-wunnerful-at-my-house all the time either! However, Psalm 27:5-6 says: “For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in His dwelling; He will hide me in the shelter of His sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at His sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord.”

I wanted to talk about the subject of trials today, because I totally understand how this life can keep anyone — angry/busy/anxious/devastated — one way or another. Verses like the one I put above, are so comforting, but at the time, when any ‘stuff’ is happening, it seems like these things are just words. Sometimes I can barely find my faith! I learnt that we must stop looking for evidence, and start believing Him … simply because what He said is in the book!

I’ve realised that verses like these verses are not just beautiful words, they are lifelines. Something we grab hold of when the room starts whirling around us, and our world goes upside down. We can’t afford to read them and not use our faith. We need to walk around our house, and thank God that He is keeping you safe. Even when it looks like He has forgotten you. I think of things like Psalm 27 or Psalm 91 in difficult times, I have no idea what worse might look like, but I know He is protecting me from worse, and I thank Him. 

Psalm 91 has taught us: ‘I am a spectator, I am hidden in the secret place of the Most High God!!’  The glory of that verse lies in the fact that once you have chosen to hide yourself in Him, all the ‘sound and fury’ stays outside. However, first, you have to actively put aside what you feel, and believe what He said. The bible also says: “weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning.”  Instead of checking on your situation, the things that are often dreadful – hold fast to the fact that if it is in the book, the Lord has preserved it for a purpose. Bit by bit, crawl into the place where He said it, you believe it, and now you are acting on it. 

I think we learn faithfulness by being faithful to Him, especially when we don’t feel like it and it seems like we have no evidence. HE’S GOOD WHETHER WE HAVE PROOF OR NOT. And we choose to believe what He said even when everything around us screams at us — “that is not true, God doesn’t care about you, otherwise He would heal you, set you free, help you, give you strength etc.” Our enemy uses the lack of physical evidence to distract us from Who Jesus is. The lovely things we are promised in His Word, belong to us, and we must use our faith and go after them. Then His peace takes over. 

Let me tell you what I’ve learnt, the very best place to be is:  in trouble, just getting into trouble, or just coming out of it. NO! I am not nuts! Plus, the only PEACE worth having is His peace, and we will have to fight how we feel to get it. We need the practice. We can learn more from our heartaches and failures than we do from anything else. Most people want a comfy, orderly, cosy life, but we are more like to scream out for His help when stuff starts landing on us.

Let’s remember, this life is not all there is. We need total transformation, intensive bible therapy, plus the kind of exercise that comes from doing what He wants and pushing through all the junk and grabbing hold of His goodness. If you are in a hole and you can’t get out, please remember Psalm 27, and Psalm 91. They are not impossible dreams, they are a reality you can cling to when everything is upside down. God’s peace is not in the absence of trouble – but His Presence is still IN US in the middle of it.

We all need to do this particularly if it feels like somebody accidentally shoved you into an armed forces firing range, and you can barely raise your head, because you keep hearing: “Incoming!!” The Lord is still there with you, and He has you sheltered under His wings. Even if you were to tell Him in anguish, “Make it stop, I can’t take anymore.” HE won’t go anywhere! His commitment to us is firm. He’s the Shepherd that goes after that sheep that got lost, or was chased by a wolf! God does things His way, and His idea of what we can do or take, can be very different from ours. We can underestimate our capacity to endure when we are under pressure.

Exhibit A! “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” 1 Peter 4:13. So, why are we often surprised when bad things happen? Yeah! I wish that wasn’t in there either. When we believe what He said, despite the awful evidence all around us, we  will begin to walk in faith … Our God is more loyal, more faithful, more good and kind that we can imagine – and moaning and groaning will not help us get free. Stand firm and hold onto His goodness.

We can rejoice in our sufferings because they teach us we can’t do a darn thing without Him!! … Life is difficult, but life without Jesus is impossible. Where would we go, without the love He freely gives us, when it is so undeserved? I urge you to do more than agree with the bible, stake your life on it. Bye 👋.

P 3442 Keeping our love ON.

/ DVH

One way or another, I have spent a great deal of my time in hospitals. I am not saying that to gain sympathy, it is simply true. Meanwhile I don’t like them. I feel like someone is going to pop out of the ether, and decide I need this ghastly test, or that. Or maybe some super keen doctor will sentence me to four hours of waiting in a chair. While I try not to mind my life being whittled away by people in white coats. Yeah, I have a bad attitude. The Lord reminded me this morning that sick people go to hospitals, “the fields are white!” He said. “I need more energy Lord,” I said!

Remembering to keep our love ON can be difficult at times, especially when we’ve spent a lot of our lives living the other way. Here’s what Jesus said:  “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’ Matthew 7:13-14. Yeah, I wish He hadn’t said that too … but He did. The narrow gate needs to be sought and found – it isn’t like the yellow brick road, wide and obvious!

The people who travel this narrow road study LOVE. How it works, what it looks like when we do it. The Lord has said some tough stuff in the scriptures, but when I look at the way I’ve chosen to live in the past, I am so grateful for His wisdom – I need to hear it! It wasn’t that I didn’t try to obey Him, but I know I gave complaining equal footing in my life. A grateful heart is a fantastic blessing, in the list of blessings God has given us. Let’s stop searching for the fake gold of this world, and start digging for the real treasure … Jesus Himself.

However, we will have to fight any Goliaths that have taken up residence in our lives. Those things that bellow and hurl threats of doom and despair at us, and others, through us. He yells that he will kill us, our friends, our families, plus everyone we love, to create fear. Love can’t flourish in an atmosphere of fear. We must trust the Lord to take care of us. David ran at Goliath, but he left his big brothers up on a hill hiding behind rocks! His brothers had a problem … but David didn’t! His faith in Almighty God saved an entire nation that day.

The thing I love about this young man is that he believed in the God Who was with him, when he faced Goliath. We are so much better off than David was, we have the same God IN us. That thing that we think we can’t possibly fight, we don’t ever have to fight it alone. He will be with us. He promised, so let’s choose to believe Him! David was no more alone on that battle field than WE are. Jesus told us that He has given us His power, and we need to believe Him and act on it. Then we can go to our enemy’s camp and take back what he has stolen from us. 

People spend time praying to become everything the Lord God means for them to be. I want to add that it is also good to pray that we would identify and throw off all those weights the enemy has been laying on us since birth … “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” Hebrews 12:1. WE do that, God doesn’t do it for us – He does it with us!

We may not feel like we can outrun the Goliaths of this world, but we can definitely learn to outwait them. BTW, “outwait” is a verb meaning to stay longer than someone else, or to wait until a bad event or time finishes.” Perseverance is a vastly underestimated Grace. It comes directly from the fruit of “patience, faithfulness, and self-control.” We have eternity on our side – satan does not, and he knows  it! If we do not faint in our journeys with Jesus — we will win. Don’t look at problems as forever things, once we give them into His hands who knows what He will do with them?

Doing the things we hate is another form of worship, as we do them “as unto the Lord.” Let’s face it, without the Holy Spirit’s help, none of these things are actually appealing. They are easy to read, but it is much harder to motivate yourself to do it. We want to raise the dead and heal the sick, and have a ministry, etc. But Jesus wants us to be bullet proof — He cares about our hearts first. And Paul gave us a list of things that we need to remember to wear. So as we put on the full armour of God, we put on those things are illustrations of the new way we’ve chosen to live now. This is how it works:

‘Always speaking HIS truth;  remembering we have Christ’s righteousness as a gift to clear our path;  at the same time we are always ready to share the gospel;  and our faith guides us and prompts us to act. Together with the knowledge that Jesus died to save us and now we have the Holy Spirit with us.’ Let’s embrace active cultivation, through our own personal choices, and make room for the growth of the fruit of the Spirit. As we “…put on love, which binds …(all the other graces) … together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:14. We can’t be patient, kind, self-controlled etc. without LOVE leading us. 

Doing things we dislike is a challenge, but there are so many riches that are already in place, waiting for us to draw upon them. So let’s focus on the Lord and His blessings, not our feelings.. Our faith when it is active, will give all these things, substance. They become evidence in our lives of His Presence.  The answer is simple — don’t take your love off … Jesus’ love is always on! Bye. 👋

P 3345 Faith has works.

/ DVH

If I were to put my title another way, I would say that faith needs works! Faith is something that should cost us. Our faith needs to be visible to others. We just drove over 4,000 kms to give away 110 blankets, 70 packs of toiletries among a lot of other things. The people we met needed a hundred times that or more – it was simply all we could carry. The current state of our world means that hard-working people are falling off the grid. Homeless people aren’t people who don’t want to work, they are people who have lost everything – including hope.

In the past week we have had several conversations with others, not always Christians. They asked us how they could help us to continue what we are doing … and may God bless them for wanting to be involved! However, our intention was never to be another charitable organisation, nor are we affiliated with the government. Hubby and I are two very ordinary pensioners who have been motivated by the Lord to put our faith into action. Living day by day with many disabilities and difficulties has made doing this a challenge – it has figuratively and literally stretched our faith. We can’t go overseas and join a missionary group, and God has arranged for us to do His will where we live. 

This means we will travel vast distances on dodgy roads, because extreme weather produces extreme road surfaces!  At one stage in our recent trip, our car took off. It hit a huge bump and went airborne for a few seconds before it came down with a thud and then continued on. Now that was an experience! On our journey we passed many petrol stations in small towns with no petrol. The thing is, we can’t afford to get stuck in places like those, they have very limited medical facilities and we could need them.

In some places if we were stranded, we would have to call in the Flying Doctor! It kind of felt like we could have waved at the pilot when we were airborne in our car! Yet we stuff the car full of more things than you can imagine and set out for places we have never been. And in 20 years we’ve been to a lot of places. We don’t do this so others would admire us. We do it because God told us to go. We are not looking for a ministry either. We go because He asked us to go, and doing this stretches our faith in more ways than anyone could possibly imagine. Stuff happens!

You can’t just learn faith, you have to do it. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1. This means if our faith doesn’t result in actions it has no substance! It will stay a theory and we will live our lives fighting doubt. Personally, our own faith has grown exponentially since we started taking risks and using it for things that don’t benefit us. Faith has to have works. This means we will step into the unknown believing He will catch us. And because Jesus is faithful, He will. 

Faith has been designed to stretch us, and glorify God to strangers in such a way that they will never see Him the same way again. We RE-present God to others when we use our faith. Going to church on Sunday, prayer group on Wednesday and Bible study on Saturday uses faith. But if what we are doing does not stretch our faith beyond our own little horizon, then it will comfortably stay in the realm of ‘knowledge’ and not end up in the realm of ‘experience.’ Acting on our faith ushers His presence into what we do. JESUS LOVES FAITH. “When the Son of man comes will He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8.

Let’s look at Peter, who threw his legs over the edge of a perfectly good boat when Jesus said, “Come!” His fisherman’s mind knew it was impossible, but perhaps his faith in Jesus over-rode his knowledge of the ocean. The Lord did not let that man drown, and He won’t let us drown either. He is FOR US, He proved that at Calvary! Instead He turned Peter’s experience into a lesson. We all need to learn and change when we follow Him.

Matthew 14: 28-31“Lord, if it’s You,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to You on the water.”“Come,” He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

You and I may never get to walk on water, but we need to stop living this life influenced by the appearance of things around us and start living by what Jesus said. Instead of just using our faith to pray for day-to-day hiccups, or difficulties that occur – like praying for Uncle Bob who is sick and he is now in the hospital. Our faith needs to be active! Go lay hands on Uncle Bob. We need to aggressively take back the ground the enemy has stolen from all around us. Prayer rallies our faith, but then faith needs actions – our actions will give it substance.

Faith is designed to have works. (Read James and watch the Lord Jesus!) Faith isn’t just a creed. A bunch of words we all agree with; it is a way to live. May God bless you as you step into a bigger world. Amen!  Bye. 👋  Daniel 11:32b “…but the people who do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” 

P 3344 Do we love others well?

/ DVH

My dear hubby came up with a great thought for today. When the Lord told us to love one another – it was a COMMAND, not a suggestion. ‘I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too are to love one another.’ John 13:34. Boy I can sit and soak in that one for a while. Loving others is not an optional extra, it is the reason we are still in this world – our great QUEST. (1 Corinthians 14:1) 

Here is a question I ask myself regularly: “If I were to be taken to court, could I be found guilty of loving others? Is there enough evidence?” Truthfully, it can depend on the day. But questions like this one can leave me flatter than a cane toad hit by a semi-trailer. Look, I don’t want to know my real answer, anymore than anyone else would, but it is essential that we all understand that a lack of love matters to God. We are looking to walk in His Ways, not ours. Our own way of thinking often excuses us, and accuses the other person!  Some of us have not come any further than the playground at school – we whine: “They started it!”

Well, let’s start today by looking at our responses to other denominations. The bible says in Matthew 25:31-33: “All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left…”  So what qualifies somebody to be a sheep and not a goat? If you read far enough in this passage you will find it all depends on how we treat the poor and needy! Verse 40 says this: “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.” Jesus identifies Himself with the poor, and He is motivated by compassion and love – most of the time we can easily be motivated by partisan attitudes.

The reality is we know we are guilty of merely tolerating other denominations and their doctrines – by secretly thinking our little group has the skinny on God and what He wants.  But is tolerating others the same as love? Self-examination under the Holy Spirit’s supervision is a useful thing. It can lead us out of self-deception into repentance. Getting rid of unloving attitudes will make loving others with His love easier. It starts by asking for His help and … ends in repentance. There is only one thing that can separate us from other people – our own inner prejudices and attitudes. People have to be taught to hate, little ones don’t care who you are, and where you are from.

The disciples walked around with Jesus for three and a half years. They listened to every sermon, saw every miracle and  yet we can see that they had unChrist-like ideas. They all needed to undergo transformation and the Holy Spirit did it at Pentecost. They needed a new heart and so do we! What WE do and think about, it is what matters. In the example below, the people who were bound by satan got free!  Well Hallelujah!!

So here are two verses, in Luke 4:49,50: “Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in Your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.” “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”  It is so easy to make Christianity an exclusive little club. We really must stop categorising other Christians as wrong, or right. Because our differing doctrines are ruining the actual message! Christianity is sometimes like the somewhat divisive doctrine about speaking in tongues. Here’s what I think – if you can, then please DO IT often. But don’t make it a merit badge!

A lack of love can also occur when we stop tending the garden of interpersonal love. We can spend too much time concentrating on the other person’s faults … a-n-d … not enough dealing with our own. Then weeds disguised as attitudes and behaviours start to appear, and choke out the beautiful blooms of love in a marriage; or in the love between a parent and child; between siblings; or even in the church. 

We don’t have to like those people who continue to abuse us or treat us badly … Jesus Himself did not say: ‘Thank you very much for pulling out My beard and pushing the crown of thorns onto My head causing Me excruciating pain.” He simply said nothing and surrendered His body to their torture.. Saying and doing nothing is sometimes the best course of action. Suffering often doesn’t have words.

We need to pray for our enemies and those who despitefully use us, but that does not mean we walk around with a target over our hearts, minds, emotions and bodies. Jesus died for their sin too, so we don’t have to bear it by ourselves anymore. Your sin, my sin, their sin, anyone’s sin – just don’t carry it around any longer. That’s a burden that will weigh you down, and keep you from loving others with His love. Give it all to the Lord. Put it down and walk away. Repent if you need to, ask for healing because you need it – but walk away and refuse to worry it with thoughts.

When Jesus Christ said: “It is finished,” He meant FINISHED. Allowing yourself to be battered by satan’s lies will keep you from learning to love, and love is what lasts. This life is passing away … you can’t save others… but He can. Loving others well, means we love like Jesus did — not with indulgence, but truth undergirded by His love. Bye. 👋

P3334 Let’s be observers of God’s goodness.   

/ DVH

Ephesians 5:1-2: “Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behaviour from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with Him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of Himself to us. Love like that.”  Jesus said this, He was observant. John 5:19&20: ”Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

One of the things I enjoyed doing with my kids when they were little was I taught them to be observant. It’s a great skill! I really enjoy watching birds, and I’ve found if I want to see them in action I need to be alert and watch out for the slightest movement around me. In the same way, I’ve learnt that watching out to see what the Lord will do in any given situation, at any moment will keep me alert. Those two scriptures above talk about such a simple way to help our focus, and at the same time, they tell us how to ‘keep company with Him’ daily.

Here’s an interesting scripture from Habakkuk 2:1, it piques my curiosity. “I will stand at my guard post. And station myself on the tower; And I will keep watch to see what He will say to me, And what answer I will give [as His spokesman] when I am reproved.” ‘I will watch to see what He will say to me…’  Habakkuk discovered a different type of language of our Father’s, that does not consist of words. Our God has many languages, and we miss most of them because we only “hear” Him in our own. But this verse shows us there is a whole other way to hear Him … by watching to see what He is doing right now! Did you know that the word ‘watching’ is used sixty-one times in the bible? To see the Lord we must observe what is going on around us and look for His goodness in it. 

So much of our learning in the Body of Christ is passive. We sit, we take notes, we stare out of the window, we say ‘Amen!’ We clap, we dance, we sing, we shake hands with others … But are we listening for the Voice within the voice? Only alert people can hear His secrets. We can listen to the same sermon other people hear, but we can also hear something more, something entirely different. Simply because the Lord has put His NEON highlighter over a few words that totally change our POV.

Imagine what could or would happen if the whole Body of Christ did that? We would have the ‘manifold many-sided wisdom of God to guide us,’ daily. I don’t have all His wisdom, neither do you – but when we get together – we more than double our opportunities to watch and see Him at work. Father God will share Himself with anyone, so let’s be alert and wait, and watch for Him to move. Our God is to be experienced.

At the same time, we watch what He does, because that is the way we learn what we are to do. Jesus was constantly watching His Father to see what He was doing. He tells us that in John. Learning to notice things is a cultivated skill, but anyone can do it. The difference between seeing and really seeing is choosing to pay attention. Sadly this world slathers itself with an attitude of distraction and passivity. So we watch stuff, we listen, we absorb information, maybe we even memorise it – but we are not actively participating in anything we hear, because we are information gathering! Let’s actively take part in an incredible process that means we are always watching out to see what God will do next!

His goodness is all around us. We can see evidence of it every day, the sun came up where I live, did it come up at your house? Let’s value what we see. If it is raining and I am going to the car, and the rain stops – I thank Him for taking care of me … my thought is this… I can slip and fall in the rain. I often look at other people’s faces and see sadness and sorrow, I can’t help them, because we are just ships passing in the night, but I can pray for them. I don’t have to know what’s going on, but He does.

I think Jesus lived His life alert to whatever His Father was doing, because He just loved to watch His Father at work. Some people waste their lives waiting for someone else to make a  mistake, what a tragedy! What a waste of sight!! Any dill can find fault – but can we find the good in a supposedly bad person? That’s real insight! 

Loving people is not hard when we look through Christ’s eyes. He saw the potential for good in a tax collector who climbed a tree. Once, He saw far more than a woman who was sleeping around, when He stopped at a well. She had potential. It was released when Jesus recognised His Father had been working in her life. And Jesus saw fledgling faith in Peter when He said “Come!” He saw His Father stretching that man’s faith into areas Peter didn’t even know about. This man was a fishermen by trade — they know you can’t walk on water! But Peter suspended his earthly expertise when he put his eyes on Jesus and saw what HE was doing! He just did what He saw the Master doing.

Maybe we wouldn’t be as judgey with each other if we learnt to see this world through His eyes. As we see, and watch out for ways to bless people, I believe we will see them through our Father’s eyes. Love gives us eyes to see the good.  And watching Him at work, every single day, helps us do the impossible and leads us to be observers of God’s goodness. Bye. 👋 

P 3320 Faith has substance.

/ DVH

“My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask Him to strengthen you by His Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite Him in. And I ask Him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:14.

There’s Paul praying for us all again! He shows us that we don’t have to see something to respond to it. God’s love has substance- the substance is in the bible. When we talk about substance, we are talking about things that can be seen when we use our faith. Just because something is intangible, that doesn’t mean it isn’t substantial. The substance reveals itself with action. God’s love isn’t just an expression in a book — He chose to come here, and be just like us. Jesus cried, was fed, burped, lulled off to sleep as an infant. When He cried there were real tears!

The reality is, any part of humanity can see and experience His love, because we, as His kids, choose transformation over information. We act on the premise that: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen.” Hebrews 11:1. The way we live gives faith substance to other people. We are His love on display, as we act, speak, and interact with others. At the same time believing what God said and actively responding to it, takes our hope in Him, and turns it into something substantial. Love has put us on a road in Australia, distributing blankets, bibles, prophetic, insightful words from the Lord for the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet. God’s love has evidence. Our faith-in-action is the outward exhibition of it showing the world what He is like.

He says it, then we choose to believe it and so we go and act on it. If I am reading the bible and it says that I have a problem with my brother or sister in Christ — I don’t use my rational mind to discount what He said — even if I can’t think of anyone I’m mad at! Instead I ask the Lord, in prayer. “Lord would You please show me who I need to forgive, or who needs me to ask them for forgiveness.” My rational mind might excuse me, but the bible clearly says: “I am inexcusable.” (Romans 2:1.) Dead people don’t decide if something is wrong or right – instead we choose to ask the King!

Otherwise I can be guilty, but unaware of my guilt, simply because I can’t see myself clearly. To see myself clearly I have to look in God’s mirror, the bible. (James 1:22-25.) Personally, I try avoid ordinary mirrors like the plague, because when I look in them I think: ‘Who the heck is that chubby old elderly lady?’ I have had to learn that my perception of who I am doesn’t match up with reality! This can happen to anyone of us spiritually, we can get so busy, looking and sounding right, that we have no time or energy left to participate in living right. So when we ask for forgiveness, our faith in God’s all encompassing forgiving love is it’s own substance – we go and apologise and make reparation..

The Lord’s answer to man’s dilemma has always been astonishing and comprehensive. God’s faith had substance —Jesus (God Himself) came here, as a MAN and allowed mankind to punish Him. He literally took our place in the dock and became ‘the accused’ for us. “Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].” Isaiah 53:4.

Some people look at Jesus Christ and say — ‘well, He must have done something wrong, and that’s why they killed Him.’  But He was blameless. Perfect in His attitudes, heart, and mind. It seems to me that our idea of ‘right’ leaves a lot to be desired. It can be affected by our friends, families, moods and trends. We need a steadfast guide, and Father God has provided SomeOne for us, He sent us the Holy Spirit together with the bible. James 4:17 gives us this bit of clarification: “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do, and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” James knows that words lack substance without actions to back them up.

By doing what He did, the Lord Jesus chose to become a door, a way for any one of us to reconcile with Father God. Somebody had to die for mankind’s sin and Jesus did. If He hadn’t chosen to do it, hell would be full with every single human being who had ever lived. Our own self-cultivated attitudes, actions and appetites make it easy for the enemy to lead us astray. Which is why we cannot afford to look down on some awful schmuck who does some dastardly thing. None of us know what we are capable of until we are desperate and cornered.

Sinful appetites and attitudes will continue to grow, while we choose to rationalise them. Our faith needs prayerful, intentional Holy Spirit-help and inspired self-denial. Let’s choose to give our faith substance by acting on what we say we believe. Bye 👋.

P 3288 Life attracts more life.

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Here’s a dumb but logical thought:  dead things don’t move. The life that was in them, has been extinguished. You and I, will pass through death. However, it’s a doorway not a brick wall. We simply move on… to somewhere SO MUCH better! God’s Love for mankind is written down in BIG impactful words in John 3:16;  Romans 5:8: 1 John 4:16;  Romans 8:37-39. The thing about the Lord is this – what He says He means!

While we are on this earth, here and now, for some of us waking up alive is a faith statement we make every morning! And some bits of me are harder to wake up now. When I was younger I didn’t even think about moving my body — I just did it. Now I approach any kind of moving with a modicum of caution, and a boat-load of human history. However I am not about to wail on about how getting older means getting creakier! Instead, today, I want to talk about spiritually moving and how essential that is in our living faith. His life in us encourages others to believe. We were reborn spiritually, when the Holy Spirit first breathed His life into us.

So, right now, we have life in us the way this world understands it … and His new life in us … but many other people don’t understand the difference … yet. This world should be able to see that kind of life too! Here’s James, who talks at length about the way we are to live this new life we have been given. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”  James 1:23-25. One of the best ways I know to keep our faith a living faith, is to share it with someone else!

James is teaching us that this new life we now have must be expressed. It needs to be seen, and be conspicuous. This might be a good time to repent of getting angry at those people in your church who would preach salvation to a donkey, if God said to do it!  We might get angry with them because we are convicted by their actions! But then we feel guilty because we feel like we can’t do what they do. We may not be called to preach to people, but you and I were called to exhibit faith by our works, as well as our words. “Faith without works is dead!” (Also in James.) That’s dead dead – all dead, no sign of life – DEAD!

I have one of those nasty questions nobody likes to answer. If you or I were taken into a court of law could we be convicted, with clear evidence – of knowing and loving Jesus with all our heart, soul, mind and strength? Stephen was. (The book of Acts) His reward for his boldness was that he was able to see into heaven just before he got there!  The Lord does not ask us all to be Stephen. You get to be you, and I get to be me. But whoever we are, we can, and must both obey what the bible says: 

“We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the One Who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work.” John 9:4. “For this reason He says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine [as dawn] upon you and give you light.” Ephesians 5:14. Here’s a song to ponder on, from a man who lived what he believed. His life was short, but fruitful, and his legacy continues to this day. Click here for some of Keith Green’s lyrics they will blow the dust and fluff out!  https://genius.com/Keith-green-asleep-in-the-light-lyrics

In the book of Matthew, chapter 25, the parable of the ten virgins shows us clearly that we need to be prepared for any eventuality. We can’t just slough off our responsibilities. We are His kids, so we can’t afford to do nothing. Jesus weeps over the millions of people who are falling off the cliff of this life into the next, and they don’t know about Him and what He did for us. Please don’t fool yourself with the idea that this kind of work is for someone else. Complete strangers ask me how I cope with illness in my life? I tell them I can’t, I have to lean on Jesus all the time!  I don’t have to have a clever answer to trick them into wanting to follow Him – I HAVE A TRUTHFUL ONE. They also ask hubby why we give away things to the poor, and he tells them that Jesus sent him!

We don’t have to convert or convince others, that’s the Holy Spirit’s job, our job is to speak, or act, or do something that shows them that our faith is not a theory!  ‘What if I get it wrong?’ Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and go again. Absolutely nothing enlivens our faith more than using it! Faith made those five  virgins provide more oil than it seemed like they needed at that time. Everybody fell asleep that night, but the ones that used their faith had provision for the delay. Moving is a sign of life, otherwise the church appears to be deader than a dodo. Who wants to go to a dead church? But His life in us attracts more life. Bye. 👋

P 3270 The impossible is easy for the Lord …

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but it is also very challenging to our faith. In the gospel  of Mark 2:1-12, some men tore off a house-roof so they could lower down a paralytic friend in front of Jesus…. Did you get that? They tore up some poor guy’s roof! This hospitable family man offers his home for a meeting and that’s the thanks he gets?! I suppose the man could have used the resulting hole for a skylight…? !

The details we are given in the Word make this story extraordinary. Mainly because I don’t imagine digging a hole in any kind of roof would be easy. But these men were so devoted to their friend, in their desire to get him to Jesus, that they would have done anything. Meanwhile nobody seemed to care too much about what the occupant of the house thought when they burrowed into his nice little house like gophers either. Why not?! Somebody got healed and they all saw it.

 Are we willing to risk possibly offending people in order to bring someone into the Lord’s Presence? (Remember wherever we go, He goes.) The fear of retaliation or offence is very real in our society. Nowadays if somebody tore off a church roof to get a sick person to Jesus, they’d probably sue them for a replacement roof!  Plus they’d grizzle at them — ‘don’t you know how to use a door?!?’ But these friends were undaunted by societal rules, and motivated by love for their sick friend, instead. I’d like to be a friend like that, and boy would I like to have a friend like that myself!

Jesus didn’t really seem to care who He offended. The Lord did not ever set out to be offensive but if that happened, well, it happened. He didn’t even pause to explain Himself, or His motivation etc … He just moved on. His priority was  His Father’s will. How can we possibly imagine how incredibly difficult it must have been for Him to carry out the Father’s will, even when it included His own suffering and death?  

Not to mention the fact that when it came to the time of His death, Jesus did everything He did, without the comforting Presence of the precious Holy Spirit. He was SomeOne the Lord had always known intimately. It must have been so painful for the Father, and the Spirit stand back and not rescue Jesus from such villainous wickedness. But there was a higher purpose. Meanwhile it is not hard to imagine satan firing mental missiles at Jesus while he was tormenting the Lord inwardly and outwardly on the cross.   

Today I want to remember how very much the Holy Spirit loves to help, comfort, and guide. And yet at that point in history, He had to step away. The Father’s Will could only be accomplished if the Holy Spirit didn’t step in. The Lord Jesus did all that He did for us, so we can be sons and daughters of God!  Otherwise the doors of heaven would have stayed shut to the likes of you and I! Jesus chose to do this so we would never have to be separated from the Holy Spirit’s loving kindness, and wisdom ever again. It stands to reason that His devotion to mankind is so huge – HE WON’T EVER LEAVE US. The Spirit of God loves us the way He loves Christ. Imagine that. He freely shares with us  His life-giving ways. If it is not love, then it is not Him. 

The Spirit of the Living God creatively uses the power of love and grace in ways we cannot imagine, over and over again. To one person He says, “consider Jesus” … to someone else He says: “you have been forgiven” and to another He says: “the Father loves you with an everlasting love.” No matter what the Holy Spirit says: there is always  unimaginable, overwhelming love in it. He chooses to meet some people in their dreams, others while they are reading the bible, or through someone else’s books. He met with me in front of a clothes line! His originality is mind boggling.  

Someone else might say what I just said, in a totally different way, and that is just another example of His incredible creativity. He is also out-of-this-world wise. There are so many ways to describe Who He is and what He does – silently -we can easily lose count! That’s why I love Jesus, we can see in Him the things our natural mind couldn’t possibly make up! And the Lord Jesus totally relied on the Holy Spirit’s help – so should WE.

This is Paul speaking to the Ephesians, about the diversity of the things He has for us. 3:8-12: “To me, the least of all the saints, was given this grace: to proclaim the good news of the fathomless riches of Christ to the Gentiles, and to enlighten everyone as to what is the administration of the mystery hidden from the ages by God, Who created all things, in order that the many-sided wisdom of God might be made known now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places through the church, according to the purpose of the ages which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through faith in Him.”

Please do not allow anyone else to minimise the beauty of the One that Jesus Himself chose to entrust with our care. We all matter so much to God, even when our faith is severely stretched, let’s not limit Him. Let’s learn to walk with Him instead. Watch out for evidence of His work in your life as well as around you. Seeing Him at work helps our faith.  He will show us how to repair the things that this life has broken in us, or in our relationships with others. He will tear up and get rid of anything that is holding us back from reaching Jesus, just like those friends tore away the roof in order to get to the Lord that day. Despite challenging our faith, the impossible is so easy to our God.  Bye. 👋

P 3195 Respond.

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“Faith, then, is birthed in a heart that responds to God’s anointed utterance of the Anointed One.” Romans 10:17 TPT. 

The important word in the above scripture is respond. This is how we grow our faith, by actively responding to what Jesus says. The meaning of respond is — “do something as a reaction to someone or something.” Hebrews 11:1 says:“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  The thing is we want evidence to help us believe, but the lack of evidence is the very thing that stimulates and grows faith. So if our faith lacks substance it means we are not doing anything about what we believe!

Our response is always optional because Jesus won’t make us do anything! However, it is imperative and essential that our faith produces something more substantial than words. Let’s look at this a bit more deeply. In Isaiah 29:13 the Lord has been angry with Israel and He talks about His anger, because His people say one thing, but do another. He calls that lip service, and that is not a good look for His people. “And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honour Me with their lips, while their hearts are far from Me, and their fear of Me is a commandment taught by men,…”  

In the New Testament in 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…” These  scriptures are not just for our information. They are written to teach us how to live. Training in righteousness is about acceptance, repetition and practice, it is not just about learning the language so we can fit in or have an opinion. Training implies effort, and that effort is to help us take what we hear, and act on it. We are to do more than just agree with the sentiment or the language. Our task is to make the faith He has given us real in our everyday lives. 

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and do many mighty works in Your Name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-23. 

Chunky stuff eh? Not to be trifled with, and yet it seems so harsh. It is amazing that Jesus would say something so direct and severe. It seems to me that there are two kinds of Lordship, the one that it is in name only, and someone who chooses to live like Jesus would – if He were here with us today, in Person. Whether we are at home, alone, at school, or in the middle of our work environment. Lordship is not something to be trifled with. It is clear Jesus takes it extremely seriously! So we need to take it seriously too. 

The next issue is how? How do we live in His Lordship, day after day and night after night? The only way I know  is to choose to make quality decisions, minute by minute, and stick by them. Well meaning, sincere declarations at an altar made in a moment of time, don’t always work! They must be followed up by training.  Eventually we will begin to exchange the habits of a lifetime through prayer and practice. I’ve found some habits, some ways of thinking, are harder to shift than others. I think the secret is in what David did. He took his reference point for using his faith, from his experiences of God’s Grace in the past. 

Living in and giving away Grace is essential to the Lord’s kind of inward transformation. We cannot maintain grudges etc. and keep moving. Think of your internal heartache as mountains that will not stand a chance, because Jesus is on the scene. Remind yourself and the enemy, that the Lord Jesus once cursed a tree and it was dead as a dodo the next day! Everything in the bible has a practical application. We will just have to look for, and seek those applications out for ourselves and then live them out.

Second-hand information can seem to profit our emotions temporarily, and even stir us – but it is our commitment to find out for ourselves that causes transformation. Daily the Lord says: ‘Will you walk with Me today?’ That’s when we will have to file all our past failures and disappointments away into His hands — under: “things I will understand one day in the future.’ Or …’maybe I won’t understand but I won’t give a darn by then.’

Job’s response to all kinds of pressure was this: “Even though He kills me, I’ll continue to hope in Him. At least I’ll be able to argue my case to His face!” Job 13:15. Letting go is the only way forward that will lead us into living in His peace. Remember, it’s His peace, so we must do it His way! The bible is crystal clear that our God’s ways are not our ways, so our lack of mental or emotional understanding is irrelevant. Unfortunately, the person who needs to make this kind of decision is always ME – you can’t do it for me, I can’t do it for you. 

Our responses matter. We have entered into a time where our training often happens under duress. That stretching and buffeting could cause us to doubt He will help us, but the way to learn that the Lord is utterly good and reliable, is to live like He is utterly reliable! Talking about it doesn’t make it real – acting on what He has said makes it real and gives it substance.. Our responses count. Bye 👋