Example

P 3490 A little unknown girl.

/ DVH

2 Kings 5:2-14:“Bands of Syrians had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a little girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid. One day the little girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy!  Naaman told the king what the little girl had said.“Go and visit the prophet,” the king told him. “I will send a letter of introduction for you to carry to the king of Israel.” So Naaman started out, taking gifts of $20,000 in silver, $60,000 in gold, and ten suits of clothing. 

The letter to the king of Israel said: “The man bringing this letter is my servant Naaman; I want you to heal him of his leprosy.”When the king of Israel read it, he tore his clothes and said, “This man sends me a leper to heal! Am I God, that I can kill and give life? He is only trying to get an excuse to invade us again.”But when Elisha the prophet heard about the king of Israel’s plight, he sent this message to him: “Why are you so upset? Send Naaman to me, and he will learn that there is a true prophet of God here in Israel.” So Naaman arrived with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s home. Elisha sent a messenger out to tell him to go and wash in the Jordan River seven times and he would be healed of every trace of his leprosy! 

But Naaman was angry and stalked away. “Look,” he said, “I thought at least he would come out and talk to me! I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call upon the name of the Lord his God and heal me! Aren’t the Abana River and Pharpar River of Damascus better than all the rivers of Israel put together? If it’s rivers I need, I’ll wash at home and get rid of my leprosy.” So he went away in a rage. But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply to go and wash and be cured!” So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the prophet had told him to. And his flesh became as healthy as a little child’s, and he was healed! “

Here are some great instructions from the past! I hope you took the time to read it, because I think that Naaman is an example of what we can often look like in our Christian walk, and the little slave girl is an example of what we can be. I don’t read the bible as irrelevant stories, I read it looking for me. I could be Naaman on one day, and the prophet on another, and that little girl on yet another! 

Because this child speaks up, Naaman is healed and saved. Even though she actually does nothing — she is still a witness motivated by LOVE. She doesn’t feel she should pray for the leprous man, she doesn’t have any deep thoughts to share – she simply points and says: “What you need is over there.”

I love it. I mean … how hard is that? How hard is it to say: “I know SomeOne Who can help you with that?”  Even though she is a captive, she is very loving and caring toward her master. You might want to think about that the next time your boss asks you to work late, and you want to go home early.

Back to Naaman, who automatically assumes this will be a financial arrangement – he’s rich, and he usually solves his problems by throwing money at it. But God gives this man what he wants for free – it simply costs him the price of humility and obedience. Yet he nearly misses it completely … because of his mindset.  He’s an important man, and he has the ear of the king. There are times when it can be very hard to admit we are wrong. Pride gets in the way. We can rob ourselves if we lack humility.

I’m going to skip right over the King of Israel, who tended to think globally, and focus on his own safety — and go right on to Elisha. Elisha doesn’t even speak to him, he hands this important man a simple answer through his own servant. ‘Go take seven dips in this river.’ Sometimes the simple answer IS the answer. But to get there, we will have to throw away the awkward, useless bundles of our own plus and minus thoughts, and pick up the solitary thread Jesus Himself gives us, and follow it. Naaman was fortunate, his men were watching out for Him… but he still had to overcome his own ideas and listen. Being bull-headed about stuff is only good if you are a bull!

The one thing we need to watch out for is being so separate and independent we don’t know where anyone else is. Unity can usher in healing, and other members of the Body of Christ can totally transform what we think we know. Naaman’s men helped him when his common sense wouldn’t … that’s why he was healed. We cannot be the whole ball-game alone, even if life has so separated us from others for good reasons, we still must pray for each other. Naaman’s healing was right there … and he nearly missed it. Thank God for the brave souls among us who speak up!

You and I have the benefit of hind-sight when we read this story. We know all the players in it, and what happens and how it turns out, but at that time, the people involved were doing what you and I do every single day. They were making decisions according to their individual needs and situations. The great thing about serving King Jesus is that He knows what comes next – because He knows the way through anything.

I have cultivated a hands off policy over the years. I don’t give up when I’ve finally run out of ideas, now I give up at the beginning! Stuff happens, and I hand it over. That bit is often accompanied by copious weeping, maybe some grief or anger, but eventually, I stand back and wait. There are times I have to wait, and wait and WAIT, because I want HIS ANSWER, not mine. My answer is often selfish and demands instant results. Today I will pray that I will be just like that little nameless girl who knew where to point – she pointed the way to a miracle. Bye 👋

P 3470 Entitlement can shoot us in the foot.

/ DVH

Denying ourselves can be really hard. Since birth we have had to negotiate our way between what’s OK to do, and what isn’t — and that pretty much depended on who you were talking to! Maybe your Grandparents thought you could do no wrong, while your parents experienced a totally different reality. But now, because we have chosen to follow Jesus, the responsibility for denying ourselves, falls on us – not on other people’s rules. We can choose to change our ways, or we can continue to take the same entitled, childish attitudes we had way back then … into adulthood.

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me].” Matthew 16:24. 

You don’t see many people writing songs about that verse! When things don’t go our way, first of all our flesh gets antsy, we can get really grumpy, and before you know it, we are in the middle of a gigantic pity party. That thought pattern is a satanic plot to undermine the way we live our lives. And it happens simply because we feel entitled to better treatment from this life, and other people. When we give our lives to Jesus, that idea goes out of the window, forever, and we need to get used to it. We gave our lives away!

I want to dismiss the theory that this life owes us something. I had a pretty hard childhood, and bleating about it didn’t seem to make a whole lot of difference to the cosmos – it simply ignored me. And then it threw even more guff at me to make sure I knew who was boss …  and with my lightning fast mind, I eventually figured out that was definitely not going to be me! For some people this means a fully-fledged battle with this world at every opportunity, all of their lives. And for others? Well they just lay down because they know from experience that they are going to end up on the floor anyway — no matter what they do or say. Resignation is not our destination either. Paul found out he was ill-equipped to fight against God – the Lord knows where our “off” button is! 

The only true alternative is to allow the Holy Spirit to teach each one of us how to fight, who to fight, and how to engage in the everyday battle to lay down our lives for others. It involves a process nobody likes, especially initially. This means I ask the Holy Spirit for His help and I lay aside that snappy, snide reply.

Sadly the only thing that seems to impact many human beings to change anything is the thought that they might die if they don’t! The thing to remember is that change means Jesus is not just doing a ‘make-over’ … He’s ‘remodelling’ us from the inside out to look like He does, but then we become more like our true selves, designed in God’s image. What we lose is irrelevant in the presence of what we will gain. 

“Then Jesus went to work on His disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with Me has to let Me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow Me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, My way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?” Matthew 16:25. GNB. 

I am not even remotely trying to make this process sound easy, because that would be lying to you. You and I have spent a lot of years practicing living our lives, one way, and then the Lord interrupts our excuses, subterfuges, and manipulations with a clear directive like the one above. We can’t afford to ignore it. The truth is we no longer have a life – we gave it away. So we can know Jesus here and now, and live with Him forever!

“All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honourably with personal integrity and moral courage]; …” 2 Timothy 3:16. 

Is there a plus side to this less-than-materially-motivated or unappealing deal? YES. “His truth makes us truly free …” in this life and the next. I have no idea why anyone wouldn’t want to co-operate with the One Who made you, He knows far more about what we can and can’t do, and He is generous and kind. When satan cried out for my blood, I knew I deserved what was coming to me, but Jesus gave him HIS BLOOD instead and He definitely didn’t! The more I read about the Lord and His plans, the more I emphasise that God’s processes can be difficult. It’s hard at the beginning to say no to yourself when you feel entitled to a better deal. However, what we walk away from is temporal – what we walk toward is eternal. You do the math.

The sense of entitlement we have had since we were born is in direct opposition to everything Jesus stood for – so when we choose to follow Him, we need to understand that this part of our journey ends in a grave. Entitlement is a fairy story we tell ourselves so we can cope with hardships. Ask Jesus to help you cope instead! The truth is, without Jesus Christ’s sacrifice we are all entitled to hell. Bye. 👋.

P 3463 Be really yourself…

/ DVH

…not the you, you wish you were! … Something has shifted in hubby and I as we’ve been travelling all over the country-side giving away bibles and stuff. We started out being traditional, and along the way, a whole lot of formal stuff fell off, and now we simply go to meet people, so we can love on them whenever and wherever we can. Before this adventure, it was like we had two ‘hats,’ one was for church and the other was out there… 

The thing is, what happened the other day with my young friend showed me how easy it can be to miss the main point. Especially when we have a mindset that separates people into categories, saved and unsaved, I think this is part of a mistake I’ve been making. I’ve learnt that my first priority is to love God, then others. So I asked myself what if I took the saved and unsaved categories out of my thinking and just saw people? Perhaps, as Christians, we are more honest and open with the people who love Jesus, than we are with the man in the street. My thought for today is …WHY? Is Christianity meant to be some kind of secret society, where you can’t get in if you don’t know the handshake?

Actually the bible says that Jesus loved the world so much He died for all of us, which actually means we are all in the same boat! Some of us have recognised the One Who saved us, and others haven’t heard about Him, or met Him yet. The difference between committed Christians, and the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet, is simply a matter of who has received this revelation and who hasn’t.

We are all loved equally by our Heavenly Father. But for years we’ve kind of hidden behind our church doors and played the ‘we-are-the-nice-people’ game. That game had a false finish line, and to join in people had to come to know Jesus in a pre-prescribed packaged fashion. But when I decided to see this world from His point of view, I realised there will always be room for one more … even in the last minutes of His life, Jesus made room for one more! Our lives need to be lived in such a way that we are an invitation, telling everyone Who Jesus is, what we know about Him, without any stress or strain.

The reason we are asked by the Lord to tell everyone, is because we don’t know who will say yes and who will say no … like that rich young man from yesterday. That means I will say the same kind of thing to a murderer, that I would to the little old lady down the road. The good news is, Jesus died to save all of us from everything bad we ever did, and the next step is to ask Him to do that for you. It is not just about memorising a prayer of commitment, it is about living the life. We give up the way we currently think and choose to learn how God thinks – by reading His book, listening to Him and walking with Him.

Until we choose to live by His Grace only, we can never completely understand exactly what Christ did for us. And the plainer and more normal we are when we speak to others, the better it is for those who know nothing. I think choosing to take the time to digest what God says, by obeying Him, is the first step. Then what He said will come out of me, the way I’d say it. It’s not another Gospel, it’s the same Gospel, as it is lived out, from day to day, in my life. My life becomes His witness. I can’t have the whole picture and neither will you – that’s because in the Body, I am an eyebrow and maybe you are an elbow –  so our viewing platform is different.

Paul said “follow me as I follow Christ,” he didn’t say: ‘follow me the way I follow Peter or John.’  Christ was everything to Paul. Whether this man was in jail, out of jail, birthing churches, leading individuals to Jesus, or trying to remember who he had baptised and who he hadn’t! BTW, there is a really cute conversation about that in 1 Corinthians 1:14-16. He couldn’t really remember what he’d done, because for Paul, all that mattered was that he preached the gospel! 

I have an important reason for rattling on about this yesterday, and today. I strongly feel it is urgent that we all stop playing the ‘my church is better than your church’ game. Just because someone has 3,000 people, that does not make them a better minister than the guy who has 20. I like the way Paul says it: ‘I’m following Jesus and you need to follow me the same way I follow Him!’ 1 Corinthians 11:1-15. Paul is talking about his devotion to Christ as well as asking us to take what he wrote seriously.

“Put into practice the example of all that you have heard from me or seen in my life and the God of peace will be with you in all things.” Philippians 4:9 TPT. When I read these two scriptures I realised what a mighty statement Paul was making. It is a great aim to have in our daily lives, and the very essence of what our new life should look like. Father God does not want another Paul, he totally fulfilled his mission in his lifetime. He wants you to be you … and do whatever you do as you simply follow Jesus.

If you follow Jesus where you are, and I do it where I am, then we have doubled our possibilities. Not everyone likes or wants to hear what I have to say, but the person who does not understand me, may understand everything, when you say it. I recommend telling others what Jesus has done in your life and then leave the Holy Spirit to do what He does best – convict and convince people. Tell them how you walk with Him, day by day. Be real! Be the you that loves Jesus and still makes mistakes. People love real. Bye. 👋

P3449 A life laid down.

/ DVH

“If we wait to feel like doing something for God, we will do nothing at all.” “Let your life be proof that Christ is real.” Mary SLESSOR. (1848-1915.) Born in Glasgow, and a missionary to Nigeria, she began her first mission at 27 years of age. She died of Malaria on the mission field. 

In Nigeria, back then, it was a common practice to kill twins, because they were regarded as a curse. Mary took those discarded twins and raised them as her own children, and eventually the native people realised their way of thinking was an error. She did not waiver in her devotion to what she knew the truth was. Mary put what she believed into practice. BTW, she was also the first female magistrate in the area, plus she advocated women’s rights, and she settled tribal disputes. But few people would know her name, today. 

I found Mary by reading the quote I’ve put at the top of this blog and I was so interested in her life, I did a bit of research. I wanted to use her as an example of what living for Jesus’ sake looks like. Here’s another quote about the cost of living this way from Wikipedia:.. “During this third mission to Calabar, Slessor received news that her mother and sister (her only living relatives) had died. She was overcome with loneliness, writing, “There is no one to write and tell my stories and nonsense to.” She had also found a sense of independence, writing, “Heaven is now nearer to me than Britain, and no one will worry about me if I go up country.” (No-one will miss me now.)

She seemed to me to be an excellent example of an ordinary Christian person who gave up her life to follow the Lord. She had had a pretty ghastly life before she became a missionary, yet she chose to obey Jesus’ call to be a witness. Obviously we won’t all end up on the mission field in a foreign land – but her singleness of purpose really challenged me. Mary became sick from Malaria early in her life in Nigeria, and had to go back to Scotland to recover, then she returned to the mission field again. This wrestling match happened many times in her forty years on the mission field. 

You know, I found what Mary did so powerful, especially in the light of this world’s penchant for self-indulgence. She is probably rarely mentioned except in Presbyterian literature. She didn’t go to Africa for fame – she went to be obedient. The little blurbs I read did not say she was a passionate person, actually she comes across as quite an ordinary, quiet heroine, who simply did what the Lord asked her to do. She bloomed where she was planted. … Boy did she!!

She wrote this in her diary: “I am trembling for the meetings,” she once wrote. “But surely God will help me. It is His own cause. I am suffering tortures of fear, and yet why is it that I cannot rest in Him? If He sends me work, surely He will help me deliver His message and do it for His glory. He never failed me before. If He be glorified that is all, whether I be considered able or not.” This piece was not written in Nigeria where she confronted drunken tribesmen with spears and shield, time and time again — this was written right before she went to speak at a meeting in her homeland, Scotland!

She said this about her calling: “God has been good to me, letting me serve Him in this humble way,” … ”I cannot thank Him enough for the honour He conferred upon me when He sent me to the Dark Continent.” By now I was crying as I am reading, because her devotion to Jesus and His sacrifice was so precious. She gave up everything to serve our King. Some of my info came from an article MARY AND THE BEAN STALK c.2005 by John W. Cowart. From the book,  People Whose Faith Got Them Into Trouble (IVP, 1990). I love that title!!  If you have time to read, she makes great reading. “One lone woman and Christ against an army” of angry natives, whose lives were changed by Jesus.

Mary helped me remember that obedience is better than sacrifice. So many great men and women have served Jesus in far off places, and history has forgotten all about them. But they gave all they had, so that others might live forever with Him. That kind of makes our reluctance to talk to strangers about Jesus seem pretty pitiful eh? Especially the sad things we hide behind – I’m too old, too young, too fat, too thin, too scared, too noisy, too quiet, too poor, too rich, too something-or-other … So I can’t do it!

I distinctly remember Moses saying something like this …  ”Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” Exodus 4:10. Thank God, after a bit of wrangling, Moses did it anyway! And Jonah saying: “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”  Jonah 4:2. Jonah knew that God is good, and it annoyed him because people he didn’t like were saved. Human beings are weird!

Who said witnessing is an optional extra? I think a life laid down is a beautiful thing. Bye. 👋. “But we are certainly not those who are held back by fear and perish; we are among those who have faith and experience true life!” Hebrews 10:39 TPT.

P 3431 For the Father and others.  

/ DVH
It is good to remember that no matter what people look like, they need Him.

The more we ask the Holy Spirit for His help in our daily lives, the more we will experience intimacy with God and others. Father God can’t be an afterthought – He must be our only thought. By the way, big long repetitive prayers don’t matter! Just speak your heart to Him, not your head. Intimacy comes from being real with Him and myself. When we read Psalms 86 and 114, we see David, the man and the king, being real. 

We often hang onto the sins other people commit against us, to protect ourselves. Those things can easily hide or even sometimes eclipse, what Jesus did for me. The thing is I can’t afford to be distracted – I desperately need His help. This life chases me with bad news. Even other people’s attitudes can distract me from Him, and my immediate needs can overcome my eternal aims. Let’s deliberately ask Him to help us focus on Him, and what He has done – first. Otherwise I can become blinded by self-interest or someone else’s sins against me. 

Calvary was an incredibly intimate, personal event — Jesus’ life-blood poured out onto the ground! You and I are the people who choose to live knowing that we are not worthy of so much mercy, forgiveness, grace and love, but we have it, because He gave it. Now we live for Him … His way. It is a useful thing to remind ourselves of our King’s freely-given investment in our lives when we are under great stress. It adds to our intimacy with Him. Instead of toughing it out — ask Jesus INTO whatever is going on.

The Lord has shown me what I do to protect myself – is far worse than any perceived slights that the other person has perpetrated against me. Mainly because I am collecting their faults, words and attitudes like stamps! Hugging them to me to protect myself from what these people might do next. You can’t have true intimacy with someone you are hiding from. The things I chew on to protect myself, create a barrier. It is harder to hear the Lord, as well as hear them!

What we fail to understand is that whatever we cling to, to protect us, will actually bind us. The best Person to cling is Jesus. Let’s pick up our own cross – of unrepentant spouses, relatives, friends, and bosses, etc. – and lay aside their sins with over-the-top forgiveness. But don’t just leave a vacuum — say something kind to them instead. “A soft answer turns away wrath.” “We might just win our brother …” When we are tempted to reply in a negative fashion – in the face of extreme pain, lies, cursing, betrayal and spite – our faith is under pressure. Let’s allow the truth of God’s love for us to be our shield.

The Lord Jesus saved the guy hanging next to Him while He was being crucified. He WAS kind of busy at the time … dying from suffocation, and the injuries we inflicted upon Him! … But LOVE WON. When we make love our aim, our quest, and we choose to chase it, anything that is not love begins to stand out.

Perhaps our churches aren’t producing the things that are worthwhile in a way that this world can see them. The people around us can’t see our faith in action. Our voluntary demonstration of the fruit of the Spirit, when we are under pressure, can provide other people with the spiritual substance they hope for. Good works are great, but faith stands up and votes for His way – every single time. Many times, other people can’t see Jesus in what we are doing, because what we are doing fits into our happy little churchified routines. Let’s begin by telling them that the sky may well be falling, but we know a safe place to live.

Maybe we have forgotten how to live this life displaying our faith, day by day, minute by minute! Faith is more than saying to a random mountain: “Go over there!” Faith tells my bad temper, criticism, suspicion, or complete lack of God’s fruit in my every day life —-“you will not rule the way I think or act.” Instead, we say: “I give it all to you, Lord.” Jesus knows firsthand how hard this life is, He can be trusted to be there for me. He will show me the way out of any holes I have dug for myself.

Nobody knows the Father and Son better than the Holy Spirit. Their relationship is what true intimacy looks like. Their incredible fellowship and love for each other is our example. Intimacy fosters any and all circumstances to bring about the best in others. The Lord Jesus faced His destiny wrestling through what was to come, with prayer, courage, kindness, and a concern for His Father’s will and this world’s future. Instead of His excruciating pain producing murder, anger and rage — He chose God’s Way. He could have cursed us but He saved us.

Love grows when we choose to see the best in someone else. Not just what they do, but who they are. Just like Jesus did. If we need to confront them, we choose to do it in love, quietly, rationally! Don’t do a private opinion poll with other people about whether they were right to do whatever they did.  PRAY – for them, plus everyone else involved, as well as yourself. The body of Christ needs His kind of real love that allows others to learn. Our aim is not to make that other person do things the way we do it, it is to assist others to think like He does.

We want to produce devoted disciples of Jesus Christ. With every single member, big and small, old and young, all of them functioning in their appointed gifts. That’s not just the pastor’s job, it is also ours. Jesus summed it up well, when He explained to His disciples: ‘I only do and say what I see My Father doing and saying.’ He knew the best way to live, was for the Father, and for others. Bye 👋.

P 3343 It’s always a choice.

/ DVH

Philippians 1:27-30: “Meanwhile, live in such a way that you are a credit to the Message of Christ. Let nothing in your conduct hang on whether I come or not. Your conduct must be the same whether I show up to see things for myself or hear of it from a distance. Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people’s trust in the Message, the good news, not flinching or dodging in the slightest before the opposition. Your courage and unity will show them what they’re up against: defeat for them, victory for you—and both because of God. There’s far more to this life than trusting in Christ. There’s also suffering for Him. And the suffering is as much a gift as the trusting. You’re involved in the same kind of struggle you saw me go through, on which you are now getting an updated report in this letter.”

I want to emphasise that we need to make sure that if we are suffering, it is not because we are unaware that we are being tormented by satan in a fake hat. If the Lord is allowing something for a greater purpose, then that is different, but a lot of what Christians put up with is sheer satanic attack — and the tragedy is they think they are suffering because it is about His kingdom, or their transformation, or they are just bad Christians and God is allowing this stuff to teach them something. 

Jesus suffered and died for our sins, but torment can quite often knock on our door especially if we’ve done something that we think can’t be forgiven. But the truth is our view of what Christ did, and what He allowed others to do to Him, is too small. We’ve made our sin bigger than Calvary. Our faith in God’s bigness, His love and His generosity toward mankind needs to grow by reading what the Lord Himself has said over and over. This will help to expand our faith levels and it goes from our heads to our hearts. It is literally, “life and health to our bones…”

Here are some scriptures to stew on: “For Christ [the Messiah Himself] died for sins once for all, the Righteous for the unrighteous (the Just for the unjust, the Innocent for the guilty), that He might bring us to God. In His human body He was put to death, but He was made alive in the spirit,…” 1 Peter 3:18. AND … Romans 6:9-10: “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.” Hebrews 2:9: “But we do see Jesus, Who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”

Jesus suffered for us, so now we need to make sure that we are not deceived. That part is clear. But His suffering had a purpose and it was humanity’s total redemption. Sin separates us from our relationship with God Himself – He’s the Life giver! Sin renders us a pale shadow of who we can be. Because of it, we can become deaf, dumb and unable to see, receive, or accept His goodness. Meanwhile we can’t kill ourselves, we have to let others do it for us – our part is to yield. We resist the devil and yield to God. We fight what satan says, and take what the Lord says to heart and stand on it.

Sin puts us squarely into satan’s territory, a place where he rules, and please remember, he hates people! Human beings can easily be deceived and dragged away from our primary purpose, which is to present Christ to the rest of this world, by who we choose to be now, today. The power of choice is enormous! And thinking that living a neutral, quiet life will hide us from satan’s games is unrealistic. Now we all have the potential to be like Jesus, and so we need our Resident Helper’s help – He is Jesus’ gift to us in this new life!   

It was not just the Lord’s death that impacted our faith – it was also the way He lived while He was on earth! Those two things go together. Jesus has given us the same power to overcome that He had when He walked the earth with the Person of the Holy Spirit. However, you can’t have a new life without dying — you can only get a resurrected life if you are dead in the first place!  Sadly, most of the time we aren’t prepared to die to self to get it. Both things are needed — death to self and a brand new life in Christ. The power to walk in our new life comes from the choice to die. Not just a little bit dead, but all dead. Dead dead. That old life cannot walk with Jesus, it will fail so it has to go. 

Now we surrender our hopes and dreams to His purposes. After we have chosen to lay down the life that we have now, then we choose to live a life of love. We put aside what we need, and let go of all those daily things that can act as abrasions in this life. Our responses to other people, help us to diagnose the places we are still clinging to the old life. That minute by minute struggle against voluntarily choosing His way over our Way, can show us where we are not yielded to Him. Father God will not do this for us – because that would rob us of our freedom. It has to be our choice. 

Jesus Christ chose the cross – He prayed, and then He followed it through by His actions. This is the pattern WE follow. We pray and then we deliberately choose to submit to Him. At Calvary the Lord submitted to every dastardly plot of the enemy – the stuff that was sent to destroy Him. But He chose to stay in Grace toward others. He is our example. It’s always a choice.  However, let’s remember: “God (Himself) is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Our Helper lives to help us. Psalm 46:1 Bye. 👋

P 3205 A Clear Focus.

/ DVH

“We look away from the natural realm and we focus our attention and expectation onto Jesus Who birthed faith within us and Who leads us forward into faith’s perfection. His example is this: Because His heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be His, He endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation, and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God!” Hebrews 12:2 TPT.

If that scripture doesn’t move our hearts toward total surrender then I don’t know what will! The idea and actuality of  “…knowing you would be His …” is something none of us have earned or deserved. Even our desire to follow Jesus, wholeheartedly, or not … comes from the One Who birthed our faith on a cross, as He hung there dying. The thing is, I’ve noticed many Christians act like dying to self is an optional extra. It isn’t. 

Because we have been born again. and made the choice to participate in the obedient act of baptism — all that is a declaration of our intent to die to self. Now, day by day we live out that intention by monitoring and adapting our own choices, with His help. It may be a choice, but if we choose not to die, we won’t produce fruit. “Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies …”  Many Christians live in this nether world. They feel like failures because they can’t produce the stuff, and yet they long to please their Lord with all their hearts. Because they don’t know what comes AFTER baptism.

It is only when we choose to focus on dying to self daily, that we will find the new life Jesus talked about all the time. Every time we say ‘no’ to self and ‘yes’ to Him, we are choosing to die, and His spiritual fruit of self-control begins to build and grow inside us. It takes a while for a nub on an apple tree to grow a fully mature apple. But the thing is – that apple doesn’t leap on and off the tree during the process! It clings to the tree because the apple tree provides the nutrients for it to grow. Jesus said in John 15:4: “Remain in Me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.”  Let’s choose to know what Jesus said, thought, and did — because that is now the source of His life in us. We live as He lived, through our own freely-made choices, because we trust Him.

Clinging to Jesus is the only way we can grow. What He did at Calvary and in His death, has out-of-this-world  power to overcome, in it. “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” Matthew 28:16. In this particular scripture, the Lord had already conquered death, defeated the devil and his minions, and now He is returning to hand over the reins to His disciples. We don’t participate in the power of God by simply claiming it, we operate in the power of God by believing what He said and acting on it. Our decisive death to self opens the door to living differently. We will not misuse Christ’s power when we learn about the cost, personally! 

His power has been given to us, and is available to us, to appropriate. So now we can leave being selfish, self-centred, and our uncaring self, behind – and grow into lovers of Jesus, who would gladly die for Him and others! Now we choose to daily walk as He walked, in humility, with His love for His Father guiding His every step. Jesus treasured His fellowship with His Heavenly Father. So He made hard decisions, against Himself, and His preferences, in order to walk with His Father, and bring heaven down here to earth.

Every step of faith we take, under the Holy Spirit’s guidance frees us from the chains, distractions and tyrannies of this world. Don’t let the words, death, dying, unselfish etc. put you off. We don’t do any of this in our own  strength, our obedience flows as we choose His ways. We grow there, one choice at a time. I read the bible, and I can see what God wants for me, so I just do what He says! This process may be progressive, but it was never designed to be static. Progressive, forward movement is part of the deal. We participate in growing fruit by clinging to the vine, that is Christ, and through that we learn how to live a life of Love.

“For we reach the goal of fulfilling all the commandments when we love others deeply with a pure heart, a clean conscience, and sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5. It’s the way we love, that affects our hearts. The pure heart, clean conscience and sincere faith comes AS we learn to walk with the Holy Spirit. In the beginning, it seems like trial and error, but as we keep choosing Him and keep walking with Him, we discover that loving others starts to flow. Whenever we say or do something dumb, now we will want to immediately repent. WHY? Because we are walking with LOVE Himself and He is a joy to walk with.

The more you walk with Him, the more you want to walk with Him. Our focus changes from ‘me and what I want’to seeking ‘His kingdom and what He wants.’  I no longer have to make myself witness it begins to leak out of me. The other day I grabbed a lady’s hand and just started praying for her – and I didn’t even ask her permission! I was half-way through praying when I realised, I may have committed some sort of human faux pas! In those moments He’s just as real to other people as He is to you. Let us steadfastly, devotedly, and clearly focus our attention on the things that last.  Bye. 👋

P 3106 This will blow your mind.

/ DVH

“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT. As carefully as I can, bearing in mind I’m not a theologian, I want to give you my thoughts about this verse. I have taken note of any other verses like it – Joshua 24:14-15;  2 Corinthians 10:5;  Philippians 4:8;  Ephesians 4:23. 

’We have now chosen to live our lives passing on our Father’s beauty to others, together with His power flowing through our hearts, and minds as well as our lives. This means we daily choose to reject the ideals and opinions of our current society. Now we live by a different standard, the one illustrated by our Saviour. He also lived His life under extreme pressure to conform. But His death and resurrection bought us the freedom to choose.

Now, we value and act on those things He taught us and what was illustrated in His own life. Jesus Himself taught us that we could live in this world but not be influenced by it. Our desire is to learn a new way to think—scrubbed clean of self-centredness, self-protection, guilt, shame and blame. Using our faith, we recognise that we have been released by God’s power to be the most loving version of ourselves. Purely for His sake. Our daily responses to the Holy Spirit help us move forward. We need, and will always have, His help.’

There is no ambition in Romans 12:2, rather it simply explains the way to achieve the kind of ‘oneness’ with the Holy Spirit that Jesus Himself enjoyed. All the work has already been done. This kind of transformation will require our deepest trust in Jesus’ truthfulness. It goes way beyond agreeing with Him. Instead it falls happily headlong into our knowledge that He cannot or will not fail us. We have learnt that retraining the way we think, by meditating on His Word and daily living that Word in actions – ushers in heavenly thinking. Unfortunately, we will always end up half-hearted in our endeavours if we excuse our own wilfulness as being normal.  

This complete turn around cannot be attempted in our own strength, because humanity’s lack of altruism means we have to look outside ourselves, including our own inner and outer resources, or our valiant self-efforts—to SomeOne Who is pure Love, and totally devoted to our good. Jesus is our God-given, perfect, practical, and ONLY trustworthy example of our new way to live. His disciples reflected His Way to live until they died.

The Lord was motivated by love and guided by love, plus He utterly and totally cast Himself headlong into God’s love, grace and mercy;  these things guided and motivated Him. Because of the Lord’s example, following Him will take the deepest kind of faith – the kind that cannot be manufactured by human beings. To walk in this kind of faith, we must move beyond trusting Jesus to save us—into trusting Jesus to save us from ourselves, and our past, while we are still ALIVE. That’s called living faith.

If we trust Him to save us after we’ve left this world, we actually still have something to gain! He promises we will live forever, in eternity with Almighty God Himself – this is faith that needs to be developed. However, trusting the Lord Jesus to save us while we are alive in this world has no side benefit. We simply have His promise that He will help us!  It will involve sacrifice and it will cost us but the gain is always greater than the cost. Just like Jesus lived a life of sacrifice that cost Him everything while He was on earth. He did what He did for our sake.

Now, we choose to daily put aside our hopes of being understood (security and peace);  and our dreams of making a valid contribution to the world (ambition);  our desire for human love and approval, in favour of His will. We refuse to panic about whatever comes at us, because we know that our God is always in charge.

However, we are eligible for the blessing that Jesus explained to Thomas: “But he (Thomas) said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” A week later His disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed;  blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”John 20:25-29. Thomas had to see to believe – God has given us His grace to see by using our faith – and then faith opens the door to see further.

This verse shows me how much our God values our FAITH, He says believing without seeing is the better way. The very best place to start renewing our minds is to take our immediate needs: heartaches, suffering, fears, etc. and lay them down at the cross. These things are deadly to faith, and, sadly, if they are allowed to flourish, they will come back over and over again to torment and deceive us. The bible clearly tells us God will supply our needs, and we can ask Him for whatever we need – but then we leave those things with Him and go about our Master’s business. We must never stop asking. God is good He loves us dearly, and hears every prayer – His timing is not like ours.

Living like this, will literally blow, (and change!) … our minds. It produces a beauty in us that this world cannot manufacture. Bye, bless you! 🥰

P 2998 Thankfulness, the gift that keeps on giving.

/ DVH

This morning at 2.00am hubby had some thoughts that were so good, I have repeated them here today.

“We can be so busy obsessing over what we don’t have, or what we’ve lost, that we fail to be grateful for what we have been given. It is a fundamental tactic of the enemy to foster the seed of discontent in us, to steal our vision and the purposes that God has prepared for us. However, living in discontentment means that we are inadvertently saying … we don’t know Him – Who He is, the fact that He is good. Gratitude matters. It pulls our focus back on to Jehovah Jireh, our great eternal Provider.

We are also saying, when we indulge in our fears, that we are still in charge of our lives and destiny. By refusing to give the reins of our lives to God we are saying something about the way we regard Him. We are saying we don’t trust Him to be good to us. At its foundation there is rebellion, but satan colours those feelings of self pity and despair, in order to build a framework through which we can see this world. How to break this framework…? Repent of rebellion and start trusting God to be the Master of your life and begin to be thankful and grateful for what He has provided and expect Him to take care of you.”

Over to me and my thoughts now … As I reflected on what hubby said, I saw that we can’t afford the luxury of choosing what we will obey, and what we will not in this battle we call life. Even the little things matter. As soon as we refuse God’s ways for us, we are giving satan access into our minds and lives and then we can become double-minded. At worst we can be easily deceived! 

It is good to remember when Jesus was tempted He responded with the scripture. He did not pit His will against His tormentor, instead He declared God’s word to satan as His shield. Jesus is our example of how to fight, when discouragement strikes, or when we think we need to postpone using our faith, and that overtakes us. We must constantly be using and strengthening our faith, or it can be weakened by adverse circumstances, and life’s testing times. God’s truth is our shield, even when we don’t like what it says. Instead immediately look for things to thank Him for!

“At each place they (the Apostles) went, they strengthened the lives of the believers and encouraged them to go deeper in their faith. And they taught them, “It is necessary for us to enter into the realm of God’s kingdom, because that’s the only way we will endure our many trials and persecutions.” Acts 14:22 TPT. Did you get that? What helps is to look at our circumstances and decide if it is “kingdom material” – or not! Having a kingdom mindset and using it as a yardstick in our lives, protects us from the things of this world that are constantly battering at our lives to demand our attention, trying to drag us under. However, even when we don’t feel like it, we need to give thanks.

A thankful attitude can be cultivated under fire. We can’t afford to think; “I’ll learn about that stuff later.”  satan is a snake who uses discouragement and despair – which are normal human emotions – against us. he will hand us so-called evidence that God is not good, that we cannot manage whatever is going on – in order to sway our attention, loyalty, and devotion away from the Lord and onto ourselves. satan will focus our attention on our feelings instead of God’s word. If we can’t think of anything to thank God for in our pain, then let’s thank Him that He saved us, so we can always ask for His help! “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.” Psalm 46:1.

We dare not even attempt to fight any kind of destructive fight ourselves, we need the Holy Spirit’s discernment and wisdom to clear away the cobwebs of deception and shine a light on the real truth. It is hard to find something to be thankful for if you feel like the world is on top of you. The secret is to quickly recognise that our feelings come from provocation from our enemy. Then we can start rebuking them. And that’s another reason to thank God – because  He has given us power over our enemy! “Listen carefully: I have given you authority [that you now possess] to tread on serpents and scorpions, and [the ability to exercise authority] over all the power of the enemy (Satan); and nothing will [in any way] harm you.” Luke 10:19.

Here’s another great verse to be thankful for: “Trust in the Lord completely, and do not rely on your own opinions. With all your heart rely on Him to guide you, and He will lead you in every decision you make. Become intimate with Him in whatever you do, and He will lead you wherever you go.” Proverbs 3:5-6 TPT. God is the only reliable Person in this world, and ever-so-fortunately for us … HE IS GOOD! The Lord sees our hearts are toward Him, and His loving heart and goodness cannot help but reach out to us in our bewilderment and sorrow. Yet another reason to thank Him!! Our help and hope is in the Name of the Lord. He is THE strong tower we run into when we know we need help. And thank God for that tower!

I exhort you to give everything that comes up to oppose you, to Jesus, and leave it with Him. Trust Him to guide you out of whatever happened to you. Hold fast to the fact that God is good… all the time, because He is. Thank Him for His incredible goodness!  God’s Grace enables me. It enables me to give my situation to Jesus and watch what He will do with it. Having Him as my back-up also makes me thankful! Thankfulness is the gift that keeps on giving. Bye👋

P 2990 The great wall of blankets … as seen from space!

/ DVH

“If we are out of our mind [just unstable fanatics as some critics say], it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for your benefit. For the love of Christ controls and compels us, because we have concluded this, that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that all those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for their sake. 

But all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ [making us acceptable to Him] and gave us the ministry of reconciliation [so that by our example we might bring others to Him], that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them [but canceling them]. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation [that is, restoration to favour with God].” 2 Corinthians 5:13-15,18-19 AMP.

Well you could easily think that hubby and I have lost the plot…until you read 2 Corinthians 5. Then, hopefully, maybe not! It seems the Apostle Paul also suffered from the same idiosyncrasies as we do, only his case was wa-ay worse than ours! He went on the road and stayed on it, permanently. He preached in jail as well. Gee I hope we never have to check that jail one out!! And what Paul is saying in Corinthians above in a nutshell is this – if I’m nuts, then I’m nuts for God, and if I’m sane then it is for your benefit.

He knew what was important, and he did more than ask people to church next Sunday – as if!!  Or hand out flyers and pass-it-on cards, he totally left comfort behind and travelled all over the Mediterranean preaching and starting churches. He was not just saying “I have A message” — he is saying “I have THE message.”  The message of the ages…  and … you in your small corner and I in mine ... we two are off on the road again! 

If I told you everything that is in our way you would think we have totally lost the plot! The thing is, we probably have. But Jesus is our Redeemer and He can take our spirit of stupid and do something amazing with it. All we need to do is be obedient. We are going because we too know we have been given the message of the ages and we want to give it away to everyone we meet. Our wonderful God is incredible, He turns up even when we have nothing to give. Actually, I should say – especially when we have nothing to give! He truly loves poverty- stricken people. Sometimes I wonder why we try so hard to look like we are coping, when God promises to be our strength. Moving on… 🙄

The above picture is just some of what we need to fit in our wonderfully elastic car. We have heaps of medical aids for me as well – not to mention some little things … like food and clothes! Every single time we go, hubby throws his hands in the air and says: “It is just not going to all fit in the car, I can’t fit it in.” This whole thing is becoming like a well-known play – the stuff always goes in. And afterwards we say things like:“I dunno how it went in, but it did. Just don’t sneeze OK?” Meanwhile the relief we feel when we off-load blankets, food, and bibles along the way is huge. Suddenly there is oodles more room… 

We once took our only slightly crazy dog on a trip with us … just once mind you … once was enough! Her presence added a degree of difficulty we were not equipped to handle. We are never doing that again. Instead we are giving her a holiday somewhere else safe. Anyway, hubby went around a particularly steep corner and a packet of chips and the lid of a container fell on her head.  She sat there for ages until we noticed she had a new hat, and then we figured out how far back that corner was! What a patient creature she is… I know I could definitely use some of her doggie patience.

As you already know hubby and I are big fans of love in action. Love in action facilitated me hearing the gospel. I was 27 years old. Years ago a dear older lady at a previous church used to come to my front door and give me the local parish newsletter every week. She didn’t have a car, and she walked all the way from her house to mine. I imagine I was one of many people she kept up with. 

I was highly suspicious of her kindness, and barely spoke to her when she appeared at my door, because I had 3 little kids who needed my attention. However, that lady just kept on coming … and when a crisis in my life occurred she was the person I phoned. I gave my life to Jesus on that day, all because she just kept on coming, week after week after week. We don’t always know what key will unlock someone else’s heart. But God’s love through her did not give up on me. She too was constrained by the love of God.

It is good to understand that loving God and others, starts with our obedience to what He has told us to do.“Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship.” Romans 12:1. 

I have absolutely no idea what God could possibly want with my busted elderly body, not to mention dear hubby’s bad back! My theory is this – let’s all just live our lives presenting whatever we have to Him, following Him. Visiting our neighbours, or people in hospital or old people’s homes, shut-in mothers, plus genuinely caring for those people who work alongside us. We may never reach multitudes, but anybody can talk to one person! Let’s live this life, stuffing our cars full of blankets. ‘Cos love looks like something. Bye. 👋