Fault

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 3257 It’s time to get the band back together.

/ DVH

Years and years ago, when I was a much younger Christian, I loved reading instructional Christian books, plus I listened to tapes, music, and videos, everything I could. I was trying to grow my faith. I desperately needed to belong, to feel like a part of the Body of Christ. You know, there’s a whole lotta of odd people out there who really really need Jesus – we all might want to think about that. Back to it … eventually, I realised I was reading the bible and understanding it through someone else’s filter!

The Holy Spirit truly is the very best Teacher, He explains things first-hand – personally! There’s nothing like getting your own revelation from His book. Back then, whenever I read 1 Corinthians 13, I read it through other people’s interpretations to help me understand it. My thoughts were ‘boy do I fail at that!’ No wonder I felt a failure, at that time I had no idea how complete the Lord’s redemption was on my behalf. Like Paul said in Galatians 3:3 MSG bible: 

“Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!”

I believed my sins were bigger than what Jesus did. So when I messed up … and I did, a lot … I was shattered. Yeah, I know, that makes no sense at all. The Lord has a whole new kingdom reality for all of us. Sadly, at that time, I just had too much luggage that I dragged along behind me! To top it all off I erroneously believed this kind of stuff was true Christianity, and I was just really really bad at it. 

You see, people in my family or the church still irritated me, and when they were unkind, I wanted to run away, or thump them. Eventually, I became ill. So getting healed became my new focus. I figured I had become sick because I was failing the Lord all the time. I just want to strongly insert the fact that Jesus is not like that! 

But at that time, I jumped into every single healing line I could find, simply because I badly wanted to be well! Instead I just got sicker, and that added a further burden. It seemed to me that I must be a terrible Christian because I was ill in a generation that thought if you were sick it was your own fault! For years I wandered around thinking God had given up on me. And getting divorced did not help that perception. 

I know there are verses that clearly talk about divorce, and yes, I accept them! God definitely says don’t do it! However, He’s also merciful – He explains WHY. Participating in a divorce makes our hearts hard. Even though I repented up one hill and down the other, I had hardened my heart against any sort of redemption by Him. Unbelief is still sin! Works will do that to you. They will cut you off from true redemption and also real gratitude. It’s hard to be grateful when living for Jesus is a whole lot of hard work, and you can’t do it.

I guess I saw Almighty God as SomeOne Who held a grudge, like most people I had met. And I thought I deserved to be rejected. In that process I lost the One Person Who dearly, eternally loved me. At that time, I had no comprehension of unconditional love. If you happen to feel like that, I would like to testify to you that the Lord Jesus is not keeping a score of our sins against us. He can’t, His blood wiped them out!! At the same time, I hadn’t properly personally digested 2 Corinthians 5:19: “…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].”

It’s pretty hard to go out and tell others about the reconciliation that exists in Christ, when we aren’t living in it! Eventually, through the patience of a dear old minster, I came to see that the Lord Jesus is the One Who knelt beside a woman who was taken in adultery. and He also dealt with the people who wanted to stone her. Once He sat by a well and talked with a woman who had had five husbands … He didn’t give either of these women permission to live like that! However, the Lord altered the course of  both of their lives just by being Himself! The love and power of God is like that – it sets people free. 

I believe the church world-wide needs to go after the Lord’s lost sheep. The bible clearly tells us the Shepherd always does! Those broken, beaten sheep who have wandered away – or maybe they were even shoved out because the church didn’t want to be contaminated by their sin. Let’s ask the Lord to help us to win back our brothers and sisters – mothers, fathers, friends, rabbits and relations. The Body cannot function without ALL its parts. We need to be like Paul and participate in their reconciliation and restoration. So let’s love them OUT of their isolation. Maybe they are ready to repent and come back! 2 Corinthians 2:5-11.

How about we stop shooting the wounded, or leaving our broken-hearted members behind? And ask the Lord if we can be used by Him to restore them instead. Let’s get the band back together. Who knows what God will  do when we embrace others who have gotten lost along the way? Bye. 👋

P 3194 Fear is our enemy.

/ DVH

Good morning. I wanted to say a little about what happened at Bondi beach here in Australia on Sunday the 14th of December.. I had to wait on and ask the Lord what to say because … I simply had no words. I would like to add my prayers to yours and ask for our Heavenly Father’s comfort for anyone and everyone who has been affected by it. “Oh God our Father, please comfort and care for those who have suffered such incredible losses. Help their hearts, their spirits and their minds. I pray for the injured, their carers, their families, and especially our precious Jewish brothers and sisters. Lord please continue to guide and help the first responders, the police, the doctors, nurses and paramedics. Please help us all and comfort the broken hearted. Oh Lord, I pray the you will give those men and women who lead us Your clarity and wisdom. in Jesus Name,” Amen.

“For God will never give you the spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit Who gives you mighty power, love, and self-control.”
2 Timothy 1:7 TPT. 

By the Grace of God we all can quote the above scripture and others. Things like this one from Philippians 4:8:: ‘Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things …’  Of course we should only think on those things. But tell me this … are we?? Or are we lying awake at night trying to figure out the things that only God Himself can do? I exhort everyone reading this today to turn your fears into Godly prayers. Use them to diagnose what ails you. 

Let’s actively learn and prayerfully understand these things from the Lord’s point of view, because our own ideas fall apart under pressure. In today’s current climate, I suspect you aren’t doing a great deal better than I am! Cheery thoughts are wonderful, but there are times when our hearts fall down into our socks with all kinds of bad news. That is when we need to do some essential revision with our Personal Trainer, the Holy Spirit. I ask for His love, and wisdom, and a new clean heart all the time.

The bible says: “…His ways are higher than ours.” Isaiah 55:9b. It also says: “His ways are past finding out…” Romans 11:33. Right now, our self-made ladders are daily looking less and less like they are going to be useful. WE.WILL.ALWAYS.NEED.GOD’S HELP. Day or night. We are living through times when we don’t know what will happen next. So instead of waiting to ask for help when things get worse, let’s start out every single day asking Him to help us. And then …’ask and keep on asking’ all day! He’s always there with us, and for us.

The above scriptures are wonderful diagnostic tools. We all know them. They were probably some of the first bible verses you and I memorised after we were born again. However, knowing the words is not the same as deliberately applying the meaning. If whatever we are facing produces fear, hatred, anger, despair then it is absolutely and totally not from God. We need to deal with it and yield to Him. After that we start out by doing anything we know we can do, in consultation with Him. Then we need to let those things go. Hatred nurtured, produces wickedness.

When you or I do not feel empowered, or loved, in our hearts, then whatever is coming at us, is an attack. It is not Almighty God. It’s the other guy!  Meanwhile it’s not our mother’s fault, or our father’s fault, or my spouse’s fault or even so and so’s fault! The scriptures are a sword. A sword is for fighting. Especially at the times when the enemy of our souls bombards our minds with horrendous thoughts. 

Let’s replace these evil thoughts … those rotten, ugly, desperate, despairing thoughts that are continually coming toward all of us … let’s replace them with what He says. There are thoughts that satan tosses into our heads like hand grenades, Let’s replace them with what the Lord Himself says. Our prayer needs to be – ‘Dear God please help me.’ And our ability to cope always comes from reading His word enough to know that we know —that He is FOR us — so if what we hear or think is not FOR US, it is not GOD! 

I have been learning to refuse to debate the ugly stuff that slithers into my brain. When it comes to satan, even debating stuff is a dumb idea. Those things are sent to steal our peace, time and eventually ruin our lives. Let’s channel our grief and anger into prayer, and replace those evil thoughts with what I know about His goodness. I walk about waggling this sword in my hand: “I know You are good Lord, despite what I can see, You are always good.” And I keep on whacking until I pass out, or the other guy goes away. Seriously. 

The Holy Spirit knows how to deal with all kinds of stuff. Let’s ask what He wants us to do, rather than stewing on what somebody else did. There is no need for us to be afraid, because FEAR is not from God. He has accepted us, irrevocably … eternally, Bye. 👋

BTW, we turn the news off. The more we listened the angrier we got. The news does not facilitate love.

P 3187 The Believer’s Freedom

/ DVH

1 Corinthians 10:23,24: “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.”

This life can be painful. But here’s an interesting thought – maybe some of that pain is because we’ve been indulging our flesh for years … by doing dumb things like refusing to forgive! I cannot count the people I’ve met who say to me: ‘If I forgive them then it is like I am giving them permission to keep on hurting me,’ OR …“Why should they get away with what they’ve done?”  You escaped punishment – the moment you gave your life to Jesus!

Let’s not go into another new year dragging our past behind us like the tail on a kite. Christmas is a wonderful time of the year, but it can be a total disaster for many people with shattered relationships. And let’s be clear, sometimes these things are not all our fault. But whatever happens tomorrow, my advice is to start living this life, today, the way Jesus Himself told us to do it. We forgive others simply because He told us to do it. The  benefit of this action is we don’t get all those nasty side effects in our own lives from rampant angst.

I am not trying to be light hearted, because I know personally that pain can be legitimate. Rejection, selfishness, spite, manipulation — all those things are real. Those things can produce the wrong flavours in our lives – we have to choose to abstain. There are so many books that have been written to help us spiritually manage pain, but the point is this — while we continue to focus on that pain we are sitting ducks for disappointment. If the pain doesn’t disappear when we are told, or we think it should, then we can begin to doubt that God loves us. 

Then perhaps we will end up saying things like “If God loves me why is this and that so?” Sound familiar? Like the garden of Eden, or the Temptation of Jesus are familiar? I think we have become blissfully unaware that when we live that way, we are reducing Almighty God to our size, with our own unhappy “please explain” attitudes attached. It’s time to remember that the Lord doesn’t have to explain Himself! Yet there are times when He does, simply because of His Grace toward us.

But the sad reality is, sometimes pain and suffering become a great excuse to wander from one expert to another seeking to be healed. Yet under the Lord’s guidance, we could find ourselves like those lepers who were healed on the way to see the High Priest! They simply did what Jesus told them to do. I know people who are still as stuck in the things ‘my Mum and Dad did to me,’ as they were when I first met them. It’s tragic. Here’s some irony for you – when my parents did whatever they did, they scarred me for life … but if I do it myself, then I’m only human!

Life IS hard and true forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling. Focus on today. His kids have things to do! Mountains to move – valleys to flood with His love! We cannot afford to pet and provide hankies for the flesh – the flesh is meant to die. Just don’t go there! It’s all a set up and the people you want to teach a lesson to, will drag you under. Forgive and let things go. If we continually go down the road looking for acknowledgement of our pain, or sympathy or even understanding, we will continue to be disappointed. 

Nobody can change the past, and the future couldn’t be in better hands when we walk with Jesus! I want to go on record by saying that Love is not sympathy – Love is compassion. COMPASSION TAKES ACTION. And by action I don’t mean getting stuck in somebody else’s spider web, I mean the kind of action that forgives, repents, and repairs, and simply moves on to do whatever Jesus sent them here to do. Nobody can make us forgive, that’s what makes it so powerful.

1 Corinthians 10:23,24 is about wisdom. The kind of wisdom that divides the profane from the pure. When I give someone else’s actions preference over the Lord’s will, I am accidentally putting them in charge of my life. No wonder more chaos ensues! None of us can afford to give the person who has already devastated us, anymore room to do it again! 

Our idea of love may seem all squishy and sweet—but LOVE is also a weapon. It’s a biblical secret weapon.Our sacrificial attitudes and servant actions sneak past the bad guy’s armoured guards on the door, and that’s when you can speak into the heart of another person. When we choose to act like Jesus did, then we will see what He saw!

This is God’s strategy at its best. Loving our enemies opens doors into the other person’s life. They may fight us, but they can’t easily fight Him – He knows the way IN! And God’s grace is the most powerful force on this earth – it saved us. When we let His freely-given grace loose in someone else’s life, under His watchful eye, we open the doors to change. For us and them …

Releasing the Lord’s grace toward the undeserving is the most Christ-like thing we will ever do. Put raising the dead and healing the sick, second on your little bucket list – opening doors for someone else to escape satan’s lies, ushers in a new way to live. Be ‘a restorer of streets to dwell in’ instead. There is no freedom like the freedom of not owing anyone else anything but love. Remember, entitlement is a bad look on any Christian, humility looks so much better. Bye. 🥰

P 3067 Rules don’t reign here – Love does.

/ DVH

We are not in the Old Testament, under the Old Will – now we live in His kingdom. So rules don’t reign here — LOVE DOES. It is a very limiting thing to live by rules, because there is no freedom to change or explore other possibilities! In the past few weeks I have discovered that the loss of a loved one sharpens your awareness of who you really are. The pressure and sadness bring up things that might remain undisturbed, or even unseen.

People make choices that separate us from one another. So much more of this life can be explored together, if relationships were valued more than privacy. Sadly, my whole culture values privacy! Have you ever experienced getting angry with people who do some dumb thing you advised them not to do, and when it doesn’t work out — they want you to fix it for them?  Boy do I have a word for you today. It starts with RE and it ends with PENT! We are told to bear one another’s burdens so we can carry them to the Lord for that other person, not collapse under the load!!

Recently I found piles of anger, stuffed into previously unknown corners, all over the place in my heart. Apparently, I also have a postponing habit! I see something in my heart, and think, ‘I’ll fix that with the Lord, later!’ Well, later finally came, for me, and it wasn’t a bit like Christmas! I discovered I was sick to death with being asked what I thought, only to find, lo and behold – the other person didn’t like that answer and threw it away. It wasn’t that I wanted things to be done right – I just thought they could have been done better. 

I’m an external processor. I find out what I’m thinking by what comes out of my mouth and sometimes that is a bigger surprise to me than it would be to you! It’s dangerous stuff, trust me. It is amazing how easily my foot gets into my mouth. Especially as in the natural – I can’t even put my own socks on! Stuff started coming out of my mouth that definitely wasn’t true, and so the Lord began to deal with me about my own attitude toward myself. 

I had developed a habit of thinking that if I had said what the Lord told me to say in a better way, maybe things would have turned out differently. In other words I had picked up false responsibility, which meant that everything that went wrong was most probably my fault. It’s taken a crisis for me to see that I am definitely not that clever!! Other factors have come into play.

Individual people that I care about and respect, gently began to suggest that the way I was thinking about myself was not a great way to deal with things. And then another one came along… before you knew it — I had a queue of them, that nearly went around the block! And they were all saying the same thing. They didn’t all use the same words – but what was said had the same theme. The theme was —- “punishing yourself for other people’s poorly made decisions, is unscriptural and a bad idea.”

That’s the problem with honesty … it’s great but it can be brutal when you swing it like a sledge hammer… at yourself.I had developed an ungodly attitude that was disguised as humility. It seemed to be easier to me to be self-effacing, than it was to say to someone else: “But God said.” The Lord explained to me that attitude was not humility, it was negating the gift He had given me. Then I explained to Him that if I didn’t self-efface stuff, people would not only get mad at me, they would find, and use, that big hammer on me, frequently.! He very gently said: “Isn’t that called fear?” I sure didn’t have any answer for that one. Unless you count … UM! 

But that conversation led me to one question – how often does fear stop any of us from obeying Him? I mean, think about it. We live in a world where there are no rules – because we think rules restrict other people’s freedoms. So now we’ve made rules that say that you can’t stop others from being themselves! Does anyone see the irony in that?

In God’s kingdom, wherever we have had rules — He is actively helping us replace them with His LOVE — because Love is the perfect bond of unity. We can’t get to unity with rules because all of us are rebellious – even the nice people! I can’t get to the place where I am not afraid of you, simply because the bible says “don’t be afraid.” Instead I need a revelation of how great His love and acceptance is toward me. Those rules have not been discarded, they have been gloriously upgraded in one life-changing event! Jesus died in our place.

Sadly, I can keep on doing the very things that are preventing me from growing up into God’s plan for my life – by undermining myself. The Lord wants to tell each one of us today, that there are always areas in our hearts that He is working on. At the same time, He is preparing each one of us to be ready for what comes next, because He knows when those even more difficult things will land on us. 

We can miss the opportunities He brings to prepare us, by not replenishing the oil in our lamps. So don’t tell yourself: ‘I’m just broken.’ Our God can mend anything. The rules have been replaced by LOVE and love cannot, and will not ever fail. 👋 

P 3041 Blame and shame …

/ DVH

… the destructive twins. Those thieves take our peace and joy away and leave us with angst and worry. They make poor governors of our behaviour. They can be aimed at ourselves, as well as others. When we are caught up in this way of thinking, we move right out of operating in Grace, because blame and shame thrive on guilt. And guilt distracts us from the reality of our salvation. 

If our enemy cannot get us to sin, he wants to keep our minds so focussed on our shortcomings, or someone else’s quirks, that we can barely spiritually breathe. The more we allow these thought patterns to rule the less we will love ourselves or others. I have come to the conclusion that who I really am is the person who comes out when I am squeezed by circumstances. That thought has helped me enormously to be realistic about my actions and attitudes, without being obsessive. Instead I confess my faults and He heals me! I don’t have to be afraid to admit my shortcomings, because the Lord has taken care of them. Now I can happily give thanks because of the Grace He releases to me, and through me. 

Sadly, everything we say and do can be disguised to look good to others, by using our own good manners. However, those things do not come from the fruit of the Spirit, but from our own will and our own personal sense of how this life is meant to work. I often spiritually fall over someone else’s lack of manners, because mine were dinged into me from birth! Those things immediately send me spiralling off into judgment. Good manners are great, but spiritual fruit is permanent. It can be eaten. That fruit slowly ushers in spiritual growth, health and transformation, and when you take a bite out of it, it won’t bite you back!

We have His help, always. But we can become so used to acting, or even reacting, without any thought, we can miss those crucial moments to yield. The Holy Spirit is our 24/7, on the spot, Helper. He wants to help us transform our inner attitudes so what comes out is really IN there! Sadly, in many congregations it is almost easier to give a performance of good, than it is to face our short-comings realistically.

If you have lived most of your Christian life on a steady diet of religion, trying to manufacture in your own strength what our kingdom lives need to look like — that can be an enormous weight. We can feel such a failure all the time, because all we can see is fault. Blame and shame love to jump on that bandwagon. So if I feel down, you must have done something wrong, so it’s your fault!! I have discovered that the more I oppress my true self, the more likely I am to hide my faults, and focus on yours.  It is like a being on a merry-go-round I cannot get off! Now I have an image to keep up! 

Letting God into our intimate thoughts and inner self can be incredibly daunting. Some of us don’t let anybody in there! Instead we have constructed ‘devices’ to distract ourselves from paying attention to what is going on inside. Maybe we are afraid of blame or shame. That’s often when our awareness of what Jesus did for us has become dim, and remote— then we try to hide from the One Who already loves and knows us. Jonah is a brilliant example of that kind of thinking in action! He hid in the bottom of a ship because the Lord’s idea did not appeal to Him, he blamed God Himself for wanting to save Nineveh. Yet Paul has several instances where he openly admits they had one idea, and the Holy Spirit had another! It’s OK to be wrong, just be honest about it.

For most of us God’s Love is a strong concept, yet to be deeply experienced. It is not a deep seated reality. We can devotedly read the bible with this awful feeling that we will always fall short, and sadly that can lead to blaming and shaming ourselves, or even to putting others down, because they seem to be successful, and we’re not. At the same time, some of us have learnt to be really great actors! That’s why I love reading the gospels, because the disciples foibles and dumb attitudes give me room to be myself – real, inadequate and normal. I know I need a Saviour!

Religion blames and shames people, and that produces fear, rejection, and pain for everyone involved. The Pharisees and their mates didn’t understand where the Lord Jesus was coming from, and yet they knew the bible, backwards, and inside out. They were the leaders, so they made a visible practice of knowing everything  from every direction. Just like they did back then, a religious bent can colour the way we look at His Word, and affect how we live our lives and regard other people. Blaming parents seems to be a national past-time! ‘They smacked me too much, or they used shame to govern me.” Blame is blame no matter why or where we aim it. I comfort myself that I had a childish mind back then – but I don’t have to have one now!

The fullness that belongs to every single one of the Lord’s kids will always seem out of reach if we continue to wrestle with religious stuff. God loves real people who make real mistakes!  I have noticed a couple of things about blame and shame … if you have lived with it in the past, those terrible twins seem to nag at you in subtle ways in the present, and you are more likely to fall into that pattern of thinking again, as well as reflecting it to others, especially under pressure. Let the oppressed go free – them and me!! Praise God for His Grace.

Bye. 👋

In Romans 1:16 Paul declares,“I am not ashamed of the gospel,”and Isaiah 54:4, which promises, “Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.”And 2 Timothy 1:12: “But I am not ashamed, for I know Whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.”

P 2976 The difference.

/ DVH

There is a difference between who we really are, and who we think we are, and it is extremely useful to know the difference. Our self-perception is often based on self-deception. That is, we can’t bear to think badly about ourselves, so under pressure we hold ourselves away from the Lord and other people and frantically make excuses. We even revert to childish answers. Whenever you notice that – don’t excuse yourself, ask the Lord to show you what is actually happening. Go on to read the bible, wherever you are normally reading it and expect answers. Then act on what you read.

Let’s look at Peter, he very kindly shows us what a human being looks like! Jesus said in John 13:34 – “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” Simon Peter asked Him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow You now? I will lay down my life for You.”Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for Me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!”

The Lord knows the true blueprint of who each one of us is in reality, and He has freedom for each one of us. As I see it, we get into enormous trouble the minute we decide that WE are old enough to know who we are. There is no transformation in that stance, only roadblocks. After that we stop praying about things, or won’t consider change. We are selling ourselves short of our Glorious Ideal.

Unless we are prepared to choose God‘s kingdom as our yard stick, and not our own opinion, we will become stuck. And every subsequent return of our childishness is like cement. When opportunities come up for change and we refuse them, or excuse ourselves, we are hardening our hearts against the Holy Spirit’s promptings. Change is scary but it means I choose to actively hold up everything in my life to the light and say: “is this what Jesus wants for me?” I stop excusing myself and I no longer tell myself that this is just who I am. 

I treat my personal preferences like I would treat sin — carefully and thoughtfully, specifically, without beating myself up about it. Repentance is not beating yourself UP – it is agreeing with the Holy Spirit’s diagnosis of our hearts and doing something about it. If my attitude involves other people then I go to them and confess my fault. The bible tells us we are to confess our faults to one another, and I have found that one question helps me do this. I ask myself ‘is this love’ the way it is explained in the bible.

My own idea of love will not do, because I will probably excuse myself and blame YOU!  So I don’t stop there, then I ask myself: ‘would Jesus think it’s love?’ In other words would He do it or say it? If the answer is no … then it is time to repent, like I said above. I think we excuse a great deal of aberrant behaviour because we think it’s a personality trait.

Somethings have been adopted as protective mechanisms from when we were too young to understand what we were doing. I call those things Button A —  sadly, our world explodes if some dumb schmuck presses Button A! If you try to tell the exploding person about this phenomenon, they will deny it exists. For them it has always existed. Only the Lord knows how and when to deal with stuff like that and we are always on His learning curve and timing. We also can’t stop participating in His processes simply because changing some traits about ourselves seems to be uncomfortable or impossible! This is the place where we must actively learn to press in – the plus side is we learn faith in the process. 

It is not good to make excuses for our behaviour and continually use the past and the way we’ve been treated, as an excuse. Everybody has a story – and our story isn’t going to be graded by helplessness and sincerity! Sadly, when we live like this, we are limiting God‘s capacity to be ALL He is in our lives. He won’t just barge in and take over — that’s what free will is all about!  Instead He will give us more and more opportunities to choose differently. I have found that if I get the same sort of situation occurring over and over again, in my life… God wants me to pay attention to it.

Jesus is the Limitless One, so He is our benchmark. Just because we are afraid of the unknown, or anxious or proud, that does not give us a reason to stay where we are. Our yielded life is our contribution to our heavenly calling. Our God is kind, loving, merciful, generous, He is not looking to punish us, instead He wants to teach us His Ways. So when things get hideously sticky and ugly, and I can’t stand it, I remember that Isaiah taught me that: “He will not break a bruised reed,’ (Isaiah 42:3). Then I reassure myself that things may seem hard but He will not break me — so I put my faith in that verse, by choice, and hang on. I know from experience it may get bumpy for a bit. 

Sin is not terminal for us, someone else paid for it, and it is part of our faith walk to believe He did. There is no longer punishment for our shortcomings – there are, however, limited opportunities for change. We need to put aside childish reactions even if I reacted that way yesterday! And put on the new self, and we live our lives always willing and ever ready to change. Because the difference between who we think we are, and who we really are… can only be truly resolved by the One Who knows us intimately, and chose to pay for our sins. Bye. 👋

P 2957 Be fruitful not just productive.

/ DVH

After all, Jesus Christ Himself answered to SomeOne else – His Father! John 9:1-4: “While He was passing by, He noticed a man [who had been] blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi (Teacher), who   sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed and illustrated in him. We must work the works of Him Who sent Me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”

Sin is common to man, the bible tells us that, but isn’t it astonishing how quickly human beings go into blame, even right in front of Jesus? They say things like: ‘Whose fault is this, Jesus – him or his parents?’ Religion always wants a reason to blame, and sometimes it wants to excuse itself. ‘It’s not my fault my parents beat me, neglected me, spoiled me as a child I can’t help it.’ Right. So it seems to me that you are having trouble putting childish things away?? Read I Corinthians 13:11. How about you study the power of CHOICE?

I love 💕the way that Jesus sorts these things out… because this stuff really IS a waste of time! His disciples noticed that blind man and they wanted a religious reason for his ailment, but …  but… Jesus just healed him!  I mean I’m on the Lord’s team about that … just do something about whatever is wrong!  Love on the guy, restore his life, and throw blame out of the window. Don’t analyse it. Deal with it. Pray over it. After all we’ve been given His authority!

Not only that, then the Lord says something here we don’t even dare to discuss ……this incredible Being, Almighty God, Who ‘wraps Himself in unapproachable light and has no darkness in Him at all’ ALLOWED that blind man to be born blind so He could illustrate His glory! Ya might want to think about that for 3 months or so, ‘cos it kind of stomps all over all kinds of theology … like right … there. Our God is not the ‘when you wish upon a star, pretty blue fairy.’  When He came down upon the mountain in front of the Israelites they shoved Moses up the front and said “We are too scared of Him, YOU GO!” Let’s always remember that He’s the Mighty God Who rules heaven and earth, and — you’d better believe it buddy!

When Jesus took off His earthly human form, and He was revealed as God’s Son before 3 of His disciples – nobody had anything to say except Peter  — and that poor guy made an ass of himself… again. I always feel sorry for Peter, he says dumb stuff right out loud. Those things we might kind of whisper in corners to each other but we wouldn’t dare say any of it out loud at church. People might stop thinking we are holy if we did that. 

John 9:39: “Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment [to separate those who believe in Me from those who reject Me—to declare judgment on those who choose to be separated from God], so that the sightless would see, and those who see would become blind.”That sounds pretty clear and ‘user friendly’ to me. When the Lord was confronted with a blind man — He healed him. He didn’t form a committee to discuss what they should do next  didn’t care about the guy’s theology – or anyone else’s theology for that matter! He was simply fulfilling His God-given mandate. Is this a good time to mention that we have that mandate too?? Too soon??? Not ready??? Hmmm… I seem to recall the Lord said: “Live ready.” Matthew 24:42-51.

Moving on … Jesus knew that there was going to be a time when He couldn’t work anymore, so He did not waste a minute of the time He had at His disposal. That needs to be our blueprint for this life too. It is also worth noting that praying for the sick is a work that God has told all of us to do. Whether we feel spiritual or not, it’s our job now. I’ve prayed for the sick and they got worse and died, and I’ve prayed for the sick and they got better. And I can’t tell you why either one turned out either way! I simply know He said pray for the sick, so I did.

Whatever Jesus did, praying for the sick, deliverance, personal instruction – He totally did everything He did for the glory of God. He never justified big meetings by saying He had a ministry or some special gift … and yet He had ALL the gifts … better than we ever could. Instead He preached whatever He heard His Father saying to those who came. Whether it was two people or five thousand. He left everything to God and did what His Father told Him, and whatever He saw His Father doing. John 5:19. 

That verse in John 5 has always fascinated me. Jesus was not proud, He was humble, submitted to His Father.  The words “I do nothing by Myself” are pure gold to me. The Lord Jesus had no other agenda. I pray God will remove every one of my agendas and give me HIS! Amen. Now there’s a heart worth asking for! I wanna be with the people who only do what He’s doing and only say what He’s saying. The church has done enough advertising, talking and big mouthing, we need to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit and do what He says. It seems to me that sometimes we talk to cover up our lack. Did I say that out loud? Yikes… yes I did!! 

My current theory, (yeah, I freely admit it is a theory,) is that we need the Word of God to work on us, within us. Transformation will follow as we admit our lack and go after the Answer. Then we will freely flow in love, compassion and kindness. Jesus Himself never lacked those qualities, and we need to go after them, not just the gifts. We are meant to be fruit bearing vines, not libraries, or fun fairs. We desperately need the love and devotion that never fails. Sadly, in my personal experience, my human love can fail all over the place! I am especially convicted when I read I Corinthians 13:7. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 

We will gain compassion and kindness by simply walking with the Lord, and seeing others through His eyes. Plus steadfastly walking through difficulties, sorrow and suffering, without losing any of our LOVE for Him, and others. I pray for everyone reading this blog today that they too would aim at Love over everything else because Love is the best glue known to mankind. As we too work the works of Him Who sent US, we must remember that unless we have Love, HIS love, we can end up clanging away like a fire bell.

We need to get our minds renewed to think like His, and “get our head in the game!” Fruitfulness is life-changing, not just productive. Bye 👋

P 2877 Suffering is a door.

/ DVH

The bible tells us that the Apostle Paul had something or other wrong with him, health-wise. Meanwhile there has been much debate about what it was … I mean … who cares… really??  Any-way, the man asked God three times to take it away. My point is this: Paul asked God to take it away! Three times!! There’s nothing wrong with wanting to change your circumstances when hard times have overtaken you. Paul did that!.

Be comforted, there is no judgment from me, if you want to put up your hand and say; “Enough please. Point me toward Your exit, Lord.” I pray that myself.  Amazingly, in those times, I feel like I can’t take any more – but … meh! I’m still here talking about it! That ought to tell me something!

Back to the Lord, God told Paul this in 2 Corinthians 12:9 and it provides us with a clue as to where He is coming from: “But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” We need to understand, from our heart, that weakness is not a fault, it is an asset in God’s kingdom! Boy, if most of us managed to absorb that info it would help us daily, mightily. 

It’s OK to not cope and feel weak and overwhelmed! Because when we are weak we are in a prime position to experience the power of God in, and on our lives. Of course we will need God’s opinion about how He wants you or I to respond to our own personal current awful circumstances — but at the same time, just remember … … the Apostle Paul wrote nearly half of the New Testament, so he wasn’t a small character on this stage. Paul was one of the people that God specifically chose, to write about what he was learning and experiencing first-hand as he followed Jesus. 

You know, speaking for myself it is way easier to write down an acceptable faith answer, than it is to live it out! But it seems to me that Almighty God wanted Paul to understand personally the depth of Grace that He has released toward each one of us, and so He allowed many things in Paul’s life that human beings aren’t keen on. And God said ‘No!’ to Paul’s escape prayer. NO is an answer! By the way, ‘no’ means we can’t say that God didn’t answer us, we are now stuck, simply because we didn’t particularly like that answer! 

We need to pray that we will continually grow in our understanding of what Christ’s sacrifice did for us. He did it so we can be called Sons and Daughters of God. To me that means that sacrifice is a part of our new life in Christ. The bible says: We are now capable of MORE, and that’s why Christ died – to give us more! He died to give us access to His kingdom, right here, right now, so we can live this life like He did.

I can see the enemy’s subtle hand in a lot of Christian articles produced today. They have been written by Christians in all kinds of genuine pain and distress, who need answers to their suffering. Actually, my personal experience is that the more I walk with Him, the less I will care about what you are doing… I have my hands full already with the dumb stuff I do! These articles have called some sorts of behaviour this specified thing, and other kinds of behaviour something else. They excuse the judgment that flows from such things,, as “protecting ourselves.”Understanding, or analysing other people’s behaviour, doesn’t remove pain, it can actually increase judgment. 

Gird up your girdle, Gertie, I’m about to take down some myths that have no references in the bible. My bible says: “My God is my protection and with Him I am safe.” Psalm 18:1-2. My point is this, IF He is my Protector in some circumstances and not in others … because apparently in those circumstances I can protect myself from the bad people … How will I know where His protection ends and my self-effort begins? Meanwhile please notice the word ‘effort’ – grace doesn’t flow through efforts, it flows through unconditional love. 

Maybe our first and only question needs to be: “How can I continue to live in love while this is going on please Lord?” Christianity is not meant to be a part-time, hokey pokey way of life. We are either IN and walking forward, or OUT, sliding backward. Living any other way slowly removes His power to change out of our lives. It pushes transformation to one side. Then some of us go round and round achieving nothing and going nowhere. Please note: I speak from experience!

The power of God to overcome the trials of this world is free to people of faith, BUT, that does not mean we can turn it on and turn it off. Instead we now have a new focus, we choose to serve others at the pleasure of our King. Christians need to remember that if the Holy Spirit doesn’t like what we are doing then He will vote with His feet. He.Will.Leave! There is no room for compromise in the bible. You either do what He says or you don’t. It is a very exacting book.

Paul’s response to his suffering is a wonderful key for us, when suffering impacts our own lives, it’s a door. He found something to focus on that increased and stretched his faith. This man understood that being powerless in the face of adversity is not the end of things … it can even be the beginning of a new way to think. Bye. 🤔