Favour of God

P 3164 Take up the wrap God has given us.

/ DVH

We need to daily wrap ourselves up in His LOVE, reminding ourselves that love is the best language of all. That means we deliberately remember that He loves us, that our sin can’t separate us from Him. And unlike everything else in this life – His love is not only totally unconditional – it’s free! Love is the heading under which every other grace and gift blossoms. I have put my version of 1 Corinthians 13 down below because it is essential that we remember that this kind of love is not just given away – GOD GIVES IT TO US EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Here’s a thought about outgoing love that is familiar. 1 Corinthians 12:31b – “And yet I will show you the most excellent way.”  I often ask myself when I get stuck: “what would love do?” I’ve hardly ever come up with the kind of answer that says: ‘punch that guy in the face!’ Jesus didn’t, and He had every kind of provocation to do so! Our Lord is love Himself personified and He gives us that kind of sacrificial, personal love – the kind of love that consists of undivided attention. I have put my version of 1 Corinthians 13 down below because it is essential that we also remember that this kind of love is not just to be given away – God Himself freely gives those things to each one of US and it is always unconditional.  HE is patient, kind, faithful, enduring etc. toward us.

In my mind’s eye, I can see the Lord when He squatted down on the ground, talking to a woman no-one else would bother to speak to. Or the desolated father who needed His help because the man’s little girl was sick. Jesus did everything for us, with us in His heart. He walked up that awful hill carrying a cross that was too heavy to bear. God’s love inside Him attracted people. Jesus went to His death carrying everything that separated us from God, staggering under the weight of this world upon Him. 

I enjoy old-fashioned words. I think “consider” is a very interesting word —  this is what it means: ‘look attentively.’ Let’s consider the facts given to us in the bible, never let the cross fall out of our attention. Christ’s death and resurrection totally encompasses and exhibits God’s incredible love for us. On that day, in that dark hour, Jesus Christ personally became man’s proof that our Heavenly Father God dearly loves us. Paul explains this to us so carefully. He tells us that we have a better way to live, and that means we are to live in love.

Let’s live every single day knowing we are loved by SomeOne so glorious, that we can’t even look at Him without being utterly transfixed and transformed! The very best gift in the list of spiritual gifts is LOVE. Any other gift mentioned will totally flourish in the warmth of that one gift. We need to consider the fact that it is easy to ignore what God Himself calls – THE BEST GIFT.  Love. God’s love won’t leave, it won’t betray us, He knows and cares about what is happening in our lives. The bible tells us: ‘He takes all our broken, shattered pieces, and works them together for our good!’

You know, just because we think that we can’t have that kind of love in us, that doesn’t mean we should ignore it! Instead let’s chase after Love Himself, not gifts. Let other people identify your gifts —just allow your life to continually release the sweet fragrance of His love into your family and the world around you. And if you want to know what it looks like — right after 1 Corinthians chapter 12, comes chapter 13 with a brilliant summation of what love is. I think Paul gave us this so we can’t be misled by the kind of love this world engages in. 

The bible clearly tells us love is patient, it has the kind of endurance that does not end;  it is always kind, so you don’t have to be afraid of it. It’s not envious, it could care less what you have, or how clever you are;  instead love is enthralled and captured only by Jesus Himself, and His love for you. Love won’t boast, because it knows it has nothing to boast about!  Nor is is proud, because this kind of love wants Jesus to get all the glory. It wouldn’t dream of dishonouring others because it values other people more;  it chooses not to protect itself; and it won’t get angry easily either. It doesn’t have a record of your past, or my past, or anyone else’s past! It is not happy when an enemy suffers, because it loves the truth more than revenge. It will go out of its way to protect others, and trust God with them. Love always hopes for a good outcome. It has a never-ending source of hope in Christ, and what He did for us. And it quite simply refuses to give up on anyone.

Then we read in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13, how Paul goes on to say that grown ups think one way, and children think another. He cautions us to stop thinking like children and move on into maturity. Living in Love is seen as maturity in Christ. It is the most excellent way. Everything else pales into insignificance in comparison. Who cares if we can prophesy about glories unknown, or that we should beware because danger is coming? Love is always in the NOW, it sees the best in others, and calls the best out. Living in love covers everything. 

All the other stuff will disappear, but love will always remain. Unconditional love is the quality that introduces other people to the Character of God more quickly than any of the other gifts. Let’s take off our old coats of inadequacy, obligation, and ‘ought to,’ and wrap ourselves in the wrap of God’s love instead. It is like Joseph’s coat of many colours: dazzling, varied, unique and different. Even though each piece can sometimes include suffering, solitude, and rejection, we know we are following our Saviour WHO LOVES US.. 

That coat of many colours symbolises all the favour of God, all His divine grace, power and love, plus all the gifts and fruits of the Spirit. Learn to live in His Love then give it away. Bye. 👋 

P 3109 Is failure fatal?

/ DVH

Our Heavenly Father will make the wrong way, or even a some kind of upside-down way—into the right way– when our only desire is to please and obey Him! Just remember to turn around whenever, and wherever, necessary and own your own sinful attitudes and repent. That means doing more than saying sorry. OK? Reparation, there’s a word. Back to the point: we can get so scared by the thought that we will get whatever He asks us to do wrong, that we are paralysed into doing nothing.This attitude makes Almighty God too small. Our faith needs to be firmly fixed on what Christ did for us, as well as His goodness, not on our own ability. 

Lately I have been rereading Acts again and I have been so impacted by the way Paul behaved as he went from place to place.There was no sign of the kind of paralysis that comes with fear in Paul. Not only that, but in one of the many shipwrecks he endured, his behaviour and faith in God influenced the unsaved sailors and soldiers around him. Paul wasn’t preaching BTW, he was just living out his life before the Lord, and the other people on that sinking ship! He simply shared with his fellow travellers what God told Him. 

Acts 27. 33-38, 44: “Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. Altogether there were 276 of us on board. When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea… … But the centurion wanted to spare Paul’s life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land.The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely.”

Did you get that? I had to read it twice. Paul suggested they stop to eat as the boat was breaking up and sinking!  Does that make sense to you? Hey! I thought long and hard about this, and I think I would have thrown the grain overboard first, to lighten the load. Right?? Or maybe grabbed the nearest plank and hung on to it! Everyone had prayed for land, in the midst of a terrible storm, and they found land and then …the entire ship stops to EAT?Why? Because God said so, that’s why. And He knows what we need more than we do. He told Paul through an angel that nobody would be lost if they just followed His instructions.

Now let’s do a quick recap of the oddball things I remember from the bible. I know I rabbit on regularly about Gideon, but honestly … !! That outcome could never have been predicted. God Himself threw confusion into the multitude of Midianites’ camp and they killed each other? Weird right? I mean who’d’ve thunk it? Almighty God did, that’s Who. Who would think you could find honey inside a lion’s carcass? Our Wonderful God — He’s the boss of bees. What about Paul, who heard,“Go to the Gentiles!” Boy was that not politically correct!

Let’s take Peter who was innocently praying by himself, when God interrupted his prayers with a vision. Peter’s thought bubble: “Hey that’s not kosher, I’m not allowed to eat a camel sandwich!”  Then this man of God took note of what God said and acted on it. Popular is not a kingdom word … influence is.

Here’s another one. Imagine this – a local prophet is told to sleep for one year on one side and then the next year on the other side. Why? Jeremiah was an illustration of what was to come. That’s just one of the many many highly unusual things God asked this man to do. What about Hosea? Go marry a prostitute?? That guy would have rushed off to have had his ears cleaned out. How about Noah? Build an ARK? What’s an ark??There were no BIG boats. yet this man built that ark with seven other people helping him. It took 120 years and he did a whole lot of waiting on God, while he was being obedient. Weird can be normal in His kingdom! We can be so afraid of getting it wrong, we don’t do anything.

We think we can’t possibly go and see Mrs Kerfoops next door who is dying from cancer. Hey – here’s a good thought to bear in mind — when the ride is over most people look for the exit!! Our God is so wonderful, He does not care if people are saved for 5 seconds or 50 years! He loves them all and He wants them to be with Him. So, just pull up your grown-up pants, go to see Mrs Kerfoops and tell her Jesus loves her. If she tells you that she doesn’t believe in all that stuff, blah blah blah, and you feel like a goose for all that effort and angst …remember, even if you get it wrong – when our motivation is to please Him and be obedient, He can use that faith for His glory.

Failure is not fatal – Jesus is a Redeemer by nature. However! failure is not fun, or a great story you can tell everyone afterward. Just remember … doing something beats doing nothing.The results are always up to Him. Maybe Mrs Kerfoops’ last thoughts are about what you said to her, or … maybe not. Step into the Favour of God – not for personal gain, but for service. Somewhere, somehow, the church has lost a lot of boldness. WE WANT IT BACK, please Lord. Amen. Bye. 👋

P 2788 A new way to think …

/ DVH

It has become way too easy to look at the things of this life from our own personal POV. What do I mean by that? Jesus died to give us a new way to think. Unfortunately, we can get stuck in our own needs, and thinking, wanting everything to happen for our own pleasure. That’s what happened to Solomon, he mistook God’s favour for His approval. Thinking like this, has led to many people into imagining that their success or failure in this life is a direct result of their spirituality, or lack of it.  

Let me explain my thoughts – I won’t unfortunately, be able to put everything in here, (read the book) …but let me try. 

Solomon was considered one of the richest and wisest men who ever lived. But he disobeyed God and married 700 women, plus he also had 300 concubines and many of these women worshipped other gods — yet Solomon had the favour of God over his finances. He was so rich, He made the billionaires of today look poor! However, those wives etc. that he chose, for his own benefit, led this King astray from the faith of his fathers. 

However, because God is so faithful, He prospered Solomon, as well as the nation of Israel during this time, for the sake of his father, David. The Lord declared David was a man after His own heart, and He promised that young man, that his son would be a predecessor to the Messiah. Remember, God “… is not a man that He should lie…” He absolutely keeps His promises – He just doesn’t always have our timetable.

There were about a thousand years between His promise to David, and its fruition. Which is why we need to learn to adopt the Lord’s timetable. My advice? Don’t take your prayers back or give up on your faith – leave it out there! Outwardly, it looked like Solomon was a very blessed man, but his character showed a lack of spiritual maturity and he had a propensity to think every sweetie in the sweet shop belonged to him. That led him astray.

God gave this man’s father a promise. He promised David that his son would one day be a predecessor to God’s own Son. Solomon, and eventually the Lord Jesus Himself, was the result of that promise. The fact that this king was immeasurably rich was because Solomon was aware of his own lack, so at the beginning of his reign, he asked for wisdom. And God said “Yes.” And gave him riches as a bonus buy.

We must stop seeing answers to prayer as a reward. They are the glorious Grace of God in action on our behalf, so let’s praise and thank Him for everything He gives us. You and I have the favour of God because His favour is on His Son, and when we accepted His Son, we came under Jesus’ covering shed blood — that ALONE gives us favour. We have not earned these things nor do we deserve them – love gifts are love gifts, they are not earned! There are many many wonderful promises in the bible, and I think one of the best things we can ever do is to check out what God Himself wants before we start rattling off lists of what we need — especially before we start trying to cash in our pile of ‘You promised’ vouchers! 

‘Unless the Lord is building that house we are aiming at, we will labour in vain.’ We can carefully explain to the Lord how important things are to us until we are blue in the face, even when some precious person we know deserves to live, and get well, or prosper etc. But our development spiritually is more important to Him than our comfort — He wants Sons and Daughters who value His Ways, not people who use Him!  This is why we need to be engaged in learning His Ways, so we can walk with Him.

Jesus didn’t die to give us spiritual vouchers that we can cash in whenever we like. He wants relationship. Relationships are intentional. We choose the same person over and over again, despite our circumstances and how things look! We need to invest in our relationship with Him more than any other. Sadly Solomon chose to invest in 1,000 women! How the heck he found the time and energy I have no idea – but that is beside the point. God still honoured Solomon because of His promise to David. He was not approving of Solomon’s lifestyle and marriage partner choices! Engaging with that many women who worshipped pagan gods, led this King astray.

You know, just because the Lord graciously healed Sister Susie’s ingrown toenail that does not make you or I eligible for the same grace. BUT, we are ALL eligible for a relationship with Him, on His terms.That’s why we need a new way to think. God Himself went before us to provide us with a Helper. He knew we would need the Holy Spirit. Let’s think on that. Bye. 👋