Forgiven

P 3270 The impossible is easy for the Lord …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 3252 Letting Go – lets Him IN!

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“As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us.” Hebrews 12:1 TPT.

We have a path God has prepared for us to run on. We are not running along aimlessly, bumping into things, we have been chosen to run in the same race our Saviour ran in. Imagine that! A race that will glorify our Heavenly Father! We simply can’t afford to hold onto old wounds, or other people’s sins against us. Instead, let’s ask the Lord for healing, extend forgiveness, and then make a quality decision not to go over these things again … and move on. When you get angry with someone, put the energy produced into something else! I don’t recommend punching out their lights BTW.

Our enemy tries to trick us that if we let go of stuff, we will not get any resolution – those people who hurt us will get away with it. That’s a lie from the pit.  Jesus Himself brings resolution and redemption everywhere He goes! Let Him in, He is a Redeemer, Healer, Comforter, Trusted Advisor. This type of thinking simply brings death with it – it is sent to torment us. It is like running around with one foot nailed to the floor. We go nowhere. These things tie us into the here and now – and we forget our purpose! 

We can’t afford to live like that –  holding onto grudges, or perceived slights from others, or continually probing old wounds to see if they have healed or not. Those things prevent us from running the race God has set before us. Our enemy uses other people’s actions to throw dirt and dust into the air, clouding our God-given ability to see spiritually. These things tie us into somebody else’s agenda. Forgiveness is mandatory, not an optional extra, no matter who did what to whom. My advice is to keep on asking for Grace, Grace and more Grace, daily. 

“Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God has forgiven you because you belong to Christ.”  Ephesians 4:32. What does that mean? It means that every time somebody hurts us the first thing we need to remember is the fact that we’ve already been forgiven for our own sins. Letting go of grudges —  the past, other people’s unwillingness or inability to change — frees us for better God-inspired things! We simply can’t afford to give our eternal blessings away. It’s too dear!! What we lose is clarity of heart and mind.

The way to be fearless in the face of other people’s sins, is to ask for His help and then act in faith. “Do good to those who despitefully use you…” Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27&28. Praying for these people is essential. And our  obedience is the key that opens up the kingdom, it will usher in the change we want to see.. “If you are willing AND obedient …” it says this in Isaiah 1:19a. It is not enough to just be willing, willingness needs to be followed through with action – obedience. 

Let’s stop merely agreeing with what the bible says, and go out and live this way, every single day. We can’t “afford” to stay angry with other people. We don’t have to go and live at their house! Pray and do what God says to do. Forgiveness ushers in real peace. If we haven’t got some personal instructions from the Holy Spirit — a directive on how to manage things. Then we need to read the book, and find something in it to do, that we are not already doing, and do that. Those biblical things are the principles of His kingdom. We always have plenty of those.

It is incredibly important to let go of the weights that have been holding us down. We sing these things … we say them, we read them and we even memorise them — but we need to do more than that. It is time to remember that the life we had before we met Jesus is over. Our previous dreams are over. There are better things than that ahead! He gave His life to us, and now we choose to give our lives to Him. We can’t tell Him how to operate His kingdom – He is the King! The more we let go of our own agendas, timetables, lifestyles, the more His kingdom will manifest itself among us. 

Our God is incredibly gracious to us, He lets us learn. But for some of us, even learning has become a side eddy. A place we’ve been caught up in. It stops us from going out and doing what He asked us to do. The best kind of learning finishes with practical application. Personal life changing experiences. By all means study the bible, every single day, but study it to find things you can do. The things that stir your heart are likely to be the things that stir His. 

We can read stuff like, ‘forgive one another’ but then we forget to do our “safety checks.” That’s like a sound check for believers … Let’s not put a big tick on any scripture thinking that we already know this stuff, and He died for it, so we’ve already passed. He paid for us, so we have already passed. However, now we need to ask the Holy Spirit: ‘do I have any little foxes in my life spoiling the vine?’  That verse above in Hebrews 12:1 sees sin and wounds as weights. Are we trying to run a marathon with a whole lot of weights all over us? 

We have to let go of our wounds, even though they are deep, and they still hurt. We are not releasing things because these things don’t matter – those wounds, those sins, cost Jesus His life. They matter! Let the Lord take care of them. Forgiveness is not giving in – IT’S A BATTLE-PLAN! Think about it. Let’s release everything that distracts us and let Him help us win. Bye. 👋

P 3220 Let’s watch what we do with our keys.

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“Now may the Lord Jesus Christ and our Father God, Who loved us and in His wonderful grace gave us eternal comfort and a beautiful hope that cannot fail, encourage your hearts and inspire you with strength to always do and speak what is good and beautiful in His eyes.” 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17.

Watching what we say is an incredibly important key to walking with the Holy Spirit and living in the kingdom of God. I’m not talking about being fake, or using flattery, or saying stuff that is not true – that stuff feels hollow. I’m talking about coming into agreement with the Lord and how He sees things. Now there’s a good thing to do just because He said to do it. However He didn’t say we would always enjoy it. I find the fun comes after the faith step!  

Doing what it says, even if we do it badly. and not always with the best of attitudes, certainly alleviates this problem. Jesus is not legalistic and He knows we are trying to obey our Heavenly Father. We are so blessed, we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us. Watching our words is a ‘key’ part of walking with the Holy Spirit. I’ve said dumb stuff and afterwards I sat about thinking – “Did I really just say that?” Instead of joining into a conversation that downgrades, or bad mouths someone else, it’s best to say nothing, inwardly pray and head for the exit! 

The thing that grabs us and traps us into opening our mouths, is that what is said is often true in some way or another. None of us are perfect, so somebody can often find something or other to criticise someone else about. Our negative comments will not help! At the same we don’t have any idea how this gossiped-about person arrived wherever it is they landed. 

We have been given, at great Personal cost by the GIVER, the power of agreement. Jesus gave that to us. So when we agree that so and so is a pain in the neck — we are thoughtlessly adding our powerful agreement to a bad thing. And then we wander about wondering why that person never changes! It’s because we aren’t helping with our opinions. So here’s something to chew over: “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” John 20:23. That’s an enormous responsibility!

We can be so consumed by the momentary gratification of flapping our gums, we forget we are doing untold damage to someone else. The enemy lies to us that we will feel better if we talk about this slight or that incident. Sadly, we can easily forget about what that person may have done for us in the past — what was good, what was right what was profitable. We must get rid of the idea that our opinions are more important than someone else’s reputation and spiritual welfare.

What we say needs to build other people up — and in the heat of awkward moments, we desperately need to say things that are true, right and profitable, or … … say nothing. However, when we actively dislike someone, or we are mad at them – those precious positive things can be hard to locate. I ask Him to please help me and spend time with Him working on forgiveness, because that’s the only way through it..

This world we currently live in has a me-centred focus, so we can easily have a consumer mentality … which means that other people are like chess pieces, we move them around a board in our minds to help us to win.  I can’t find that in His book! Winning that way means everybody loses. We immediately begin to negate our gifts in the body, and eliminate or minimise someone else’s ...all at the same time. 

Guilt, blame, and shame render everyone powerless!  If we want to see change, then we need to approach difficult situations or people, His Way. At the same time I think we need to pray far more for our leaders, they meet most of our bad attitudes head on. In moments of temptation I am learning to lean hard on forgiveness and to rebuke spite in me. In the past if someone had a problem with gossiping etc. they were either ostracised, or everyone simply joined in. Neither of those things will help us follow Him. 

When I say something stupid, it can be so much easier to try to justify what I just said, than it is to own my mistake and apologise. But that is the only true way to deal with the problem. James 3:10 says:“Out of the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that reflects our fear of God and profound respect for His precepts].” 

This is the major reason why we should avoid gossip, or even continually chewing over someone else’s faults! We may dislike that person who is being slowly dissected in front of us, but that is not the real point. We need to remain silent because we love and respect the Lord more than our own opinion. When we disrespect others, we are disrespecting Him. I don’t want to make a law out of this, however, I am simply stating a truth.  When our God says don’t do it – don’t do it!

Jesus has given us the joy of speaking life to other people and that privilege is powerful. “I will give you the keys of heaven’s kingdom realm to forbid on earth that which is forbidden in heaven, and to release on earth that which is released in heaven.”” Matthew 16:19. We can easily lose or misplace our God-given keys, and this is why we need to watch what we do with them! Bye. ✋

P 3038 Let’s stretch what we understand.

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“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.]’ Matthew 6:9-13.

I decided to spend some time this morning, looking at something so familiar it becomes easy to just rattle it off without thinking about it. For the purists – yes, I know that that prayer does not necessarily stop there. In some versions it adds – “for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”  I really don’t care WHAT kind of other manuscript that phrase came from – any opportunity to Praise God for Who He is should be taken. It’s actually good for US! Just FYI – this prayer shows us the Lord Jesus’ focus – God first!

In Western countries, most of the time, only the poor amongst us have to pray for ‘their daily bread.’ However, in other places in this world that’s the only kind of prayer they pray. They need food, as well as some sort of roof over their head, plus clean water!  Oh, and the poor often pray with great passion for their sick and starving children. They may be forced to throw in a desperate prayer for others to stop dropping bombs on them! That stuff doesn’t apply to most of us. We just go to the supermarket and pick up a loaf of bread without thinking.

Ever since the Lord told me to watch out for the little words, I can’t seem to see anything else – those little words pop out at me like mushrooms in a field. The word for today is “AS!” That’s a little word, big on meaning. Here is  a question…do you think that the Lord has trouble getting His will done in heaven?? No?? Me neither. But it’s pretty obvious to everyone that God’s will is going down the plug-hole in this world. If His will was done, the afore-mentioned starving, homeless, bombed out, physically assaulted poor people would be fed and housed, and safe – automatically!

On we go: my next point is  … And forgive us our debts, AS we also have forgiven our debtors.” That kind of kicks the whole idea that God forgives everyone all the time, in the bucket doesn’t it? One little word, two little letters and it changes the whole ball-game. I checked that out in a whole lot of versions, and guess what … AS is actually the word used everywhere!  ‘As’ explains that the first thing can’t happen without the second.

Yeah, that’s a sobering thought that sent me straight to the knees of my heart to make sure I wasn’t holding anything against somebody else! Being loved is a given but – our forgiveness is conditional. It’s not an optional extra – even if somebody else did something so dastardly we feel can never ever forgive them. We quite simply …  must..

Sin has no power to hold us captive, now we live out our lives under Love’s jurisdiction. Sin can only have power over us when we LET or ALLOW it. It’s a choice. Christians simply must learn the difference between ‘how I feel’ and ‘what God said.” The only power in how I feel, is the power we choose to give it – and yes I am a dud at that too! 

However, we live in another kingdom now, that’s why we pray “Your kingdom come!” WE get to bring it with us! We can choose to stand around in satan’s backyard wondering why we are getting clobbered, OR we can take back the higher ground that already belongs to us. The power, the choice, is now in our hands.

Lastly: ‘deliver us from evil ’ means so very much more than the vague hope that God will stop me from doing bad things! As if the Lord would need to do that – He already thoroughly did it, 2000+ years ago! Now, we have our free-will and His power to help us overcome. We quite simply need to stop ourselves. Sin can no longer hold us captive. Sadly, we will never progress in the Christian life while we choose to give our enemy power over us that he no longer has.

“Deliver us from evil” can also mean: “please Jesus keep me away from those things that are sent into my life to destroy me. Please make me aware of them – keep me alert to the enemy’s tricks. Show me the holes in my life that give him permission to torment me.” Amen.

Let’s learn to stretch what we already think we understand. You and I have probably heard hundreds of expositions on what the Lord’s prayer means, but that does not mean we have exhausted what it can say to us. Press the refresh button in your daily reading – a new fresh revelation awaits us all. Bless you! 👋

P 3034 Reparation.

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“Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honourable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”Romans 12:17-21. This means we are doing something – I think of that as releasing Grace..

Jesus Himself warned us that: “A man’s enemies will be those of his own household.” Matthew 10:36. I pray that isn’t so for anyone reading this! However, making reparation or fixing things, has kind of fallen out of fashion within the church. I believe in it. It is not just about the other person, it is about what happens to you when you dismiss someone else’s pain, lightly. It is incredibly valuable to acknowledge our sin. Just because Jesus paid for our sins that does not mean we have nothing more to contribute. 

Because we value love, we need to take action, and He will help us to do it. However, the verse above makes it clear we can only do this when the other party is willing. But in order to know if they are willing, we will actually need to ask the person/s if there is something we can do to restore things! We need to tell them we want restoration. We have become – officially: ” …repairer(s) of broken walls, Restorer(s) of streets to live in.” Isaiah 58:12.

Here’s an example of how that works: “He (Jesus) entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. … … And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today…” So he came down at once and welcomed Him gladly.  All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”” …”Luke 19:1-10. 

That’s reparation. It flows out of a genuinely repentant heart. That’s why Jesus said what He said about Zacchaeus. This man clearly shows the turning around and going the other way, that repentance contains. For far too long we have contented ourselves with saying: “I’m sorry”… when perhaps a better response is: “Oh! I can see I hurt you. How can I fix this? How can I help us to re-establish our relationship in a better place?” 

Jesus’ visible love toward this funny little man changed his life. Being included by the Lord opened a door for him to change. This man was practically an outcast because of the way he conducted his business. Yet the Lord accepted him in front of everyone else, and Zacchaeus’ immediate response to the Lord’s undeserved loving acceptance, was to repent and repair. I believe those accusers’ comments against Jesus, on that day, cut Zacchaeus to the heart. Plus at the same time, the Lord’s reputation as a good Man was cast into doubt, simply  because of Zacchaeus’ sin.

This response is not just noteworthy, but essential to true reparation. We didn’t just sin against a human being – when we hurt someone else – we’ve sinned against Him! And now we need to: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” Matthew 3:8. Things need to turn around and change with His help. Now we pray and follow the Lord through His processes for restoration. Our sin is gone – but we dare not leave our neighbour bleeding on the street, and wander away, comforting ourselves with the fact that Jesus has already forgiven us. That’s called presumption, and it is mean-spirited.

We must treat God’s great goodness toward all of us with humility and reverence. Our Father’s heart is right in the centre of His generosity toward mankind – Christ’s death cost Him everything. He turned His back on His beloved Son for our sake. Like I’ve said, many MANY times, Almighty God does not do things the way we do them – He loves unconditionally and that it is eternal.He is not a ‘sometimes’ God- only available on demand to people who know the password! We are privileged, whenever we knock on His door, it is always open to us. 

From the moment of our new birth, the Holy Spirit is watching over our hearts looking for Jesus’ likeness.  We need to whole-heartedly choose to become a people who seek to repair the schisms that occur in this life. It is part of our ministry to allow His love to enter into situations where anger, jealousy, spite etc. have prevailed. This means we go to people who have hurt us, or the ones we have hurt and say: “please forgive me,” and then we ask those people: “how can I help you to move on from what happened?” 

That’s what humbling yourself looks like. We aren’t obliged to do it — it comes right down to His selfless love inhabiting what we do, and inspiring us to be better! God promises to repay that other person for whatever they did to us, so let that be enough. Let the knowledge of His love for us, cover their sin. Reparation is costly —but Jesus did that for us, and we simply pass what we were given on to others. Bye.👋

P 2954 Jesus conquered death!

/ DVH

John 8:20: “Jesus said these things in the treasury, as He taught in the temple [courtyard]; and no one seized Him, because His time had not yet come.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1,2a:“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die…”

Romans 14:8:“If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. So then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”

Luke 24:5b,6:“…but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen!”

There is a time to be born and a time to die, and because of what Jesus did for us, death is a door. Mankind has always had an eternal destiny. So when we die we simply change locations! Heaven belongs to us here and now, today – because Jesus loves us that much. 

So, just for today, I want talk to anyone who wants to leave this life prematurely. My heart goes out to the person who feels they can’t go on — I can hear your desperate cry for mercy, right here, in my funny old chair. I am praying for you as I am typing this blog. I don’t care what you’ve done, or with whom, we need every single member of this Body that is currently so badly broken. There is no despair so deep as the despair a human being suffers when they can no longer see Him or have any hope that will change.

Christianity has blown itself out of all proportion, and in the process we’ve left behind compassion and mercy. We’ve allowed rules to become doctrines. Only God Himself knows the terrible pain and suffering in someone’s heart. Physical, emotional and mental anguish have to be personally experienced to be understood. If that happens to be you, then please remember – Jesus Christ suffered all kinds of agony and anguish on that cross, He alone totally understands where you are right now.

That’s why He came to earth in the first place – to experience humanity first-hand and save us from ourselves. He asked me to write to you today. He wants you to do the bravest thing you have ever done and ask for help. Remember, despite how it looks to you — we need you. “The weaker members are more important…” 1 Corinthians 12:22.

I’ve found that terrible, unthinkable things in this life can suddenly turn around and situations can change in a heartbeat … because God is always on His Throne. He’s on your side, no matter what you have done. Grab His hand and hold on! I’ve also learnt that satan loves to find and add fuel to the fire of despair, depression and pessimism. You aren’t useless – you are under attack!

We can always tell our enemy’s voice — it accuses and condemns us. It remembers things we desperately want to forget, and it comes up with thousands of dreadful reasons why you are a waste of space and how everyone else would be better off without you! Treat him like the TV – turn him off.

Even if what he is saying is, or was true – he’s not trying to help you —he wants you dead. Start singing to yourself, with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Spiritual songs are the songs we sing that we make up as we go along. I sometimes sing the Psalms, after all God does not care if we are tone deaf or totally tuneless. Doing this puts a spark to our rapidly fading faith. satan’s a liar and if he is coming up with these ghastly scenarios then you can bet God has something that only you can do … The bigger the brambles and booby traps, the bigger the prize on the other side of any test. 

Grace is the vehicle we need to automatically climb into every single day, in order to keep running this race. We cannot do this life in our own strength, because our strength runs out! It also gets incredibly battered by the stuff that comes at us. What Jesus did for us, once and for all, triumphs over everything else that is to come, and everything else that has gone before us. It is in our heavenly account, credited to us by the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah! 🙌  He whispers to us: “I have forgiven you.” Dare to believe Him.

Our mind cannot always rationalise its way around the deepest pain. Let His Word soothe your thoughts, and suffering – “He will not break a broken reed …!!”  When we cherish what the Lord has said and put it above our own thoughts and experiences, that’s when we begin to build a bank within our heart of testimonies about His power. We start to remember that He has helped us to overcome the very stuff that tried to drown us. He stops being the God I read about in His book, and becomes the God Who knows and loves ME. And because His Word is powerful, it works whether I think I believe it or not. 

Jesus went through all He suffered … so we would not have to suffer alone from this life’s torments. HE CAME OUT OF THAT GRAVE and proved that He conquered death and destruction once and for all! That means YOU … He conquered death and potential destruction – for you. Hold fast beloved of God – as we celebrate His victory over the very things that seek to destroy us all. 🕊️

P 2841 Real RAW power.

/ DVH

I mentioned this parable a few of days ago, and almost immediately after I talked about it – I was tested on my response to someone else’s apparent debt toward me. 🙄 

Matthew 18:23-35: “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’  In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

It is obvious to me in this life, that forgiveness is meant to be a supernatural act!  We are to freely give forgiveness to others because we are aware that Jesus has already given it to us. But there is nothing like a nasty argument to wreck our memory! By ourselves, we don’t have it within ourselves to forgive someone else, because sin is UGLY, it fills our perception and it definitely distorts our view of other people. But we took in the seed of the Holy Spirit when we said “yes” to Jesus, and He lives inside us now. That seed wants to grow as we walk with Him. Because we have been freely given forgiveness, we already have forgiveness on the inside of us – so now we can give it away using our faith. 

The reason this can sometimes seem difficult is because we don’t feel like we can forgive the other person. Our feelings are hurt, they betrayed us, they did something unforgivable etc.etc. Sadly then we are no longer looking at someone else’s sin through spiritual eyes, instead we are choosing to see it through injured ones. Have you ever noticed that what they did seems much bigger and badder than what you did? Yeah, me too.

However, our new lives are designed to be lived in the Spirit, we must not be guided by the flesh. The flesh has nothing profitable in it. It will come to nothing but dust one day, but the things of the Holy Spirit last forever. So now I must personally make the choice to obey, or to hold on to my hurt feelings. The thing is, I need to die daily to what I feel, or want, or like, and deliberately yield to the Holy Spirit’s guidance. 

Recently somebody pushed hard on a button I didn’t know I had inside, and my flesh had a whole lot of junk to say that profited nobody. I came to, when I realised I was so mad I wanted to  … quote: choke the life out of the person who was annoying me! Figuratively of course. I’m too much of a coward to be literal about it! 

That’s when the Lord reminded me of all the stuff I’ve written on this blog. So, through gritted teeth, I obeyed the word and let the other person off the hook, I accepted their apology and kept taking those nasty little irritable thoughts captive – whether the other person deserve it or not. God’s ways are not our ways! To be totally honest it was like stripping my skin off a centimetre at a time! I had a list of reasons as long as my arm as to why I shouldn’t have to do it … and then I did it anyway. 

However, my ‘hurt’ feelings kept jumping up and down, and they kept right on doing it. Learning to love when you feel wounded is very difficult, as I am sure we all know from experience. The thing that helps, is to focus on how much He has forgiven us – until our thoughts are taken captive and we go back to being grateful. Otherwise our memory of the offence – which can often be carefully coloured in, so WE look like the injured one – blocks out everything else. It really is a choice to renew our mind, and to deliberately push all thoughts about whatever has happened out, and focus on obeying the Lord instead. 

Holding a grudge needs to be addressed because that is also a stumbling block. And yes, I understand that the other person keeps on doing whatever it is, despite your pleas for mercy! The thing is, we cannot know what is in someone else’s heart, and mind, and perhaps they think they are right too. We can all think we are totally right and be totally wrong … all at the same time.

Meanwhile our obedience to His word despite our feelings, is the best way I know to prove HIS power! The more we practice the things Jesus told us to do, the quicker we are released from being tossed about by our emotions and mind. Having power over your own feelings is REAL RAW POWER.  Bye. 👋

P 2760 Don’t let a ceiling stop you!

/ DVH

Our pastor recently preached about moving mountains the other day, it made me think. Those kinds of thoughts have been bubbling about inside me ever since I heard it. Then this morning hubby and I were sharing about things we’ve seen when we are on the road, giving away bibles etc. and one thing led to another, and then the Lord chimed in with this: “Be like those men in the bible, tear off the roof if you have to.“ (That’s in Mark, Matthew and Luke.) Boy did we get happy!  What a word! Let’s all pray: ‘Dear Lord help us to tear off spiritual ceilings whenever they prevent people from getting to YOU –  You are their Answer.’ Amen!

Meanwhile, here’s the story in Luke 5:17-20:“On one of the days while Jesus was teaching, some proud religious law-keepers and teachers of the Law were sitting by Him. They had come from every town in the countries of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was there to heal them.  Some men took a man who was not able to move his body to Jesus. He was carried on a bed. They looked for a way to take the man into the house where Jesus was.  But they could not find a way to take him in because of so many people. They made a hole in the roof over where Jesus stood. Then they let the bed with the sick man on it down before Jesus. When Jesus saw THEIR faith, He said to the man, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

As I read it, I began to see that scene with fresh eyes. These men who brought the paralysed man to Jesus were full of faith – they knew if they could get him to Jesus he would be well. But the house was filled up with many people and a bunch of religious leaders. The leaders were all listening to Jesus, and if you keep on reading you will find that these religious men probably weren’t there to cheer! Instead they stumbled over Jesus telling the man his sins were forgiven. They took umbrage, because they did not recognise that GOD was in the house. ‘Oh Lord, please save us all from not recognising when YOU are IN the house!’ Amen!

These religious leaders loved to debate the law and they knew it like the back of their hands. They instantly picked Jesus up on what He said, because they knew from their studies that only God Himself can forgive our sins. After all this was what they did day by day –  sins were forgiven with offerings on an altar. The scholars had invested so deeply in their own knowledge that they had restricted their faith. Even worse – perhaps they thought knowledge WAS faith.

You know there were only two possible answers for what Jesus did. Either He  blasphemed, OR … Jesus Christ IS God – and not just another prophet –  and He could and did forgive sins – as well as personally pay for them!! And aren’t you and I incredibly blessed to know that answer?!

Did you get the part where the sick guy couldn’t get IN to the Lord’s Presence? Sick people need help to get to God. That house was filled up with religious leaders, watching and waiting for Jesus to make a mistake. Isn’t that a terrifying sentence?! These scholarly men were in the same room as the God they cherished and studied, and …they utterly missed Him! And yet, Jesus was so incredibly patient and kind, both to the man on the bed, and his faithful friends, plus the people who were there to prove Him wrong. He healed the man, and explained Himself, then left His critics dumbfounded. 

This story made me wonder … How many times have I left off praying because it seemed as if there was something in my way? Maybe a mountain? Or a ceiling?? It all seems a bit incredible when we look at what it took to bring that ailing man to Jesus’ feet. How much love and faith, in and through his friends, was expressed just for the invalid’s sake? Without an apology, or even a … do you mind? — They actually wrecked some guy’s house! Put yourself there for a minute – maybe at the minute that the roof starts to fall on the floor. I wonder what was going through the owner’s mind in those few seconds? 😶 I’d really like to think that that person thought it was worth a busted ceiling for someone to get thoroughly well.

Now to my question:  how many ceilings has this life put on all of us? How much stuff — like good manners, or respect for other people’s property, wrong theology, or avoiding doing the unpopular thing in front of everyone, has come between us and God’s will in our lives? Yeah. That’s not the most cheery thought. Maybe we have lived our lives so far, scared of what the so-called experts will say – because they supposedly know, and we don’t? The men in that house all experienced God in a remarkable way, which had nothing to do with knowledge.“Knowledge puffs up…”

All I know for sure, is that mere knowledge is no longer good enough for me. I want to tear up some hypothetical roofs and see people set free, and healed, and praising God for His goodness! And most of all I don’t want to care anymore what anybody else thinks about it! As His church, we must not let the spiritual ceilings in our lives stop us from being the kind of people who want to get someone else to Jesus, simply because they need His help. No matter what that costs. That’s called unconditional LOVE!  And …’We will always need Your help with that Lord,’ Amen. Bye 👋

P 2668 Shame, the disqualifier.

/ DVH

Over the years in my Christian life I have observed that if I let shame in, then the result is I stop trying to hear God and avoid Him instead! Plus I leave off reading the bible and skip church. None of that stuff is good! I’ve disqualified myself because I am feeling bad about something I have done, or I am contemplating doing. Shame creates a need to hide. Adam and Eve did! It is a fact of life that every single person on this planet has down times. Times when our attitudes are not at their optimum, when life is not one glorious victory following another.

Shame is a tool of our enemy to send us spinning off in the wrong direction. We end up looking at ourselves, as well as how we feel about what we have done etc. – instead of looking at the Lord – Who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. The saddest thing is this – sometimes shame has its roots in real sin – sin that needs to be confessed and repented about. Confession clears away any reason the enemy has to accuse us and cause even more shame.

There are many people in our churches who go regularly week by week, and they are in all kinds of pain, because they are carrying shame, for things done in the present or the past. Perhaps they don’t want to do something that they keep on doing, but they just cannot find a way to stop. Or they are ashamed because they are not doing what they think they should be doing. Feelings demand a whole lot of work and energy. We can end up in an emotional washing machine, getting more and more agitated, drowning in our own despair.

Shame is a cloak. A substitute for conviction, which leads to repentance. Some times shame has been thrown over a person in the past, by someone they regard as an authority, and this other person gave the one who is ashamed, strong logical reasons why that cloak should be worn. That, BTW is a sign of control. Anybody who tries to control us is not on the Lord’s side, whether that person seems to have good motivations or not. Shame has its roots in fear. It can’t grow good fruit, its roots have not gone down deep into LOVE and acceptance.  

The bible tells us to ‘agree with our adversaries quickly’ –  that way we can also quickly repent, and instantly dismiss shame. When we come to Jesus we are given freedom, there is no control. However, shame may also do it’s best to separate us away from the very One Who came to redeem us. It will cause us to hide from Him. We can even end up living a life that is a lie, pretending we are fine when we are not, and hiding our true selves from everyone around us.The sad thing is;  we have no reason to be ashamed because we have His promises in writing!In 1 John 1:8-10 and 1 John 2:1-2 it says:

“If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—simply come clean about them—He won’t let us down; He’ll be true to Himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. ..”1 John 2:1-2 says this: “My little children, I am writing these things to you, so that you do not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

The most important thing about these few verses is the fact that forgiveness always rests on the Lord’s Character and His Character is perfect! It is in Christ’s Character to tell the truth – and the truth is, we have already been forgiven. The second most important thing in my opinion, is this: honesty and confession are the only way to go. It’s not the most comfortable approach, but it is the only one! When we let light pour into the darkness we no longer have to be ashamed, we simply need to be honest and confess our faults to Him, and to others. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is our God-sent, God-given Lawyer! He is our Defence Attorney before the throne of God. He won’t give us a character reference – instead, HE SIMPLY POINTS TO THE CROSS. You might want to sit and stew on that for a while. 

Our part in this process is to be honest with Him, and ourselves, and use our faith to believe that He does not lie and we are not some kind of mad-exception to His poured out love. Shame must never be our cloak – Christ’s BLOOD IS ALWAYS OUR CLOAK.  If we accidentally crawl out from underneath the Lord’s provision of forgiveness, then we need to repent quickly, make reparation where necessary and move on. Let’s not let shame disqualify us from living a brand new life, free from the past, and our own sinful stupid decisions. Bye. 👋

P 2656 Let’s remember we are to be married.🕊

/ DVH

Romans 7:4-6 MSG: “So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When Christ died He took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with Him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God. For as long as we lived that old way of life, doing whatever we felt we could get away with, sin was calling most of the shots as the old law code hemmed us in. And this made us all the more rebellious. In the end, all we had to show for it was miscarriages and stillbirths. But now that we’re no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we’re free to live a new life in the freedom of God.”

Oh man, some days I can’t wait to get to heaven to listen to the Apostle Paul preaching  – that’s if I ever get over following Jesus around! What a conundrum … Picture this: Jesus is talking about how He and the Holy Spirit made the moon and stars, as He heard the Father speaking them into being. At the same time, Paul is talking about the beauty of Christ Jesus;  and James is reminding us of what we’ve been given … OR …OR!!! … every now and then we fall on our faces from the sheer wonder of where we are! And… AND!!! Here’s the biggest plus of all! We can run into the throne room and fall on our faces and worship at the throne. Choices, choices!  Maybe in heaven we can do all those things at once?! Sorry I got so distracted … moving on …

Romans 8:1-4 MSG: “With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. God went for the jugular when He sent His own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In His Son, Jesus, He personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all.”

Feel free to stand on a chair and cheer! 🥳 What a brilliant explanation! First of all I want to say, there is no worship and devotion toward the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit like the worship we choose to give All of Them down here. Why? Because down here worship is a choice, a sacrifice – in heaven, worship is joyously spontaneous. We give the Trinity the best gift when we choose to worship Them, because They are so worthy. Despite our busy lives, or whether we feel like it or not!

Just imagine the throne room for a second … there are these incredible angels — flying around the throne crying out; “Holy holy holy” over and over and over and over again – they never stop. I asked the Holy Spirit once why they do that and He told me this: ‘Because at every single turn they see something new, something glorious to enjoy, some aspect of the Father’s Love and Grace they have never seen before.” 🤯 Well, that’s my mind blown… how about you? Down here, we are always running after whatever is new – in heaven we simply have to gaze at our Heavenly Father and the view will be breath-taking and endless.

I shall vacate this heavenly rabbit trail and get back to my point … which is … look at what our beloved Bridegroom has done for us!  Take a minute to wander back to Romans 8:1-4 and read those verses again. Just when you think things can’t get any bigger or even more wonderful, we are reminded that our precious bridegroom, Jesus Christ, volunteered … because He loves us that much. Well, there’s me in a soggy heap in the corner. 😭

Christians can live like everyone else, staring at the ground, thinking that the next episode of our fav show is the only moment of joy in a week of drudgery and effort — OR — we can reread Romans and rediscover what we have been GIVEN. Those verses mean that we have the power to throw off depression and the cares of this world, because of our Bridegroom’s gifts. Those freely-given gifts mean we can be at rest, care-free, living in pure peace, despite our circumstances and difficulties.

JESUS HAS GOT US AND HE WILL NEVER EVER LEAVE US OR FORSAKE US. How we feel is just a blip on time’s radar. We don’t have to live under this world’s clouds of pessimism, constant drama and angst. Instead we can choose to embrace what we’ve been given. Each and every time I take hold of those hard-won gifts that He died to give me, I fall in love with Him over and over again.

Real Love is like that. It is a journey of discovery, familiarity …  as well as delight, where we visit and re-visit the Lord’s loving kindness, mercy and grace, and realise how much He loves us.  It’s time to remember we are engaged to be married to the most incredible Bridegroom … Who loved us before we even knew Him! Our faith is not based on pretty thoughts or theories, now we live in the daily reality of being totally forgiven, loved and cherished … And if we aren’t living there, then it is time we did!  Bye. 🙌