Future

P 2924 The future is HERE ……NOW!

/ DVH

“But you need to be aware that in the final days the culture of society will become extremely fierce. People will be self-centred lovers of themselves and obsessed with money. They will boast of great things as they strut around in their arrogant pride and mock all that is right. They will ignore their own families. They will be ungrateful and ungodly. They will become addicted to hateful and malicious slander. 

Slaves to their desires, they will be ferocious, belligerent haters of what is good and right. With brutal treachery, they will act without restraint, bigoted and wrapped in clouds of their conceit. They will find their delight in the pleasures of this world more than the pleasures of the loving God. They may pretend to have a respect for God, but in reality they want nothing to do with God’s power. Stay away from people like these!”2 Timothy 3:1-5 TPT.

Yeah, I dunno about you, but at this moment, I’m thinking about heading for the hills, because this scripture sounds just like last week’s new’s headlines to me. Isn’t it scary when you can read something like this — which was written in 40-60 AD and yet you still think — boy does this sound so familiar! 

You know, God has never said that other people would like what we say – He just said: “TELL THEM.” And He also said, live like this – “make love your great aim” and the bible shows us how love lives. The news of today is filled to the top with death, anger, sorrow, murder, rage etc.and those things can subtly influence us to think people are not worth the sacrifice of laying down our lives. Sadly all we need if we want to be an influencer,  is to have a sad story, or  give away money, or stuff. Today you can buy people’s interest. And if you call it a competition, they will jump right in! 

But the bible says we are here to to tell them that they will go to hell if they keep going in the wrong direction. Yeah! That kind of changes the colour of anyone’s day. At the same time as we are actively loving them, we need to tell them what they are doing is eternally costly. 

However, we do not have to market God! There is a school of thought that says if we can be as slick and appealing as the things of this world, people will listen to us. This is what Paul was talking about in the above verse: “…having a form of godliness but denying its power …”True godliness is about fruit, it produces substance, not just appearances. There is no power in exhibiting the appearance of godliness, practising that will produce religion. When what we are looking for is inward transformation. 

Now, let’s look at that first line in Paul’s discourse. “The culture of society will become exceedingly fierce.”Hmmm. Does today’s world look like a loving, supportive culture? There’s a lot of talk about empowering people but not much talk about living a life of love. It seems to me that many people in the Western world have learnt to speak badly about others – so they can make money on TV shows by deriding the way people walk, dress, and live — we even pick on what other people EAT! We indulge in gossip simply for conversation’s sake. Gossip has become a way of life – a method of communication – a way to relate!

We need to assure the people around us that there is something much bigger, more important and infinitely more lasting, than working hard to look good. Mankind’s greatest challenge is to continue to be loving in the face of evil, and that will take the supernatural power of God! Meanwhile, the church can’t keep on doing what they have been doing because it isn’t working! Often our worst enemies are exactly who Jesus told us they would be – the people we dearly love.“… a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Matthew 10:36. We are going to need the power of God to cope, and still love them!

We have let our children down. Someone (??) decided the little darlings are basically good. Obviously these people haven’t read “Lord of the flies!” or “Grimm’s fairy tales” or the newspaper lately! Sadly we raised our children to be entertained, not instructed. But despite how cute they are, children are not born good. “All have sinned,” it says so in His book. Did you know that the first word most babies learn is “NO?!” 

We wonder why our kids are careless about the real things in this life that actually matter, and why haven’t they learnt integrity, obedience, and kindness etc? Wisdom and spiritual knowledge come from investing time and energy in people – not just chasing dollars. Our kids need to learn to contribute, not consume, and it is our job to teach them. Inanimate objects don’t cause delinquent behaviour, lack of supervision does.

I think Paul was looking through God’s Time Machine into a telescope of our future, when he wrote this letter of warning to Timothy. Let’s remember, Timothy was his disciple, he was teaching this young man the way he should go. He was also instructing Timothy about the times that were to come …  And now… happy, happy joy, joy, here they are! The future is here. Now! Always remember, the darkness cannot put the light out – HIS light in us will conquer the darkness around us. Love is the vehicle. Bye 👋

P 2891 Obedience is its own reward.

/ DVH

People say odd things sometimes. things like: “I can’t hear God.” Here’s a big fat clue. Did you obey the last thing He told you to do? How are you going with putting Matthew chapters 5&6 into practice? That’s a great place to start!  I think the Beatitudes will keep us busy for a lifetime of practising, listening, learning, and allowing His Word to transform us. I must admit I have never quite figured out why we skip those first two commandments, and still feel good about ourselves, because we’ve obeyed all the other ones.

Opportunity came knocking on this man’s door! “Why do you ask Me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”“Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honour your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbour as yourself.’“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” Matthew 19:19-22. Jesus is not talking about our owning stuff, by the way, He’s talking about the kind of stuff that owns us.

Point number one: This young man was on the right track:  when we choose to follow Jesus, we need to ask Him this kind of question. Yes I am serious! There is way too much back-slapping going on in the Body of Christ, and not enough soul-searching. I ask myself questions, because I know I am not done yet.  I know I’ve wasted a great deal of my life so far, trying to fit in, and find approval. However, this young man had approval from the Lord immediately, because he had done his best to obey what he already knew. God is so generous – He values the attitudes of our heart. But, at the same time He’s not shy, He will also expose what’s else is in there too.

Point number two; Never ask a question when you are not prepared to get an answer!! I believe this man was sincere, he wanted the life of God in him and he wanted to be wholly His. Jesus gave him what he asked for – right there, on the spot! There are many times we go to the Lord and all we want is to be petted and patted. Life has gotten rough and we need a big cuddle. If we want to be mollified and pronounced excellent, then we need to go to someone who wants something from us and ask them the above question. Those people will tell us how great we are because they have an agenda!

Personally, I think we are better off asking our enemies to give us their opinion – they may not be entirely accurate, but they won’t pander to our needs either. Our enemies may have a great read-out on what’s wrong with us!  In the interest of full disclosure I must say I haven’t done that one yet…! I’ve been put off because I’ve had plenty of enemies tell me – they volunteered! … what’s wrong with me. My problem was … because they were enemies I didn’t think I had to listen! Ya might want to Selah that thought a while.

Point three: did you notice that Jesus praised the man for his ongoing efforts? Yet at the same time, the Lord actually knew what was holding this man back from his expressed desire to do whatever God wanted from him. The desire to do what is right in God’s eyes, is not the whole ball-game. There is always more, and in this guy’s case the ‘more’ was in his finances! None of us are perfect, so learning what we need to know is a blessing, not a criticism.

Now let’s not miss the punch-line, shall we? After Jesus tells this young man to sell all the profits from his own hard-work and give the results to the poor — then He says the most amazing thing: ’YOU can be My disciple and follow Me.’ This is the reason I wrote this blog today, we all have things in our lives that we want more than God – we just choose to ignore them. We live our lives virtually unaware of what could be holding us back from utterly yielding our lives to Him. Maybe you could ask yourself this question: What is it that is holding me back from giving the Lord all of my life, and choosing to obey Him – no matter what it costs? 

I can’t answer that question for you. I can only tell you that in my own experience, you can never ever out-give God. His plans for us are to give each of us a hope and a future. Sometimes we can stumble over full-surrender, because we don’t know what is on the other side of yielding everything to Him. However, we do know that God is gracious, He is kind, He’s OUR loving Heavenly Father! 

If we only focus on what we will lose … we’ve missed the real point. God is good, what He does, is always GOOD. We just don’t get to define ‘good’ for ourselves! Obedience is its own reward — check it out:  Deuteronomy 6:24; 10:12-13; and Proverbs 9:12; Ecclesiastes 11:5b.  Bye 👋

P 2852 Getting older is a gift.

/ DVH

Lately, hubby and I have had to focus on end-of-life-things, because of elderly family. But enjoying those old folks who are ahead of me age-wise, has provided me with a whacky glimpse into my possible future. Through my interactions with them, I’ve discovered the wonderful humour involved in getting older. With all its foibles and fancies. So today I want to share some fun stories with you. You must understand I am not laughing at old folks … I are one! … But the end of our lives can produce circumstances that are just plain hilarious. These things take our pompous, stuffy I’ve-got-it-all-together attitudes, and poke huge holes in them.  It seems we’ve become too vague to realise we aren’t who we were, anymore!!

My dear Mum, is now 97 years old. She has been extremely deaf all her life. Back in the ark, people whacked other people over the ear-hole regularly, and that had dire results for her. She has been terribly deaf as long as I can remember. Moving along from that stuff, because I want to illustrate the funny bits, not the gnash-your-teeth-and-blame-other-people ones. Lately she has been talking about her hearing loss a lot. She went into an old folk’s home years ago, her choice, and … well … those places can leave a lot to be desired unless you go into one of the millionaire ones! She didn’t!

However she’s happy there – she tells us so, often! Most of the time Mum, in her newly discovered forgetfulness, repeats the same caring questions, over and over again, sometimes minutes apart. We just answer her like it is the first time we’ve heard it. I’ve found a useful secret when relating to the elderly – old people love to reminisce. Back to Mum’s ears.

Recently we discovered that she has not been wearing her hearing aids. We figured that out because we’ve had to shout a lot when we went to see her. So hubby trundled off to get her hearing aids checked out – again – that was the third time in as many months. The home cheerfully gave him 5 single hearing aids to be checked out, even though hearing aids are designed to work in pairs! But, apparently, none of them were working. Well, that odd single hearing aid was always going to be out of luck really. Maybe its partner wandered off somewhere or was stood on! That’s when it transpired that the single hearing aid actually belongs to someone else, called Tony. Who is probably wondering why his hearing aids don’t work either! 

And at the same time, we discovered that one of the other whole pairs has enjoyed the wash and rinse cycle in the washing machine. Hearing aids don’t like that …apparently! The final pair of the five aids were issued in 2016. If I were a hearing aid, I think I’d turn up my toes after 8 or 9 years too. So where have my Mum’s brand new hearing aids gone? Not a clue, neither has the staff. Maybe there is an old lady with a few of them stuffed in each ear or someone is flogging used hearing aids on Ebay. Gotcha! Currently there are more new ones on the way … which is useful. Now we can talk to Mum and not disturb the people 3 blocks away.

Hubby has been a geriatric nurse in his past, and he’s told me some funny stories about his experiences with elderly patients. In the olden days if your teeth were bad you got false teeth – but nowadays they give you root canal and crowns. Dentists became very clever about this kind of stuff in the years in between – they all drive BMWs now! Anyhoo! One morning at the home hubby discovered 6 old folks who couldn’t find their false teeth. He investigated and found one old chap who looked rather like a gold fish – you know the puffy ones? Hmmm. They fished out 6 pairs of false teeth from inside his mouth, and none of them were his! The nurses restored the teeth to their rightful owners after a spot of disinfection. 

Then there was a dear old man who had to get up out of his bed every night to go to the toilet. He had formulated a clever system to make sure he could find his bed again, by counting the doors between his room and the toilet. All went well until he tried to return to his room! He carefully counted, got back to his room and lo and behold, someone else was in what was supposed to be his bed! So the old man figured he must have counted incorrectly, and he walked back to the loo, and began again. He did this many times and still came up with the same result. Fortunately a nurse went by and found the poor old chap still wandering up and down the hallway muttering to himself. It transpired that Goldilocks – in the shape of an often-wandering little old lady – had wandered into his room and snaffled his just-right bed! 

On yet another night one elderly lady suddenly stood up on her bed, walked to the end of it, put her foot on the food tray and grasped the curtain rail … all of this without slipping over! And then she hung there like a trapeze artist. Eventually she lost her grip and fell to the floor, on her head. Fortunately, when she got up, she was totally undamaged and after careful X-ray examination, they put her back into her bed. Why would she do such a thing? Who knows? Maybe she liked the monkey bars as a kid! I still think getting older is a gift! Bye for today. 👋

Psalm 73:26: “Though my flesh and my heart fail, God is the rock of my heart, my portion forever.”

P 2787 Guard your heart.

/ DVH

I am so over this whole election news stuff. It’s been going on for months. The whole: ‘can you believe what he said, she said, or they said’ info, has taken over everything. Why would anyone choose a leader based on what other people say, surely our own prayerful choices are more valuable? The Lord controls the future and our times are in His hands. All I can do, and have done, is to pray for the people involved. If my opinion could change things I would start with those terrible wars where all sorts of people are dying daily! Instead I pray as He leads me, and then … I give it all back to Him.

I truly believe this never-ending running flow of information is the enemy’s way of tuning people out from the very real things that happen in this life, all around us. It keeps us agitated and on edge. It may provide something interesting to talk about at work around the water cooler, but I believe it also has an impact on the listeners!  Unfortunately, I think human beings can become immunised against the things that are in our own little basket, because the barrage of information at us gets to be too much.

We need to be focussed on those people who need our prayers, concern and help. Otherwise our hearts can be overwhelmed by the constantly overflowing, questionable information, and then they start to become hardened. Sadly, we stop caring, purely out of extreme tiredness and self-defence. We are being fed opinions and agendas under the guise of information. It’s like having root canal – it’s endless, painful and somebody else profits! I would go so far as to say, the media is currently responsible for steering many people away from faith, and into fear. 

I had a dear Sister-in-the Lord who had MS and she was housebound. She loved to watch the news. The Lord had set her as a watchman on the walls, (a spiritual gift BTW) so she prayed for everything and everyone in the news. Because the Lord gave her this ministry, when you went to see her, there was never a negative word about any shocking or pressing situations in this world. She had His POV and that was enough!

The bible says we need to be careful what we take in: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life”Proverbs 4:23. The Hebrew translation of guard – means to keep above all keepings. So, above ALL you guard – your marriage, family, bank account, passwords, your car or house – guard your heart with more vigilance than anything else.

Indifference, and annoyance starts in our heads, and seeps down into our hearts and it eventually affects the way we regard other people. We start to think negatively about the people Jesus died for. “Oh those people are all idiots anyway, why should I care?” We care because we are called to be salt, and to be salty we need to flavour the world around us with the taste of Jesus, not the despair of the lost.

I also love the Message Version of Proverbs 4:23 “Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts.
Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you. Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust.” 

Pretty clear good advice there! We continue to fight the good fight by asking Him what He thinks – without deciding arbitrarily that, of course, He only cares about what I care about – and then we leave the results to Him. Bye. 👋

P 2770 God has a plan.

/ DVH

If you have been a Christian for a while you may have bumped into Jeremiah. Jeremiah is, in my mind, one of our great faith pioneers. He kept his faith strong even when his life was awful. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11. But when you look at Jeremiah’s life, it was a far cry from being filled with great plans and fab future! I want to comment on this particular verse today, because I believe it has been misused on occasion, to imply that our God is more like a genie, than our omnipotent, omnipresent, always wise, sovereign God and glorious Father – Who made heaven and earth!

Let’s just look carefully at what this verse says: God totally declares that He has plans for each one of us. We have not been left here, in our often difficult circumstances, all alone. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to help us with every second, of every minute of every day. We can now walk with Him like Christ did, that’s the plan! In order to walk with the Holy Spirit – emphasis on the word ‘holy’  … our lives need to change. Our focus has to come off our own comfort, and be firmly planted into whatever the Lord wants for us.

This verse says that His plans are about giving us hope. The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus Christ is our ever-present hope, and this scripture is a prophetic statement about Christ! It is not a promise that this life will never ever be bad again. The hope in our future is Christ Himself. Jeremiah did not live an easy life. His whole nation went into captivity. However, our God has incredible plans and if we ask Him, He may even let us in on them! He has promised He will listen when we pray, and answer us. But we may not understand His answer right away!

We need to consistently remember that Father God will never ever mislead us, quite often we simply can’t see beyond the end of our noses and our need to control everything and make it peachy! However, our future always lies with the Lord. It is very important that we understand that – the scripture above is about security IN God. You and I have eternity ahead of us, so we have an ever expanding future!  Heaven is real and we will go there. I think our God is incredible – He’s planning to spend eternity with all of us! Imagine that!

Our Heavenly Father, has already provided everything we will ever need IN Christ. Sadly we can spend our short lives looking for monetary or physical gain, and we do live this life celebrating the reality that eternity is ours, now and forever … and LIVE that way. Unfortunately we often want ease, now. It matters where our hope is, because ours is always in Christ. …Our hope is not in some scripture that I picked up, or one I decided suited my problem, my hope is in Christ. Christ is God’s demonstrated goodness.

In my opinion, Jeremiah, makes a very interesting example of God’s input into one man’s life. He remained courageous and loyal to his calling despite his difficulties. He faithfully told the Israelites the bad news about their future, over and over again. Sometimes … lucky him!…. he also got to physically demonstrate it too! He was beaten and ridiculed simply because he spoke out God’s truth. The people who follow Jesus Christ do not always have easy carefree lives. However, He will ALWAYS help us, so our faith is in His Character. These things flow out of intimacy. And intimacy is about God always being with us, so we live by faith – because that is the reality.

We must stop thinking that serving God means we will remain trouble free! Our wonderful Father is doing more than one thing at a time. He is answering our prayers for transformation, preparing us for eternity, and restoring and healing relationships, here and now. Jeremiah was carted off from his homeland along with everyone else, despite the fact that he was busy being obedient … doing and saying what God said!  He continually prophesied bad things were coming, not good ones, and sadly the Jews didn’t like it, or him. And he also pointed out that there is a great difference between saying something – even sincerely believing it, and… doing it. Belief must turn into action.

Personally, I think the Old Testament brings a much needed balance into the church-at-large’s current theory of: “let’s all have a jolly old party down here, because SomeBody else paid the bill!”  We cannot choose hedonism and indulgence and expect everything to be AOK with the Lord. What part of ‘take up your cross and follow Me,’ don’t we get? We serve Him – He doesn’t serve us. He proved His love for all mankind when He gave us His Only Son. Our choices from day to day matter, because Father God does not wink at our sins, they were far too costly for His Son. The very least we can do is acknowledge them, and live this life, here and now, differently.

He has a plan to give us a hope and a future. Our future is with Him, today, tomorrow, and forever, and His plan has already given us hope in Christ and all He did. Let’s stick with HIS PLAN and leave behind the idea of some sort of a trouble-free cushy life. Bye. 👋

P 2766 Contentment.

/ DVH

God is so good. He’s a good, good Father. He loves it when we sing songs, and preach sermons that talk about Him, and Who He is. … but He loves it even more when we go out from church, and live this life – the only one we have(!) – like we belong to a good good Father!  A Father we trust. A Father who has plans for us. Hope-filled plans for a future that we can embrace because He is in it. Those plans include our total transformation – we end up being the “ME” I was designed to be. Paul says this in Philippians 4:11: “Not that I speak from [any personal] need, for I have learned to be content [and self-sufficient through Christ, satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or uneasy] regardless of my circumstances.”

The essence of who we are now, is IN CHRIST JESUS. God did that for us. His love was squeezed so tightly, that even when the world chose to reject Christ  – all that came out at that moment was even MORE LOVE. That’s our  hope and our aim too. ‘No matter how tightly we are squeezed, dear Jesus, let pure love come out!’ Amen. God loves us because it is His nature – He IS pure Love. But pure love is not permissive, nor is it wishy washy – read the book!

I know one place where anyone from any circumstance, crime, or foul attitude can go, where they will always be welcome to live.  His door is always open, and the lights are always on, and there is love and acceptance in our Father’s house! Even for the vilest sinner. They can exchange their old life for His new life. He died and took my place, my punishment – so now I choose to die and take HIS PLACE. Our FATHER did everything He could to snatch each one us from the fires of hell — and it cost Him dearly. He had to watch His beautiful, godly, pure and holy Son die, covered in our filthy sin.

Contentment in God is acquired as we voluntarily choose to learn, for ourselves, that He is enough. It is not second-hand knowledge. True contentment is about trust. Trust is built into our lives by taking faith risks, and watching Almighty God redeem things that we thought were unredeemable. He doesn’t actually need our help – He simply enjoys our company in those adventures!  That’s because nobody thinks like you, nobody loves like you do. Your uniqueness is His treasure. We can wander along through this life thinking only we know what is good for us, and what will make us happy and produce contentment. BUT true contentment is found by living in Christ’s transforming Grace.

Learning to love like He does is our destiny. There is a higher love than human love. It is the kind of love that sees everything that you and I can become. That kind of love wants to work everything that happens in our lives for our own good. Which is why I pray, all the time, that the Lord will redeem stuff that crosses my path. I pray:’Change me please.” OR … “Please give me the Grace to live through this like You would Jesus.’ I never know which answer I’m going to get — sometimes it’s both. PS — He’s God, HE can do that! I have learnt over time that I like His way better than my way. My way means I might get what I want … but His way everybody benefits.

1 Timothy 6:2c -8. “These are the things you are to teach and insist on. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.”

Paul is talking to a young pastor, Timothy, he pastors the church at Ephesus. Paul’s teaching him that contentment can be learnt, and it is a sign of God within us. Those awful things Paul describes in these scriptures we hear about every single day in the news!  However, we understand that Godliness can’t be bought, or sold, because SomeBody Else, Jesus Christ, already bought it for all of us. Our response to this truth, makes all the difference to our ability to live in contentment. Hallelujah! You and I can both learn to be content – Paul says so.

Almighty God is our ‘enough.” He cannot disappoint us. Deuteronomy 31:8 says:“And the LORD, He it is that goes before you; He will be with you, He will not fail you, nor walk away from you: don’t be afraid or dismayed.” And that’s what true contentment looks like. (That’s my version BTW). Bye 😌

P 2745 Are you a policeman … or a shepherd?

/ DVH

Our police force upholds our laws. He or she can throw people acting badly into jail, particularly if the law agrees with them. They can and probably will get rough with you, if you get rough with them … or if you hurt someone else. If we are not breaking the law, then we are in no danger of being accosted by a policeman. Personally, I smile and say ‘hello officer’ and just go about my business. People who don’t break the law don’t have to worry about the police. 

I watch TV news occasionally, and I have seen the unruly crowds of truly dumb people provoking officers of the law who have a large shield, a face mask, a helmet, steel capped boots, a baton, and a gun! 😳 Now there’s the spirit of stupid on steroids!! These misguided protesters are trying to make a point whilst yelling abuse in someone’s ears and waving banners and charging at them. It seems to me that they are shouting at the wrong people! Sadly, we need the police because human beings cannot always be trusted to act in a rational, loving, manner toward each other. 

On the other hand, shepherds watch their sheep, their flock is the centre of their thoughts and hearts. They look out for danger, and make sure that they are leading the sheep to good food and water. However, lest we think that shepherds are always nice, I would like to mention that shepherds have something I call a whacker! A nice long bit of hard wood with a knob on the end. Shepherds protect their sheep with said whacker. Some people call it a shepherd’s crook. The shepherd’s crook is useful to fish sheep out of water, as well as thorny bushes and holes. It is also useful for bopping dumb sheep on the head if they keep wandering off, or biting other sheep!  

Now, the whacker doesn’t really hurt the sheep, because the idea is to stun the stupid creature into some semblance of sense — not to have roast lamb on Sunday. Besides, it is a well known fact sheep have really really hard skulls. Nowadays, we also have brilliant dogs who are well trained and they nip at the heels of any silly wandering sheep and bark loudly at them. Because said sheep are easily frightened, they run away from the beast that bites. Not so dumb after all! Let’s hope that we don’t just see the creature as a potential lamb sandwich with pickles.

If the riotous, aforementioned, sheeple crowd had a brain in their heads, they too would run away from the lines of armed police, before they get injured. Some public figure idiot with a big mouth told our citizens that they have the right to say whatever they want to say. They call that free speech. That is a rumour. In other countries that law applies, but it is not part of this country’s constitution. Which is why it is best not to go on a protest!  

So here I am, back at my point, after meandering on about like a sheeple for a while. I will refresh my question:  in your family —  are you a policeman or a shepherd? Do you enforce the law? Maybe you have grave concerns that the rules must be kept or bad things will happen? Are you prepared to use force, vocal or otherwise, to maintain those rules? OR, are you a shepherd, daily walking and leading your sheep, watching out for good water, and green pastures? Are you willing to do whatever is required to rescue a dumb sheeple if it becomes necessary?  You are there to lead, and guide, and care for your own personal flock. 

What do you think is more important to you? Maintaining some sort of unwritten status quo, so you can cope with your already overcrowded busy life whilst trying to fit your kids in around everything else? Or raising loving human beings who care about the next guy? Ministers and pastors aren’t the only people who have a flock, parents do as well. Is it your aim to be the kind of shepherd that will go after a lost sheep, as well as carry an injured one home? Or do you rule your family with a rod of iron whilst standing safely behind your shield of –“I’m the boss!”

Let’s see what God says by looking at a couple of Psalms, 127:3&4: “Children are an inheritance from the Lord. They are a reward from Him. The children born to a man when he is young are like arrows in the hand of a warrior.” Psalm 102:28:“The children of Your servants will live in Your presence;  their descendants will be established before You.”

Lastly, I just want to mention that the police are great but they are dispassionate, they are doing a job. They are enforcing rules for societal good. In contrast, a true shepherd is passionate, he cares for every single sheep, knows it by name, and will go to great lengths to keep it safe. Our children are the arrows of the present we fire into the future. What will you and I leave behind us — the memory of a policeman or a shepherd? In the school holidays I had a tendency to turn into a policeman — just to survive! Bye …👋

P 2699 Nothing happens by chance.

/ DVH

I read this yesterday, and I thought it might be a blessing for others. It’s an exhortation from the translators of the Passion bible written by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez: It’s a great word, it lifted my spirit and I hope it does you good as well. We’ve been blessing people all week, and today it’s your turn! The Lord says to YOU –

“Come into the secret place and find encouragement that waters your thirsty soul. I have words of life to share with you today and living-understanding to strengthen you. Run into the shelter of My presence and let My love wash over you in a fresh way. I don’t offer stale bread to My hungry lovers. Eat of My now word. Tune your ear to My Voice.

Give Me the heavy weight of the burden of fear you are carrying. There may be uncertainty in your life, but I see everything clearly. There are no mysteries to Me, and I won’t let the tides of confusion sweep you away. See how My hand holds you steady. You cannot escape the grip of My glorious grace, child. 

What wondrous plans I have for you. What a future you have in Me. Let Me guide you further into My goodness as you follow My leading. I promise never to let you go or get too far ahead. I give you eyes to see from My perspective. Look to Me, and nothing will ever shatter your hope.”

Praise God for their gift of exhortation! Moving on to some real life testimonies … … we had a brief break last week and it seemed to us that the Lord is much more ready for us to speak to people than we are to do it! Any time we go anywhere, we find that there are suddenly numerous opportunities to talk to strangers. In the shops, or even to tradesmen in our home.

At our house, we have had some things break down and afterward we realised what happened wasn’t about the broken item … it was about us talking to the person who came to fix it!  We’ve seen this over and over again, Father God will bring people to us. He really is looking for His kids to share the wealth of heart knowledge He has given all of us. We need to freely talk about Him! This past week we have had all kinds of opportunities to encourage strangers..

While we were away, the internet in our rented holiday unit fell over, so a tech guy turned up to fix it. We were chatting away to each other, and we just included this guy in our conversation. After about five minutes, told us he had been very sick recently and he was very scared because he thought he might have had cancer. Now that is definitely God! People rarely go that deep that quickly with strangers!!

This young man went on to say they discovered it was coeliac’s disease. So hubby prayed for him. Meanwhile, the silly internet still kept blanking out…!!  You know, God isn’t interested in our comfort, but He IS always interested in people. Like I’ve said before, knowing His Ways helps a lot!

On Tuesday this week, a carer came to our house to clean the floors for us. To be truthful, I was a bit annoyed because I found out that our usual lady wasn’t coming …again! I never do these spiritual sums until afterward – I guess I’m a slow learner!! It has taken me four weeks to work out that we’ve not had our usual helper each time because the Lord wanted us to talk to other helpers about Him! 🙄 

This particular young woman was delightful and we very much enjoyed her company. She did a great job too. We had a very profitable time talking about her life, our lives, and the Lord. So much so she said; “I could stay here all day!” She also kept saying, over and over again: “There is so much joy in this house, I’ve never been in a home with this much joy before.”  You know, sometimes I’m so dumb I don’t notice things, unless the Holy Spirit sticks a great big “look here, dummy” sign on it! Hmm… you might think I’m joking … I’m NOT!

Hubby decided to call ahead to a place we are going to be staying at next week, as we make our way up north to give away bibles. He spoke about bringing blankets, toiletries and food for the poor. The young lady on the phone nearly came through the phone she was so excited. Apparently most small towns are quite overlooked when it comes to government aid. However the Holy Spirit personally picked that town. Who knew they had a homeless problem there? He did. 

I just want to finish today by saying that the Lord’s plans for us, to bless us, include everyone around us. Nothing happens by chance. It is good to see even inconvenient interruptions as opportunities for His kingdom. Bye 👋

1 Peter 2:9 ESV“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”

P 2692 “But God!”

/ DVH

There are days when I look at a blank page and think — ‘really?’ Time to write another blog? Didn’t I just do that yesterday? And the day before that!… And the day before that …! 🤣 Meanwhile nobody makes me do this stuff but me. Right now, I’m sitting on a sofa in the lounge of a 6th floor apartment. Some terribly clever, far sighted person built this building right next to the ocean. Praise God we are in the Penthouse – would you believe? We were given an upgrade. Wow! The things the Lord does when we aren’t looking. 

It feels like I can step into the scenic picture that is right outside the huge wall of glass windows. Hubby took a photo so you can see how lovely it is. I’ve been sitting here mesmerised, watching the huge waves roll on and on hypnotically. Check out the tiny man in the left hand corner. Those are BIG WAVES! But even waves calm down and find their way quietly to the sand. After a while you realise you’ve been sitting staring out of the window for a half an hour with a goofy blank look on your face! 🤪 For me there is something about watching the ocean that zones me out. 

A-ny-wa-y, hubby sent me the verse I’ve put down below —and it totally inspired me. When I read it today, I realised Father God is at work in all of us with the same ferocity I can see in those waves. The bible has so many verses like these, verses that show us His heart and passion toward us. The praise we raise to Him is simply our grateful response, as we see glimpses of His glory and purpose for our lives.

“Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for His miraculous power constantly energises you. Now we offer up to God all the glorious praise that rises from every church in every generation through Jesus Christ—and all that will yet be manifest through time and eternity. Amen!” Ephesians 3:20-21 TPT.

Now there is something to sink our teeth into. And just for fun, here’s another one! “…for it is God Who is working in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  Philippians 2:13. How reassuring is that! Sometimes it can seem life is banging us about like a loose door in a fierce wind. You can barely get your breath. Instead of striding here and there as an overcomer, you feel more like a potato listlessly waiting to be made into chips and be done with it! Bin there, dun that!

Remember those two words I mentioned a couple of days ago, verses that I really love? “But GOD …” Our wonderful Father God has a plan – He always has a plan! It’s a good plan to help us through all the difficult things this life chucks at us while we are not looking! His plan is for here and now – not one day in the future, pie in the sky when we die. Take a good look at your day today, maybe right now, you can’t see anything good about it – I have days like that too. All I can see some days are the four walls hemming me in. But today, I have a view, and the ocean is just doing its little thing!

There are days when I specifically pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help me to see with His eyes. Enlightened eyes. Spirit-filled eyes. Eyes that can see the things around me. Sometimes I open the Word and go looking for things He said, just for fun. And at other times I play music on Youtube. You can go anywhere in the world on Youtube. If only I could afford to scrap the ads! Youtube ads are like SatNav in the car, always interrupting something you are enjoying!!

So some days I ask Holy Spirit to help me to find something beautiful to look at. Things don’t have to be expensive to be fun, actually simple stuff can often give us the most fun. Our daughter and our grandson went outside yesterday, with three different sorts of bubble makers, from Kmart, and had a bubble duel. Hilarious!! There’s nothing like bubbles in the sunlight to inspire you with the transitory nature of happiness. I exhort you to let yourself be silly now and then – let the child inside you come out to play. It’s a great stress reliever.

Life, all by itself, can give us plenty to be sad about … stopping to smell the flowers will lift anyone’s spirits. And… YouTube kittens…well, they make anyone smile. You would have to be a zombie with one foot on a banana peel to not laugh at the antics of baby animals. I know there are days when you have no words – and that’s OK – your mum probably told you there would be days like that…  “BUT GOD!!….” Bye for now  … 👋

P 2654 Give yourself a break!

/ DVH

Actually, I don’t mean take a holiday – I mean cut yourself some slack. It is too easy to become formulaic in our faith. We think things like: ‘if I do and say this, then He will do and say that.’ It seems like we think the Lord is a vending machine. We stand in front of it, stamping our foot – getting crosser by the minute because we did everything we were supposed to do … and …nothing happened … things stayed the same.  Then we rummage about trying to figure out what we’ve done wrong because God is always active on our behalf and where’s our answer? I dunno … I learnt years ago I am as dumb as the dirt I came from! 

But I do know this … Almighty God is not afraid of inactivity. Between Malachi and Christ’s birth 400 years went by. Here’s something to reflect on — in that time there would have been Godly men and women who died waiting for an answer. Nobody likes that thought! Yet Christ went through everything He did into His terrible death, and His grave and nothing stopped any of it. That shows us that God has greater purposes. We often have to wait for the greater purpose to manifest. Other things simply must be endured, and we will need to learn to do that with faith, grace, and love … However, sadly, those graces will not take endurance off the menu! 

I also know that as individuals we can hold up our own personal change by being disobedient. Maybe we simply refuse to look at things that need transformation, or we feel that change in my life is impossible. Perhaps we even trot out well-worn excuses,…”My family is like this… it’s just who I am … other people are so picky … “  What we are really saying is: “I don’t believe I need to change God… I expect You to change Your mind … OR …You could change THEM!”  We sing songs and read in the book that nothing is impossible with God, but that goes right out of the window when it touches our inner rebellion. We are afraid of change.  BTW, about the excuse:  “My family is like this…” you joined a new family remember? There’s that excuse done and dusted!!

Years ago, I had the dearest friend who used to tell me when she was praying about something really important that she thought God had gone skiing or something because there was no response. What she said was a joke … but, at the same time, it wasn’t a joke … she was referring to the fact that His silence scared her. Rightly so, sometimes silence means NO. The Lord holds the future, and maybe that idea we have won’t hold water in the future He has planned for our lives. 

Jeremiah teaches us that HE “… know(s) the plans He has for us, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11.So what we think we need, or even want, may not be in the plans He has for us. At other times we simply need to live through our disappointment, and talk to Him about that. Either way, He’s always the Answer! The Lord simply isn’t sharing His thoughts with us at that time. That doesn’t  mean we have committed some dastardly sin – it could mean that we have an opportunity to keep banging on the door. Like the guy in the parable Jesus told. That guy needed bread for his visitors.

This is why I’ve learnt to leave things with Him. I ask Him for revelation, and then expect that when He is ready to share with me, something will pop up in my bible reading, or someone will say something, and my heart will recognise His voice, in their voice. And sometimes the circumstances have already changed, it just took me a while to notice it! I’m a bit slow that way …

My point today is, it is not good to beat yourself up and wonder what you did wrong after you have prayed about it and you still can’t hear Him, or you seem to have lost the path. If you know you did something stupid then fix it. Doing that side-steps a whole lot of angst. At the same time let Him be God and you be you. Mistakes are going to be made! He is perfectly capable of redirecting our paths. “…He will make straight our paths …”Sometimes our mistakes seem to be real clangers … I’ve made loads of them! 

Yet, because He is our wonderful Father, the glorious Creator, the One Who sets us free – He can take our surrendered spirit of disobedience or stupid, and make something beautiful out of it. He made the world out of nothing. Taking our sometimes wilfully shattered lives, and making something incredible out of them, is what He does. Give yourself a break – He won’t give up on you, so don’t give up on yourself.

I’ve found that self-flagellation accomplishes very little, surrender accomplishes far more. It softens our spirits and helps us to remain humble. I pray all the time:  ‘Lord, I want what You want.’ Amen. And then I forgetaboudit until He brings it up. Bye. 👋