Generous

P 2520 Where’s your storage unit?

/ DVH

“But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed.” Romans 2:5. Yeah, this is one of those verses we rush over hoping it doesn’t apply to us, right? 😳 Personally, I think it is important to get the Lord to search our hearts regularly, and make sure we are storing up good stuff, not just clinging to the bad by default. That includes hoarding grudges, other people’s mistakes, plus the things that have been deliberately, even maliciously, done against you. 

Life is too short to live like that. Things can change in a heartbeat —- nothing is certain. Right now, on the other side of the world in Iceland, people’s homes and contents are being incinerated by a rogue volcanic display. They are powerless to do anything about it. My question today is this: what have we saved in our personal heart-storage unit, that is actually being carelessly facilitated by our day-to-day behaviour? Moving on …

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.  Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”

1 Timothy 6:17-19.

I get why some people aren’t thrilled with the bible, it is so totally chock full of absolutes! Things like these verses for instance! However in comparison to a lot of the world we live in today, in our country we are rich. We have somewhere to sleep, food in the fridge or cupboard, and our kids can go to school. God hasn’t asked us to go without these things, however … I believe the scripture shows us that He IS asking us to think about others and SHARE. He calls that, “good deeds.” I am not saying that we shouldn’t own anything, but what I can hear the Lord saying is that NoBody, as in no thing … but Jesus Himself … should OWN US!If we can’t live without it – it owns us!

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Matthew 6:19,20. And right here is the reason why it is not good for our things to own us!  This world has many ways of siphoning off our things and finances. Giving to Jesus is storing wealth up in heaven. Plus it is also a fantastic kind of pest control … that way we will eliminate rats and moths – stuff that winkles away our money without us realising it.  We just give everything we have to the Lord and leave it there. Let Him be in charge of our stuff. When we begin to understand that we actually own nothing, then nobody can steal from us.

Just FYI, I think it is important to protect and treat the things God has given us carefully and responsibly. However, this verse is actually talking about storage, where to put stuff … and … where not to put it!  Almighty God is not against us having things — remember He gave the Israelites land they did not plow and houses they did not build! He’s a generous God! BUT …“Speaking to the people, Jesus continued, “Be alert and guard your heart from greed and from always wishing for what you don’t have. For your life can never be measured by the amount of things you possess.”” Luke 12:15 TPT.

Coveting and greed will distract us so fast we can easily forget our calling! Again, the Lord’s focus is talking about the state of our hearts, not our stuff. So many people in this world do not have their basic needs met. EG: fresh water, food, somewhere to safely sleep etc. Just because these terrible things haven’t happened to us, that does not mean we can hide ourselves, or insulate ourselves against other people’s needs … the bible even tells us clearly in Isaiah not ‘to hide ourselves from the needs of our own families.’ Isaiah 58:7.

It is not in our mandate to assess whether people deserve help or not, our place is to simply help those in need. In particular, widows and orphans. Our God is very protective over widows and orphans and the homeless poor. Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:14-18;  – there are heaps of verses in Deuteronomy! Psalm 68:5-6; Jeremiah  22:1-3;  1 Timothy 5:3-8; 9-11; 16;  James 1:27; and Acts 6:1-4. 

BTW, a widow in the biblical sense is not necessarily someone whose husband has died, she can be a married woman whose husband has deserted her. An orphan can be someone who has an absent father, not just parents who died. Our wonderful God has a heart for the lonely, the downtrodden, and the supposed rejects in our societies. When we care for people like these, we are using the right storage unit. We are storing things up in heaven. God sees what we do and He takes note of these things. Ya might want to Selah that for the rest of your life and let it become a Way of life. Bye. 👋

P 2500 Whatever occupies your thoughts will rule you.

/ DVH

“An elder, talking to a child, says, “I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is fearful, vengeful, envious, resentful and deceitful. The other wolf is compassionate, loving, generous, truthful and peaceful.” The child asks, “Which wolf will win the fight?” The elder responds, “The one I feed.”’ A Cherokee Indian proverb.

It’s kind of a no-brainer really, whatever we invest our time, money, and energy in, rules us. Oh, the futility of allowing ourselves to be pushed about by our anger or appetites. The worst thing ev-er is when someone you trust does something dumb … they are, after all, human beings (!)  … and so you feel betrayed. That’s when what happened starts rolling around in your mind – maybe it even stops you from sleeping. “How could they do such a thing? Didn’t they know that would hurt me? Maybe they even meant too …!!!???”

It seems that perhaps we are starting to build a case against someone else. Meanwhile satan stands at our elbow happily chucking those kind of thoughts, plus reminding us of other ones about that person – even the things we forgot …into our memory bank.. A-n-d, we are grumpy so we refuse to shut the gate to those thoughts because …we’re feeling sorry for ourselves. We’ve been deeply wounded and wronged. It isn’t a misinterpretation, an accident, or a whoopsie – someone actually wounded us. What are we going to do about it?

Unfortunately, then it becomes easy to start what I call – the opinion poll. The opinion poll is when we begin to tell others about what happened to us. We probably start that process out in kind of a sweet-ish, sad way, after all we don’t want others to think that we are bad people! But pretty soon, the sweetness goes out of the window and we are pulling the other person apart like they are a loaf of bread and we’re hungry. Now we really have a case against them because … OTHER PEOPLE AGREE WITH US that they treated us badly!  Maybe you get my drift – you’ve bin there and dun that yourself. No? Lucky you! For those of us who have acted that way … in these moments we are feeding the wrong wolf and doing that will devour US and gobble up our faith.

Here are some scriptures that have helped me escape from that sticky web.. “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Matthew 7:2.“Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10. “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”Philippians 4:8. Right here we have the diagnosis and the cure.

Now is the time to give up rehearsing someone else’s sins and start looking for the good in what happened – before you go down the plug hole and lose several days, weeks, months …?years? … to something not worthy of even 10 seconds of your time. No, I am not nuts … at least I hope not! 😶 But the person who wounded us has exposed a chink in our spiritual, mental and physical armour. They found that chink for us. It was probably accidental, BUT, whatever … it is still useful! Some attitudes are sneaky, they stay hidden. It is absolutely brilliant when somebody else exposes those things for us, whether they found that attitude on purpose or not. It gives us a chance to see what is going on in our own hearts. 

At this point it is tempting to simply repent, and forgive the other person, as well as actively remembering not to ruminate over the incident. BUT! In my experience ignoring revelation about who we really are is dumb. We all have our weaknesses, and if we can stand back with the Holy Spirit (LOVE HIMSELF), by our side, and let Him show us if there was truth in what was said or done … we will gain something to be thankful for!  At the same time, we can ask the Lord to heal that actual wound He helped us uncover, so we can feed the ‘good wolf,’ some good food. Somewhere in the past, we probably believed a lie and we needed the Lord to expose that lie and … heal the wound. 

My point today is, whatever occupies your thoughts rules you. Hubby said that like this to me yesterday: ‘Let’s pretend someone hates the colour brown. They won’t wear it, can’t stand it, avoid it, and actively dislike others who like that colour… Those people do not realise that BROWN is now ruling their lives, it has become their god.’  I laughed heaps, and because it was such an accurate scenario I was inspired to pass it on. Yeah. Now there’s more food for thought! 👋🏻

P 2493 Are we fruitful?

/ DVH

The Lord God told Adam and Eve in Genesis to be fruitful and multiply, and I do not believe that  He has taken that directive back. We have sometimes translated that phrase into meaning we should have children. Here’s what I want to talk about today, what if that was also a spiritual directive as well as a physical one? Ya might want to think about that! 🧐 BTW, fruit-ful means full of fruit!

Jesus once cursed a fig-tree for not being fruitful. What that shows me is that fruit is extremely important to Him! The Lord also talked at length about remaining in the Vine, so WE can produce fruit. His fruit in our lives is an exhibition of His life in us, it shows us, and others, that we are abiding – we are living in Him; His ways; His life-giving light – by choice.

The Lord Jesus has a different way for you and I to live, but I think sometimes we would rather fit that new life in and around all the things we like to do, or maybe even feel we have to do. We sing and say that ‘He is our comfort, and joy,’ but do we take away that comfort and joy from being with Him, when we have a quiet time? Being close to, and attached to Him, produces fruit – stuff we have for ourselves and stuff that prompts us to think of others.

It cost Father God everything He cherished to buy us back. Our response is to live this life by presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice. A sacrifice actually involves loss – of time, control, people, or things. We own NOTHING. Owning stuff is an illusion. Sadly I think we are often missing our true mandate — the opportunity to use our time to be fruitful for His kingdom, by sharing material things with others.

Jesus didn’t play racquet ball or golf, or have a boat, and I’m pretty sure the only book He studied was the bible. He liked to spend His downtime with people. He knew how to live this life here on earth and be fruitful while He was doing it. Meanwhile, if He was in a boat then somebody else owned it and He was using it to reach out to … other people! 

Pursuing the growth of real fruit in our lives, by learning His Ways, and living the way He would – transforms us. We need to remember the King of all glory, is lowly and gentle in His heart. He demonstrated those traits by caring for those who were suffering for any reason. Many times at the bottom of our pitiful, less-than generous response to the poor all over this world, is entitlement, greed, and laziness. If we are not careful we will end up constantly exhibiting a distinct lack of love for our fellow man. No demonstrated love = no fruit! The sap of the Lord’s vine is LOVE.

FYI, nobody likes suffering or pain – no matter where we were born! It seems as if we Christians have laid aside our responsibility to care for our fellow man. Jesus warns us about that stuff in the book of Revelation 3:17.“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” People who do not give freely lack love! That’s why the Lord said we need to be cheerful givers. That cheer is the sap!

Those of us who can work, need to find ways to provide for those who can’t work, or have nothing. It’s simple. Help people who need help. Deciding whether people deserve it or not is a sign of entitlement. We simply must stop thinking that the privilege of wealth is a right and if we earn stuff then it is ours.  We have been blessed with material things to be a blessing. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,”Matthew 6:21. In my opinion, the line indicating that we have enough, which means maybe now we can share,  is always moving away from us. We need to be chasing His fruit – it lasts!

Paul said in Acts 20:32-35 “You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus Himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”The Apostle Paul worked hard to supply his own needs, as well as for the needs of those who went with Him. That sharing is a sign of living this life being fruitful!  He was showing all of us that it is NORMAL to think about, and supply the needs of others. It is not an optional extra, sharing and giving are signs of the life of the Kingdom within. 👋🏻

P 2466 Get soaked, and stay soaking wet!

/ DVH

“Now may God, the fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in Him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with His super-abundance until you RADIATE with hope!” Romans 15:13. Do you know how you get drenched by a fountain? You stand under it. Not just stand beside it playing with the water — you jump on in and enjoy it!

When things are difficult, no matter how awful they seem to be, we need to continue to choose to trust, and look for God’s unfailing goodness and love, even as we read the bible. More than anything else, we all need to know how much we are loved. Plus we can always ask the Holy Spirit for His help and encouragement. He is incredibly generous. He loves to be with people who want to be with Him. The Holy Spirit is God’s fountain of love here on earth. He needs to be cherished, appreciated and sought after.

This life is never going to make seeking God a convenient thing to do. Unexpected bad things happen all the time and they are a huge distraction. The main thing needs to be the main thing in our lives. Jesus loves mankind so deeply – that is the main thing! He is not just an add-on so we can have eternity afterwards! This life now is not about making money, or finding a mate, or earning a living, or having a job or house. As we follow the Lord the things we need will be added unto us. This life is about learning to love others, and spreading the acceptance and love we have been given, around. We have the love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts.

Humanity is slowly but surely stepping away from engaging in caring human interaction – we’ve reduced most things to sex. We’ve even got fancy, or sad-sounding names for the way we behave. It seems our enemy has taken our focus off enjoying the Lord, and walking with Him, and onto excuses about why we are not perfect. There are doctors with more degrees than a thermometer telling us we are OK when we behave badly, because sadly we can’t help the way we think or react to things … because we have this or that complaint. Or our past or parents did stuff to us that messed us up… Instead let’s call sin, sin – and forgive it and repent, then personally leave it behind us. Jesus died to make us perfect, we don’t need psychological  excuses for being broken! Sin will break anyone.

Did you ever once hear Jesus say to others that this or that person needed inner healing? Did He tell the Romans or the religious leaders that they were narcissists? Did He ever talk about sadness as being normal? No! He provided what people around Him needed when He demonstrated the love of God through what He said and did. That’s our mandate too. He knew His purpose and He did what He came here for. You and I are here for a purpose, to spread His love around to His needy hungry children around us, who don’t know how much He loves them.

We must learn to trust in God’s never-ending, always-present glorious and deeply engaged LOVE. He loves us and that love is a never-ending fountain. He hasn’t gone away just because some bad thing or other has happened in our lives …His love is powerful, and Jesus Christ Himself, is proof of how much God loves us. We all have a calling – even if we are rich, or poor, or fat, or thin, or clever, or not clever, or talented or not talented … our calling is to be His love to other people. Step up into the higher calling. Jesus is there. His love in us and for us is that fountain.

All of the Lord’s disciples had horrible lives in the natural. They suffered persecution for righteousness sake. Dreadful things happened to them. But their strength did not come from their circumstances. They held their hope in Who He is and what He did – fast. “Our help is in the name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 124:8. These brave souls lived this life as dead men and women walking. They didn’t have any agenda except to see His kingdom come. Almighty God was not just an alternate source of help … He was their ONLY source of help. That’s what faith is … faith does not have one foot in this world and its resources;  faith stands firmly, joyfully under the fountain of His love knowing that He is for us no matter what is going on around us. 

Christians have become apathetic and indifferent to the very things that are meant to sustain us. We think we don’t have this stuff because we don’tfeel it. But His love will sustain us. At the same time we are minimising the amount of heavenly water supply we have available. We do that to ourselves by withdrawing from Him… He will never withdraw from us. Jesus said, ‘love God FIRST, with all your hearts and souls, minds and strength.’ That’s how we stand under His fountain. Living this way is not just for a few people  who have special spiritual abilities. It’s for all of us, right here right now. Splash others who don’t know Him, with that living water from the fountain of life. 💦 👋🏻 

P 2444 You can never have too much wrapping paper!

/ DVH

1 Peter 4:8-11 MSG “…Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright Presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and He’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!”

My precious mother-in-law used to love to hoard non-perishable items. As she has aged and become less mobile she can’t do that anymore – but boy did she have fun back way back when! She once opened up a cupboard up at her house so I could see inside it, and it was filled to the brim with large packets of toilet paper. There must have been at least 30 large packets stacked neatly inside. As there were only two people in the house at the time, I was kind of astonished. “It was on special,” she said, cheerfully … as if that explained everything!

At the same time she also collected enough Christmas wrapping paper to supply a major chain store … “It’s cheap after Christmas,” she said giggling. All of this hoarding was, of course, meant to be a big secret from my father-in-law … but I strongly suspect that he knew. We could not go to their house without collecting more toilet paper and Christmas wrapping paper than we could fit into our luggage on the return trip home! Somehow, the fact that she thought it was a secret that she successfully hid from her husband, made the whole thing so much more fun.

At the same time, my father-in-law’s favourite gift to his son was undies, and sometimes shoes. We have had some adventures with that stuff too. In the end my hubby had to tell his dad that he didn’t wear spiderman undies anymore – like the ones he wore when he was 10!  So his dad was wasting his money. That raised some eyebrows, because Chinese parents are extremely old fashioned in their taste and my hubby is not!  In the same vein, my father-in-law also occasionally sends hubby a pair of his own very expensive shoes, comfy ones, that he has only worn once or twice. I gather when you come through a war, as they had in Singapore, it makes you very frugal …

…Meanwhile, my own mother was always trying to give me her old clothes. That went on for years, because she was sick of them, but apparently they still had “wear” in them. I was sorely tempted to walk about saying ‘Lifeline’ and ‘St Vincent de Paul’ a lot! The fact that there is 20 years difference in our ages – and taste (!) didn’t seem to matter much to her. In the end, I had to go right past “I’m insulted” to “She’s just being generous and hates waste.” 😂 There could sometimes be a very very long journey between those two emotions, and those times were fraught with a whole lotta angst! 

Now let’s go back to my father-in-law’s almost new, hardly worn shoes.They started an adventure. The Lord told us to take this pair of very expensive shoes with us as we set out on one of our trips. … they were Rockports, BTW. So we stuffed them in the leg space under the back seat and wondered what God was up to now!  We asked Him to point out the new owner when we met them. It transpired that the Lord had His gracious loving eye on a very tall sparrow in a tiny place called Inglewood. In the end, would you believe, those shoes went to a man we briefly met at a cafe as we were passing through?

Incredibly, they were his favorite colour and his exact size! Plus he had prayed in desperation and asked God for a new pair of Rockport shoes for his work, just the night before, because his old ones were falling off his feet! Trust me, you can’t easily buy that kind of specialist shoe in outback Queensland! The man gave his life to the Lord on the spot – he was so excited to meet a God Who answers that kind of prayer. When we thought about it later, we gave almost new shoes that had been previously owned by a Chinese man in Melbourne, to a Middle Eastern man in outback Queensland!!  Go figure!

We will never know where generosity will take us or what it will teach us. Until I read the above verse today I had no idea that God actually approves of this kind of recycling of clothes and goods. All our individual parents were doing, apparently, was obeying the word of God. Who knew? NOT ME! They were just being God’s ‘hearty helpers.’ Then the Holy Spirit kissed the whole thing by leading someone else to Jesus.🙌

The semi-illicit Christmas wrapping paper and copious toilet paper rolls have long since run out, and we no longer get spiderman undies through the mail … praise the Lord! My father-in-law’s old shoes still occasionally turn up via the postman, but the last pair were just perfect for hubby’s very sore feet. 🙌  However the lessons learnt will not quickly fade. Our God loves us to share and be generous with whatever we have at hand. Meanwhile, maybe our parents aren’t trying to interfere. Maybe they too are just trying to be hearty helpers. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2410 Forgiveness means living creatively.

/ DVH

“Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.” Galatians 6:1-3 MSG.

Isn’t it astonishing that living a forgiving, humble, generous life full of redemption – is called living creatively? I must have skipped that aspect of this verse about a zillion times over the years – it simply didn’t register. Does Paul mean we are meant to make-up attitudes and actions? No, I don’t think so. I think he is saying that living a forgiving life is introducing opportunities to create new scenarios, new possibilities … change. Unfortunately, sadly …I think all forms of judgment will close that down! Ya might want to think on that one. 

Did you get that when somebody you know falls into sin we have the opportunity and the power to release change and forgiveness? Yeah. US. We can often think of ourselves as powerless in this life, there are so many other people out there who appear to have way more influence than we have. Yet here Paul talks about our God-given inherent ability to restore someone else by our attitudes and actions, by using the redemptive transformative tools of compassion, mercy and grace. If you truly desire to be like Jesus, this is the way. This is what He did.

Thinkaboudit. That’s real power. Not the fakey-fake stuff, that is here today and gone tomorrow. That’s the rubbish stuff this world admires. We have the power to change forever, for someone else. At that moment of forgiving and helping we are reaching out into eternity – releasing someone else’s destiny. That’s not real shabby is it? Think of the people who are trying to love those difficult people.  Unseen and unheralded, many, many people choose to live in pain – because they are holding on tightly to the promise of breakthrough in someone else’s life. They are using their faith to hold fast to new possibilities. I call that creative thinking as well as creative living!

I think this verse is at the heart of the problems many of us have in our interpersonal relationships. I’ve done it myself … I forgive and forgive and forgive … and then suddenly … ‘Now that’s it! I’m angry. You’ve gone too far!! I’ve forgiven you heaps of times and yet you are still being horrible toward me. How many chances do you want?? I’ve had enough!’ Tragically, self-talk can make or break us at this point. People talk all the time about positive self-talk, yet this particular aspect is ignored. We can self-talk ourselves into hatred and bitterness – not just a poor self-image.

Paul presents another unique thought right here – next time it could be my turn. It’s funny how the things that someone else does are deeply wounding and offensive, but when I do the same thing, or worse … then I didn’t mean any harm! That thought makes me quite nauseous in its accuracy. I like the realism of Paul’s phrasing …I might be needing forgiveness by the end of the day. Ya got that right!  As soon as I enter into judging you and wondering if I really do have to forgive someone who continually hurts me – I’ve fallen into a worse hole than they are in!

Did you also get the bit where Paul says… stoop down? This poor sinful schmuck is so convicted at this time, he’s on the floor. People living real raw lives often end up there. Life just kind of knocks them down and they can’t get up. Now that is something that I can identify with. Being flat on the floor, unable to stand with sorrow and conviction weighing me down;  because the realisation that I have sinned, by disobeying and hurting somebody else, has flattened me.

I also think many people are often oppressed by the enemy … however they are deceived into thinking his attitudes are really theirs … all that is far more common than we know. Just because it pops up in your brain that doesn’t mean it’s your thought! Take it captive. Sadly, at the same time, attributing mean, spiteful and unkind behaviour to someone who dearly wants to be an obedient child of God, is a total tragedy. That’s your brother or sister down there on that floor. Meanwhile I’ve learnt that holding a grudge or gloating won’t just hurt them … it hurts me. 

Christ’s law is the law of Love and there is no timetable for the law of Love. It doesn’t have an expiry date either. Praise God! Boy am I glad about that!! You know, sometimes we can concentrate on other people’s sins so intently, we put blinders on. We can’t see anything else … including our own attitudes. But Paul sorts that out right here, in Galatians. This is the best remedy for a wrong attitude – help them and hold onto the thought that any minute it might be your turn! Forgiveness means living creatively. 👋🏻

P 2406 True kindness – not the mushy kind.

/ DVH

The Lord wants us to be kind the way He is kind – He is kind to the sinner, as well as the saint – He shows no partiality. Kindness can open up a heart far better and faster than any probing, or carefully crafted questions. Whenever we think about approaching other people … kindness needs to be our motivation. We need this fruit of the Holy Spirit activated and operating through us. Active in us – means we understand that when God or a brother or sister points out a fault in us, they are being kind. Christians are always ready and unafraid to be corrected, because we own and rectify our untoward actions and attitudes. We have a secret – WE HAVE A SAVIOUR. 

One of the best things to put far from our minds when we are talking to strangers, or friends, is whether they are Christians or not. We need get rid of this isolationist idea that we have one face in church and another outside it. I urge you to simply be the same person at all times. To start with, there will be huge untold benefits —- you will do what you do with sincerity and true kindness, and other people will be impacted.  

Hiding our sins from others gives the enemy an opportunity to shoot us at the worst possible moment. Our sin is gone, not disguised. Many Christians hide their sins because they hate to be seen to be wrong —I dunno why?!?! We have been permanently set free and we are now open to be led by Him. Honesty means humility. Win win! However wearing a nice veneer leaves no room for acts of faith. The Holy Spirit loves all things to be open. Hiding our sin from ourselves and each other, is a sign of pride. But a humble heart gladly repents and makes reparation. If we are not careful we can treat being changed like it is our enemy – transformation into His likeness is always a JOY. 

Meanwhile pride is the stuff that will make anyone fall over quicker than a runner who trips on a shoelace. The bible says:“It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance.”Here that verse is in the MSG version:“You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because He’s such a nice God, He’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but He’s not soft. In kindness He takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.”Romans 2:4.

Isn’t that version a hoot? Because if we are truthful, sometimes this is exactly the way we think. We think He will be kind to us because … because… “I can’t help it. I had a hard life and my parents were mean to me … blah  blah blah… I hate my job and it’s not my fault… blah blah blah. Because my spouse is mean to me and my kids don’t listen to a word I say… I know God understands that when I shout I don’t mean it….” … This sort of attitude denies the power of the cross. Be real! Admit your faults – then you can get on with living life His Way instead. Being fake excludes the power of the Spirit.

God’s idea of kindness includes discipline. “The Lord disciplines those He loves.” God loves us but He won’t put up with our stuff. The stuff has to go! It is stopping us from being all we can be. His huge, very real love, challenges anything and everything that will stop us from growing up into the fullness of Christ. Any parent will tell you that it knows their kid’s potential, and when the little darlings go on and on about ‘it’s not my fault, the teacher is so mean to me!’ An engaged parent will see through that. And so does the Lord. Everything is an opportunity for us to know HIM better … this side of heaven.

Here’s what I’ve learnt – we can only avoid change for so long, and then the Lord kind of squishes us into a corner where we have to look at whatever it is … and despite our pretty pictures of a God Who is more like Santa Claus – He won’t let us out! This is when He is being incredibly kind to us. He never demands that we succeed – instead He wants our participation, our willingness to engage with Him in His processes. And that has nothing whatsoever to do with simply agreeing that what we are doing is not Godly! We need to learn to apply God-given answers and deal with ourselves. Real faith grows with application and demonstration.

Godly kindness will open doors that have been slammed shut by pain, betrayal, anguish, grief, and hopelessness. Human kindness will eventually get fed up, and give up! God’s kind of love perseveres. Its only requirement is that it is genuine. And there is nothing like staying real, to release the sort of kindness that heals and impacts someone else’s life. Kindness means forgiveness is always ready to make an appearance – it doesn’t demand a penalty because it knows the penalty has been paid.

In the kindness of our God, our faith and beliefs are open to anyone… so we need to be open, generous, truthful and considerate with other people, no matter how they treat us. That’s how we spread what He did for mankind around, and it is what true kindness looks like. 👋🏻

P 2331 Hard times do not mean that God has left us.

/ DVH

Boy, is that sometimes a faith statement!! Hard times however, do st-re-t-ch us, and that is definitely no fun. Growth of any kind is hard work. I remind myself that His Grace is enough. It is astonishing what you can see if you stop focussing on the difficulty and focus on His Grace instead. After my recent accident, my broken humerus has had to grow enough bone to reattach itself to the head of the bone. Imagine that. What an amazing thing, I am literally growing new bone as I type this! At my age!!

I have not been given any medicine or specific treatment to help this healing. Rather I’ve been engaged in physical therapy to teach my muscles they may not lie down and hope for the best. Instead (!) they have to get stronger and support these broken bones. The human body is a miraculous thing, our God gave it all sorts of healing skills. My body, is currently working on healing itself in secret places. Thank you for your prayers, we are so grateful.

Now to my point today, we can become so used to, and adept at, hiding from and avoiding any sort of pain… that we do it without thinking and it eventually that becomes an unconscious lifestyle. There is much more to this life than a defensive posture.Do yourself a favour – take risks – really LIVE! We have His book, filled with stories about other people just like us — how they coped … and how they didn’t. That helps us change our mind and think like Jesus does, and boy, do we need to keep reading it. 

There are also some kinds of pain that are totally unavoidable.  Sigh. These things crash into our lives without our permission, and then they explode. Some things are sent to sidetrack us from our God-given mission and distract us from His purposes. Human beings have very limited energy when they are suffering, but we can use that limited energy to distract ourselves away from the pain. Then we are avoiding transformation, in favour of hiding.

I urge anyone reading this to deliberately ask the Holy Spirit for His help, healing, protection, wisdom and strength when trouble and suffering overtakes you. We don’t have to fix these things, after all they ‘happened’ to us — we just need to deliberately turn our faces to the One Who made us — and stay in that place of need and surrender. For ordinary suffering human beings that is not a fun place to sit! We want action, we want the pain to stop or go away. 

In these times it is incredibly tempting to think that: ‘God doesn’t care about me, or the the stuff that is important to me, and the people I care about,’  simply because things don’t always instantly turn around. Doubt about His love for us can cling to the walls of our heart like a climbing rampant weed and it tries to strangle our faith that He is ALWAYS good and He ALWAYS loves us.These times are opportunities to stand steady, and hold fast to God’s incredible goodness, whether we can see it… or not.

1 Peter 4:12-19 “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed…

… If you suffer, it should not be as a not murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. … …” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”

Suffering is not a sign of God’s disfavour, it is simply the result of living in a fallen world, surrounded by imperfect, susceptible human beings and their sometimes corrupt systems. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says: “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”  He hasn’t left us alone to suffer with our anguished thoughts. It’s simply time to do what it the book says.

In times of trial, sorrow and suffering we need to immerse ourselves in His Grace. Let His Grace be your hiding place. at the same time, be forgiving and generous with each other, sharing that Grace that God has given us. Always remembering that hard times are never convenient — they often turn up when we are already worn down by life. If our response utterly depended on us, then we may not be able to come up with the exact desirable attitude … but we know the One Who understands human suffering. The Lord Jesus will not condemn us for being weary in the fight. Cling to Him like a limpet on a rock. 

Hold fast to whatever you can see that is good – you will come through this. Almighty God is totally committed to your victory. He has not left us alone because He promised He would never do that. Keep watching out for what HE IS DOING. Feed your heart on that. 🙏

P 2283 A Personal Opinion.

/ DVH

I want to begin by saying to those who are sick, brokenhearted, or injured – God has not left you, no matter how you feel. Even if your friends, or family have given you up – He will not EVER leave you. I have learnt in the hard places, like many men and women of God have learnt before me, this is the time to lay down upon the altar: “I will build an altar to You in this difficult and dark place. I surrender once again Lord, to Your will, Your way.” Amen.

This is a difficult subject for me, I have experienced healing from the Lord, supernaturally, many times in the past. But at this moment in time that is simply not my current experience. I wanted to talk today about some of the things we don’t want to talk about. Instead we can get caught up in a little man-made eddy of “I’m asking the Lord to heal me, or somebody I care about, and I must speak positively all the time or I will wreck it” – only to find that the answer is not what we hoped. 

We can easily go astray in our faith walk while we are in a dark valley. We know the Lord Jesus is with us – He promised to be there. But the reality of our experience denies the faith we are fighting to hang onto. So we read books about healing, because we desperately want to be healed, or to see it happen for someone else. We read the Bible reading the appropriate scriptures out loud over and over again. We run after His grace and go and get prayed for in every and any healing line. 

Meanwhile all of these things are good things to do – however, would the Lord require us to lie? I don’t think so. HE doesn’t lie, so why would He require us to lie on His behalf? Still, we can and must learn to persevere, Jesus Himself said so on several occasions. “… ask keep on asking so you can you find knock on the door will be open to you.” He taught us that perseverance in in prayer is a good thing. It was said of the Lord that He healed ALL who came to Him. Even when He fed people – no-one left hungry… Our God loves to provide and heal – it is His nature.

So what do we do when our experiences in these areas do not match up with what we are taught? Here is my two cents worth: whether it is my fault, and I don’t have enough faith, or it’s misunderstanding about what the Bible says, or simply haven’t been to the right person to get prayed FOR … —I refuse to measure Almighty God by my experience of Him or with Him. Instead I choose to find out Who He is from His book, independently from my own experiences.

He doesn’t ever answer to me, I answer to Him. You could easily say that I have weak faith in this area, but I say it takes more faith to believe in His goodness in adverse circumstances, than it does to believe in His generous and precious provisions in this life and receive them. Often we measure the King of all Kings with our grotty little man-made rulers and then we do one of two things –

We decide that it must be the unhealed person’s fault …OR …we sentence the sick person into a nether world of trying hard to get healed, and strangle them with the edict that they must not be negative and honest about their difficulties, thereby leaving them to struggle with their enormous burdens – alone. Neither of those responses even vaguely resemble what Jesus would do! He once prayed for a blind man twice… and offered no explanation for doing it that way either!

Jesus’ disciples also prayed for a little boy that had a demonic spirit that kept throwing him into the fire. The kid had convulsions, and the disciples couldn’t do anything about it. It is interesting to me to note that the Lord rebuked THEM. He didn’t growl at the father, or the kid, or even the people standing around watching. He rebuked his disciples instead for not having enough faith! 

I believe this is our problem in this day and age. We have tied the burden of being healed onto the sick person. As if they haven’t got enough to go on with! We haven’t thought about the fact that we have taught a whole generation that being sick is a sin. Plus we are saying that these sick people are responsible for their current circumstances. Implying that there must be something terrible hiding around corners in their lives somewhere, and they’d better toddle off and dig about until they find it! Instead of simply holding them up before the throne of Grace, and reminding them that they have greater faith than even they understand, because they love Him and serve Him, despite their negative circumstances.

Jesus told the disciples once when they asked Him: “Who sinned this guy, or his parents?” His response was – ‘Neither! This is for the glory of God.’ Funny how we tend to overlook that answer. We must learn to be honest with ourselves and others, and learn to say: “I DUNNO!” when we do not know. Then turn everyone’s attention to the goodness of God and all His Mighty works, and praise Him because He is worthy. Healing is absolutely His children’s bread but the children are led by a loving gracious Father. 👋🏻

P 2278 A great way to stretch your faith.

/ DVH

Over the years, I’ve learnt that giving is one of the best ways to prayerfully grow our faith. If you are a regular giver and have projects or organisations that you give to, as in offerings – bless you! I’m crazy about generous givers, however they do it. 

However, I have found an interesting way to breakthrough to another level in my faith. It is simple. Give more! No, I have not lost my tiny mind, and yes, I know that is definitely not a favourite subject in these hard times! Most of us need more money … not less…please bear with me.

Human beings can easily settle into a rut. That rut can be an alternative or even a substitute for stretching and expanding our faith, because we think we are already meeting God’s requirements. ←Sadly there is no faith in the previous sentence! The thing is, we can get comfortable even with things like our giving habits. If we already tithe and give special offerings, that means we are probably already giving way above the ‘prescribed’ biblical suggestions.

Although this is a great system, it is still a system. We can get stuck in it and stop using our faith, and give out of habit instead. We need to remember that Jesus is described as the pearl of great price in the bible. We all like to tell Him ‘You are everything to me, Lord’ … then we inadvertently organise our lives to suit our own financial situation, our logic and liking. Living day by day using our faith is neither comfortable or easy. However because He is now Lord of our lives, so He owns everything. Even the stuff we don’t want to think about.

What we really need to pay attention to is whether what we own, can own us!  Realistically speaking we don’t actually own anything … and that even includes the people we love.There is this guy I’ve mentioned before in the gospel of Matthew 13:45,46. He found a precious pearl buried in the ground. He immediately sold everything so he could buy the land it was buried in! He shows us that money is a tool, not an end product. My point is we can easily get stuck in a rut and think that ‘ I‘m already giving above and beyond what is required of me!’  That’s the time to remind ourselves if we want to be guided by the Spirit then most of the time the Holy Spirit’s guidance will probably cost us. 

Meeting the requirements of whatever internal law or agreement we’ve personally settled on, is not walking with Him guiding us – step by step. So my policy in this area, when I realise I’ve become stuck, is to increase what I am giving to an uncomfortable amount.  Actually it is only really uncomfortable because I am stretching my faith by following His plans not mine. Faith is a muscle remember? 

I have applied this lesson for giving above what I’m already giving, many, many times. We pray then we increase that amount permanently, That action made me extremely nervous. In fact I discovered I was fearful in a whole lot of places that I didn’t even know about, simply because they weren’t being stretched. Then I realised had more undiscovered holes in my faith walk than there are on a 18 hole golf course! ⛳️ Eventually I also came to understand that it is not faith if you feel you can control it. Ya might want to think about that. 🧐

At the same time I also learnt that you cannot out-give God. For some reason, after being stretched beyond what I thought I could do, having faith for other things became easier. But whatever I have left monetarily— which, BTW, hardly ever looks like it will be enough —actually stretches further. Sometimes it may only be a few dollars of extra giving, but those few dollars matter. The sacrifice counts. In fact my faith in His ability to sustain my life on less money actually increases my faith everywhere else.

Even though our comfort factor matters greatly to us … another word for comfort could be inactivity. And that is not good, at all! Human beings enjoy having routines, budgets, lists of things we can cross off when done. Unfortunately things like that are novocaine to our faith walk. Our God LOVES adventures. Read the book. Giving is one of the best and easiest ways ever to stretch our faith. Pray, ask the Holy Spirit what to give, and then carry it out.  Forget playing this life safe. Be a risk taker, use your faith.👋🏻