Gift

P 3493 Let’s never forget the real benefit.

/ DVH

Hebrews 10:18-23. “Now, when sins have once been forever forgiven and forgotten, there is no need to offer more sacrifices to get rid of them. And so, dear brothers, now we may walk right into the very Holy of Holies, where God is, because of the blood of Jesus. This is the fresh, new, life-giving way that Christ has opened up for us by tearing the curtain—His human body—to let us into the holy Presence of God.

And since this great High Priest of ours rules over God’s household, let us go right in to God Himself, with true hearts fully trusting Him to receive us because we have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean and because our bodies have been washed with pure water. Now we can look forward to the salvation God has promised us. There is no longer any room for doubt, and we can tell others that salvation is ours, for there is no question that He will do what He says.”

I was born in one of the poorer areas of a capital city in Australia. Everyone I knew worked for a living. And then, when I was fourteen, so did I! I had no clue about God, except that I was taught that He wouldn’t love me if I did the wrong thing. Sadly it seemed like I was forever doing the wrong thing. Living with the threat of hell can kind of put a dint into whatever faith you have. 

Up until I read the bible I had no idea that it said things like we just read in Hebrews 10. I had tried to read it many times but I got stuck in the begat section or the Old Testament stories … they only seemed to come out well if you chose the Lord’s side, but I had no idea how to get on God’s good side. I avoided it because I was positive He was never going to accept me. I had no clue that the Lord loved me, or knew my name — in fact I kind of hoped He didn’t — because I didn’t think we would get along all that well together! Mainly because He is holy and I am not. But nevertheless, Jesus still came after me, and that changed everything.

Even today when I read this: “…sins have once been forever forgiven and forgotten …” it blows my mind. I’ve been given some precious things in my life, but that one gift is beyond my wildest dreams. There are times when I wonder … why would He do that for someone like me? I just cannot comprehend the kind of perfect all-encompassing love that just won’t quit. Yet here it is – in His book. We are not forgiven because we deserve it, none of us do. We are forgiven because our Heavenly Father is beyond our imagination. He is generous, loving, kind and forgiving, and His Ways are perfect. There is no shadow, no turning away in Him. God Himself is pure love and light through and through.

As we keep on reading in Hebrews 10, we discover that not only did Jesus pay an incredible price to have all of us for His Bride, He paid that price so now we can have access to our Heavenly Father at any time. This means you and I don’t have to stand outside His door waiting to be told we can enter. We can throw open that door and run in and yell, “Dad, Dad, Dad, guess what happened to me!”

So when Jesus asks me to repent, why wouldn’t I? I’d want to hear Him even if He whispers! His love came after me and saved me from myself. Let’s think about the kind of people you would love to ask for dinner! Did you know in the bible it Exodus 24:9-11 it tells us that God Himself came to dinner?

“Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. But God did not raise His hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.” 

I mean, how utterly brilliant is that, right?  Then, as if that wasn’t enough, then Jesus Himself did this:

“…that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 1 Corinthians 11:23-25

And there it is again. Almighty God and mankind, sitting down at a table and eating together, only this time, anyone can join in. Because the One sitting at the head of the table is the One Who paid the price for you and I to be able to come and eat and drink from it. Here’s something else to think about – SomeOne had to die to give us that privilege, and He did it gladly.

We need to learn how to be motivated and saturated in God’s love. Let’s be so soaked in it, that it runs out of us onto other people. I’m talking about His heavenly kind of love that just won’t quit on anyone. All the healing services, retreats and prayer in this world, are no substitute for the privilege of personally coming into His Presence and being received by Him. This is the point of the Gospel. It is not just so we can have access to heaven one day, or get into right house or school … or even have steak for dinner!

Jesus died so we can have ACCESS to our Heavenly Father – whenever we need to and want to. And we are guaranteed that Father God will never be disinterested, busy, or too distracted at any time, to allow us to come to see Him and fellowship with Him. NOT EVER.  We can have this, because He gave us the right to wash our filthy clothes in the blood of the Lamb, knowing that His blood sprinkled everywhere in our lives, makes us clean. Why would we ignore that benefit?

We must never ever forget the real glorious benefit of Calvary. God loves us … up close and personal, and we can love Him back the same way … freely, worshipfully and gratefully. Bye. 👋. 

P 3486 Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving.

/ DVH

One of the biggest mistakes we can make today, is to allow our own thinking to justify us … instead we need to ask the Lord to help us to see our situations with His kind of clarity. As I see it, Christians seem to vacillate between: “Oh, I am such a bad person” … OR … “I’m trying, I’m doing my best!” That last one sounds like a great answer… but the truth is –  why would we try and try to do our best, when Jesus’ best is available to us? That’s just nuts! 

But as we walk with Him, listening to Him, on purpose — we will discover a whole other way to live. Let’s acknowledge that we might make mistakes— but we should never plan to misuse His Grace. Walking with Him is the entire focus of walking on the narrow way – He is the narrow way. We enter into His kingdom … the one we are told to enter into first! Meanwhile, repentance hasn’t fallen out of the book, it is still there, Jesus Himself taught about it. So is repairing any damage we may do to others. Denial is also a foolish way to try to live a life built on GRACE. It’s the truth that sets us free.

Otherwise we can end up spiritually, living like we have to clean our house in order to get ready for professional cleaners! Boy is that a waste of time, angst and energy. Why try to do the job yourself when it has already been done and paid for? This shows a distinct lack of faith in what Jesus has already done. Let’s get this straight once and forever OK? We are all sinful people. There is no worse sinful, or mostly good sinful people, who occasionally do the wrong thing. There’s just sinful! The people who captured the Lord’s attention were the ones who were prepared to go after Him, and admit their faults, then humble themselves. 

That woman who crawled into a dinner party to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears etc. most likely crawled past the men who had used her in the past! And the woman at the well ran back into the town that could easily have housed her previous four husbands in it! These women did not care what others said, they had found something worth more than position, or ego. Real life. Those Pharisees who turned up their noses and got legalistic with Jesus, had the personification of their rules right in front of them. Yet they yelled at Him for showing mercy because He healed the sick on the Sabbath.

However, the sinner on the cross next to the Lord, saw an opportunity and he took it. This opportunity is always ours to take. Life is short – live for Jesus right now, and keep on doing it day by day. This is an odd thing – the worst sinners often know how to repent better than we do. I sincerely exhort you, please don’t let your pride keep you from bonding with the One Who died to save you. Humbling ourselves helps us with true perspective. It hones our focus. It helps us take His … “…yoke upon us and learn from Him, for He is gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and we will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for our souls.” Matthew 11:29. (Alterations mine.) 

Did you get that? Rest comes from being yoked with Jesus. Walking with Him at the same pace He is going, following His leadership. It doesn’t come from looking inside, it comes from looking at Him, and making adjustments with His help, wherever necessary. Looking inside only muddies the water. We can end up blaming others for our behaviour or endlessly berating ourselves. Neither of those things are profitable. However, the Word of God on the inside is designed to guide our daily thoughts. That’s what renewing our minds means. We exchange our POV for His POV!

The Lord made His participation in that process clear in John 12:49: “For I did not speak on My own, but the Father who sent Me commanded Me to say all that I have spoken …” And in John 5:19,20 we see that He had guidance in everything He heard and did. “Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all he does. Yes, and He will show Him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.”

The church is living below the standard Christ Himself set and MET. He has already empowered each one of us to meet that standard. We simply need to totally depend upon the Holy Spirit to lead us. Press in, and remember, that our Lord is not a vending machine. Up until now, we’ve been following rules – not a Person! Now we follow Him, just like the disciples did.

He LIMITED HIMSELF so we can follow Him. Living and dying to self, like Jesus did, is possible. Many people have followed the Lord down that same pathway of dying to self and being resurrected into a new life — while they were still here on earth. Their testimonies to His Grace in action in their earthly lives, are filling up the praises of angels and saints in heaven. 

That’s what happens when you seek His kingdom first. He adds a whole lot of things to us as part of the package. He’s the glorious gift from God that keeps on giving and giving and giving. Hallelujah! Bye. 🙌.

P 3480 More attainable than we think.

/ DVH

It can be hard to adapt to new ways of thinking, doing and being. But when we choose to live this life totally sold out to Jesus, living out His Will, His way, that choice is far more easily attainable than we’ve ever realised. It is worth anything, but it will cost us, comfort-wise. Nowadays, bad stuff happens all the time.

As usual, I have what I hope will be an illustrative story. A couple of years ago, my dear hubby began to develop osteoarthritis in his hands, feet, fingers, toes, back, shoulder etc. and he not only experienced awful pain, he had to have injections for that pain regularly. His ability to do ordinary things easily, just disappeared. It was very traumatic, as you know, we travel a lot. Hubby had just begun to enjoy watercolour painting and he loves to give his paintings away. He paints whatever God tells him to paint and it speaks to the other person.

Because of his lack of dexterity and the awful pain, losing the freedom to paint was very hard. Then the Lord gave me a word of knowledge – the skill to paint does not come from our hands and fingers or their co-ordination.. that skill comes from God and it can’t be taken away. It is a gift. A visual word of knowledge. I passed that on to hubby and suggested he try to paint with his other, non-dominant hand. At first he thought I had gone a bit loopy, but he trusts the LORD, so he began to paint with his other non-dominant hand, which wasn’t as painful. He had never ever done this before.

Lo and behold the pictures he painted with his left hand, were fantastic! Even more full of life than the original ones. The original paintings were beautifully done, but his left hand produced things that were much free-er. Now here’s what I think … hubby could always paint, with his left, or right hand, it didn’t really matter – but using his left hand to paint meant he really had to extend his faith. What we do in faith reaches into God’s kingdom and it creates miracles. Read John 21:6.

Over to my point today. For years the church at large has wandered in the wilderness, trying so hard to please Jesus, and follow Him. But we did not know what to do with the “stuff’ that continued to happen to us, every single day. Everybody wants to cope and remain victorious, but we don’t seem to have the skills to help us to stay away from the very things that were sent by the enemy to drag us down. So we often have no personal victory over sin. We promise God over and over again that we will not gossip, or drink too much, judge others, or watch risqué films  etc. but it seems we have no power to change.

However, because of what Jesus did, now we have inside us the very gift and power we longed for, it just isn’t going to manifest itself according to our knowledge and our rules. God Himself has a WAY to do things. The bible is full of illustrations of what His Way looks like. His way looks like total surrender and confidence in everything Jesus achieved on that cross. It operates in faith and splashes love freely all around it. It knows when to say yes, and when to say no. Now we need to lay aside our coping mechanisms and learn to live this life dead to what we want and think we need, and alive to what Jesus wants for us, every day.

It is easy to say that we want to do everything the Lord asks us to do … until we don’t — because suddenly it seems too hard. Sometimes what Jesus asks us to do, doesn’t suit our plans, or make sense to our natural minds. Acting in faith is not automatic, it is learnt by practising it. Living this way. I know I need to take what the Holy Spirit said in the bible seriously, and continually choose to act on it at every opportunity, even when my flesh is desperately screaming its head off. I do that by returning love for meanness, faith for doubt, exercise real joy because of what Jesus did, no matter what else is going on. As we are following Jesus we continually need to make faith adjustments. We pray – do whatever He tells us to do – and then we follow Him. Human beings  want to escape trials, but the Lord has promised to take us through them.

Humility is one of our greatest strengths, and we get it by humbling ourselves and admitting we need His help to die to what we want, and live for what He wants. When some awful trial or other seems to be much bigger than we are, we have an opportunity to lean on everything Jesus did for us, and learn to trust Him, no matter how it looks. Let’s use our faith to respond to trials differently. This is not a passive thing. We must grab hold of Jesus, just like Peter did when he thought he would drown. 

Jesus once said this to Peter when he began to berate the Lord for talking about His death. “Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Matthew 16:23. But this man had been following the Lord for over two years! Then Jesus explained what God wants: “…“Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it.” Verses 24&25.

In other words we have to be prepared to put down our own ideas, and agendas, and pick up the things of God, that are eternal. Returning love for hate. Faith for passive resignation. When we were born again eternity entered our hearts. Let’s begin to rely upon His ability to know what we can and can’t do and trust the Lord to get us through it. We can get through things we have never ever dreamt about because we have God’s Spirit in us, with us, to guide us. Just like my little illustration, we can paint with our left hand even though we can barely write with it! This new way of living is more attainable because of His Grace, than we realise. Bye. 👋.

P3453 Impossible … right??

/ DVH

“For the perfect Light of Truth was coming into the world and shine upon everyone. He entered into the world He created, yet the world was unaware. He came to the people He created — to those who should have received Him, but they did not recognize Him. But those who embraced Him and took hold of His Name He gave authority to become the children of God!” John 1:9-12. 

I’m pretty sure most people think that they would recognise Jesus if He turned up at their church, but the fact is – He came to His very OWN people, and THEY did not recognise Him. My question is this: why not? Here’s a theory …  they weren’t expecting Him to look like that! He came as an infant. Boy, that sure fooled them. The Israelites expected a King. Battle ready, with soldiers and appropriate equipment … but Jesus went right around what man expected and came as a helpless infant. 

The next surprise was this… He didn’t come to kill off our earthly enemies, He came save them too! He came to represent us, by buying us back from the things that will drag us away from our Heavenly Father. Our Lord wants to woo us with His eternal love. Father God understands that is not good for man to be alone, so He is gathering together a Bride that will one day be worthy of His Son. The Holy Spirit’s doing this, one person at a time.

Jesus’ Bride’s beauty comes from her love for the Saviour. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to go through our lives and wash and iron away every single spot and wrinkle in them with the blood of Jesus, and the iron of adversity. It’s time to take what the Lord said seriously. There is no ‘magic solution’ to this world’s problems, there is only our hearty “yes” to what He asks of us. What if the stuff that is going on today is not about the Lord’s immediate return, but instead it is about this world groaning, waiting for the Sons of God to be made manifest?!

Jesus’ life story is the glorious fulfilment of God’s redemptive story, and He has gazumped satan at every turn. The devil did not suspect one thing, as God’s plan unfolded. Right now, in these times, we spend way much too much time looking at the obstacles and not enough time gazing on our Precious Bridegroom’s loving provision for us. God’s plans are always perfect. Just as Abraham sent His servant out to find and BUY Isaac a wife, the Lord has now sent His Precious Spirit to find the Bride He prepared before time began, for His Precious, dearly- loved Son. Jesus bought us with His own blood. And that includes you, and me. Impossible, right??

His kindness and love, are so far beyond what we can imagine, hope or dream. It seems millions of human beings have totally missed out what He did. And now it is up to us, to spread around what we’ve learned about God’s incredible love. The Holy Spirit does not want to leave one soul behind, so don’t be fooled and leave your part to others – this plan includes YOU! Faith fades away unless it is used.

When you live for a while, you start to realise how many times you’ve heard the same whispers in your head, about how hopeless you are, and why “talking to others” doesn’t mean you are to do it. The enemy rabbits on about how God won’t help you, because you aren’t worth it, and … that other guy’s repetitive junk gives the game away.  But our God does not do that. He has not ever played games with us. His plan is now clear and we are part of it.

Fan the love in your heart into a flame and actively remember everything Jesus has already done for us. Focus on that. The devil hates people using their faith. Just like He hates us giving thanks – he disappears pretty quickly when we do. Recognising Jesus in our times of difficulty makes us stronger, it irons out our inability to be self-controlled and patient. Just like the blood of Jesus washes away sin when it is allowed to penetrate even deeper than our minds, and manifest itself in our actions.

The Holy Spirit is hovering over us, waiting for our ‘yes’ so He can continually bathe us in the light of Christ’s never-ending love for His Bride. Sometimes the Lord’s greatest miracles happen in the middle of a raging storm. But at that moment, the Body of Christ often turns into Peter who said: “… Is that You Lord?”  It seems an impossible dream that God Himself should deeply care for each one of us, and need us to participate in His plan, even though we are broken. 🙌.

“But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in Him. 

For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity He put us in right standing with Himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where He always wanted us to be. And He did it by means of Jesus Christ.

God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in Him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with Himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins He had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in His rightness.” Romans 3.

It’s impossible! But true… Bye. 👋.

P 3435 All is not lost.

/ DVH

“With tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another, especially toward those who may try your patience.” Ephesians 4:2 TPT.  Years ago, it was my children that tried my patience, nowadays … I think I try theirs! Time is a funny thing, it has a way of turning stuff around. With His help, we are all going to need humility, as well as quiet patience, gentleness and generous love, because the situations we end up in, may not necessarily be sweet or easy! 

This morning as I concentrated on the context of this verse, I decided to go and look at the scriptures around it, to get some clarity. The first thing I noticed was so interesting I am writing this blog about it! Ephesians 4:1 … “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” There have been times when I’ve read the beginning and the ending of Paul’s letters like it is advertising. You know what I mean, ‘Dear So and so, I hope you are well …. blah blah blah … the important part of the letter — and then send my love to Auntie Jane and Uncle Fred.’ Stuff we could call, politeness, or niceties.’ … Not this time.

This time, I looked hard at what Paul had actually said and it jumped out at me: “As a prisoner … FOR THE LORD!” Big clue there. Paul’s in jail that’s why he is writing a letter, because he can’t be there in Ephesus in person. Yet he sees himself as the Lord’s prisoner, not a Roman prisoner. He’s living under house-arrest in Rome but in his mind he is still God’s servant in that prison. Just bear with me I am getting to my point. 

There are people reading this today, who have been prisoners. Locked in by so many different, sometimes difficult, circumstances. Things like ill-health, unemployment, a crummy job, being married to a difficult person, having trouble with money, or kids. So many things can lock us IN. But Paul casually points out that he knows that the Lord is in charge. We need to see what happens to us, from God’s point of view. The Lord always has a purpose – He’s doing something else.

He has allowed our circumstances to prevail for a reason. Now we are ‘in Christ,’ we need to put aside the idea of going the wrong way. Or getting into trouble way over our heads, and feeling like we can’t make it etc. God Himself put each one of us where we are right now. And He has a purpose in it! Even if we sinned and walked away from Him to get there. He is bigger than we think! The Apostle Paul is in jail, because he insisted that he be judged, as a Roman citizen, by Caesar. Was that a good plan or a bad plan? It seemed like a very bad plan – because if you carefully read his writings, he is always planning to get out!  He simply had no idea what was coming next. US!

So he appealed to Rome, and ended up side-lined under house arrest because he was falsely accused of riots etc. in Judea. In the natural, Paul should be out there preaching the gospel, giving birth to churches, because that’s what his office in the Spirit does. An apostle gives birth to church-es …plural. But he’s not. And because of this seemingly unprofitable time, when he is stuck waiting for his turn to talk to Caesar – he wrote the Epistles! He had to, he couldn’t go to some of those places in person – he was in jail!

Here’s my thought for today: you may be somewhere that does not make sense to you … but God has got you! You haven’t fallen off His radar!! He’s not surprised by this postponement, or side-lining of your gift or ministry, it is part of a plan to extend the boundaries of your tent. Paul ‘fathered’ so many innumerable churches because he was stuck in that situation, unable to go out and go where he wanted to go. We know Paul has encouraged generations of people to press on. He thought he was just writing to the people of Ephesus and Philippi. If that can happen to Paul it can happen to us. Maybe your ‘stuck’ problem isn’t about YOU!

Don’t let the enemy lie, and cheat you out of the joy and expectation of what Almighty God is going to do next in your life. We don’t know that stuff, but that does not mean we have to throw our hands in the air and live in misery. Our job is to be faithful wherever we are. We can certainly ask the Lord about it, but even if He answers us in ways we don’t understand, we can still trust Him to work it out. Paul did! That’s called st-re-tch-ing our faith.

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unfathomable (inscrutable, unsearchable) are His judgments (His decisions)! And how untraceable (mysterious, undiscoverable) are His ways (His methods, His paths)!” Romans 11:33.  I’ll say! He blew my mind over six words at the beginning of Ephesians!  I never saw it before. It was like the Lord took His little highlighter and swiped it over those words. 

God has us in His heart and hands. Read Psalm 139:8 . We gave Him our lives and He took them. It will take loads of quiet patience, humility, and reliance upon His generous love filling us, to cope with just waiting. Waiting seems like we are doing nothing useful. Waiting can lead to doubting ourselves, others and Him. But Isaiah tells us in Chapter 40:31 that it also ‘… renews our strength! We will mount up with wings like eagles.’ Have you ever watched an eagle fly? It is effortless. Give everything to Him, put down your effort, and wait – all is not lost! You are going to come out of this stronger. Bye. 👋

P 3429 GRACE is not an optional extra.

/ DVH

It is often so easy to focus on our needs. The need to be well, or have enough money, or a job, or a house, or even the right spouse to serve Him. When what we actually need is His Grace for wherever we are – right here, right now! Jesus Himself didn’t have any of those physical things and it didn’t bother Him — His food and drink was to do the will of His Father. Paul wasn’t impressed by the fripperies of this world either, and if you look at all the disciples, they didn’t think they needed anything BUT JESUS.

I know about a number of missionaries who don’t have most of the kind of things that we take for granted. However, they don’t feel poor. Actually they’d rather walk with Him, than rely upon stuff. The Lord Jesus gave us His grace when He died for us, now, Grace is the vehicle we step into, and we never ever step out of again!  Because our aim is to follow Him, we choose to apply ourselves to learn this truth. We literally cannot do anything without Him. Salvation is not just asking Him into our lives and walking away, clutching our free ticket to heaven. Grace is the ticket that takes us all the way there. That ‘ticket’ cost our loving Saviour His life.

By now we have learnt that choosing to love anyone is incredibly powerful, and it is even more powerful when we begin to understand the cost of that kind of choice. Our choice to follow Him blesses the Lord Jesus’ heart. We, and millions of other people, who have gone before us, are His reward for all His suffering. I don’t think human beings have the capacity to live the way Jesus did, and maintain it, without the Grace of God freely flowing through their lives.

It takes Grace to love someone who feels so entitled to focus on their own happiness than anything else around them – they see this world in a childish fashion. “What’s in it for me?’ It can be remarkably easy to give up leaning on the Lord, because the spiritual things seem too hard. That’s the point. They were always going to be too hard. Our quest is to choose to learn to love, live, move and have our being in Him, and His Grace helps us achieve that, one step at a time.

‘Grace needs to be viewed not just as a one-time pardon, but as an ongoing spiritual strength, that helps people change and serve others.’ (Google) Loving others in our own strength will eventually produce a conflict of interests, and most of the time, it’s likely that my own interests will win! That’s when Grace Himself leaves, and we are left with ‘me’ in all my selfish glory. Conversely, I can easily get puffed up by how sacrificial I am, even when you clearly don’t deserve it. I can also probably be misled by hardship — but His Grace is God’s gift to me, to lead me into His Ways.

It is, unfortunately, comparatively simple to keep trying to control the world around us, without being a good steward of what lies within. I am of the opinion that we can’t do anything lasting, or eternal, without His Grace. True grace is eternity that has already come, or been invited, into the here and now. Let us not  forget the first few lines of that well known passage in 1 Corinthians 13, “The fruit of the SPIRIT …”   We will fail in our quest if we fail to realise that it’s HIS fruit that will be manifested in our lives. As we learn to co-operate with Him and ask Him to grow it – we will need His Grace to endure and keep on loving others.  

That fruit will be automatically and systematically nurtured as we choose, minute by minute, to stay attached to the vine. Jesus’ Grace holds us there – on that sometimes uncomfortable spot that challenges us to die to what we want. That takes these things out of the realm of what I can do, and puts them squarely into the Kingdom reality of what Jesus has already done. You can’t have both – self interest is not the same His interest, no matter how carefully we use pretty, spiritual words to make it sound better. In those moments, let’s choose to remember that Jesus didn’t care if He impressed anyone with His spirituality or not. Most of His praying was done in secret! 

We don’t need to explain Grace to participate in it. After all, His Grace saved us when we were already sinners. His Grace came and found us. Our job is to give grace a HOME. We were too stupid to ask for it, we definitely didn’t deserve it, so we won’t always recognise it when it comes our way. Nevertheless it is there. Our ignorance, or wilful disobedience, does not negate what God freely gave us. His Grace is the sap that facilitates the fruit of His Spirit to grow in our lives. I can try to change myself until I am blue in the face, and I might even outwardly change my behaviour. But I cannot change my heart. It will deceive me. 

The Grace released by what the Lord Jesus Christ did is far more powerful than we can imagine. Because of it, we need to live our lives gratefully. Grace saved us and it sustains us. We cannot outgrow our need for His Grace in our lives. Grace acts as a moving vehicle, it runs on our faith, and carries us past our perceived limits, into a new way of living. It is an unearned gift that holds us steady, moves us forward, and changes how we see our flaws. The bible shows us what to do and Grace helps us do it.

His Grace runs to meet us when we mess up. It lifts us up from the dirt and grime into a bigger place where we see how much He loves us, far more clearly. It gently washes us clean – again – and it holds us fast in His love even when life tosses us around like a leaf in a storm. We need His Word, plus His Grace, to help us apply it in our lives, all the time. God’s Grace is not an optional extra it is an essential oil, perfuming our lives. Bye. 👋

P 3416 Do you — everyone else is taken.

/ DVH

The Lord has given us a brilliant tool – the bible – to help us to tighten up this screw of doctrine that may be loose, and that bolt of our creed that rusted out or needs replacing. That’s what the bible is for — transformation. It’s been given to us to encourage us day by day, and to correct our course when we wander off chasing random butterflies. The Lord “.. knows the plans He has for YOU, plans to give you a hope and a future …”

Jesus Christ, the Living Word, came to earth and died for each one of us. At the same time I know that Jesus is still continuing to speak, through ordinary vessels in His body. What HE says is important, not the vessel. We must stop putting pressure on our leaders by expecting perfection from them when we haven’t even achieved it for ourselves! Remember, what you and I know about Jesus, personally, is our testimony, and I don’t have your testimony! Neither of us need to be eloquent, we just need to be truthful. His Word is indestructible and more stable than the earth we stand on. My words won’t last one nano-second, but His Word stands forever. 

Personally, I believe that we will still be reading the bible in heaven. Why? Because it tells real stories of His love for us, and lovers love to hear things about each other. My faith is not in me, it is not in you — it is not in some famous brother or sister in the Lord who, praise God, reaches thousands of people. My faith is in the living written Word of God, the Living Word Himself, Jesus Christ! The Holy One. The Righteous One. Whatever He says is true.

The Lord Jesus saw the people around Him clearly, and He went right to the heart of the matter in their lives. He didn’t even have to try.  Love just flowed out of Christ like water. … Until one terrible wonderful day they pierced His side and then water flowed out onto, and into, this earth. God’s Word can teach us, you and I, how to see Him through our own renewed grateful, worshipful eyes. Here’s what Paul saw in Ephesians 3:9-11.

“Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Paul knew that Jesus had so much life in Him that one man was never going to be able to describe the Lord completely. So we have Luke, Mark, Matthew, John, Peter, James, John and Jude to help us. They are inspired by the Holy Spirit Who knows Jesus and our Heavenly Father personally. We can excuse our lack of sharing what we personally know about the Lord with others, by saying things like: “I’m not as eloquent as Paul ..” Who is??

The thing is, unless we choose to be someone who walks with Him, we will miss the blessing of holding the Holy Spirit’s hand and walking into brand new, and sometimes scary territory, but we will be taking that territory back for Christ. We are not just witnesses to what happened to Jesus, we are witnesses to what happened after He left this world! What He has done in your life and mine. 

We can’t beat any kind of fear by avoiding the things we are afraid of … we beat fear by facing it and doing whatever it is anyway.  And the glory of this whole administration of gifts is the Holy Spirit knows exactly how you should minister your gift. Someone else can point you in the right direction, but because the Lord knows you, inside and out, He knows how to walk you through truthfully witnessing and sharing His love with others.

God’s Word has millions of applications, and sadly, most of them are still hidden because the church just keeps right on copying the people we greatly admire. But everybody has something to contribute! Hubby recently kicked his toe on a skirting board at our house and he limped for ages. It hurt! He has nine other toes that didn’t hurt but when that one little toe met the skirting board it jumped up and down and made every other cell in his body aware that it was ‘not happy Jan!”

This is why I say: ‘don’t follow me, you’ll end up in a ditch.’ We can follow someone else the way they follow the Lord, but that is meant to lead to us into a bigger place, where we learn to be ourselves-in-Christ. This world doesn’t need clones, it needs real, truthful, testifying people. The Apostle Peter was very outspoken, yet you don’t hear a peep out of James, son of Alphaeus, who was also a faithful disciple – and one of the twelve. Yeah I didn’t know him either until I looked him up!

We have this incredible kaleidoscope of colour available to us and yet we keep painting Christ in monochromatic ways as we seek to influence this world around us. Let’s stop narrowing other people’s view of Him. Be the ‘you’ Christ meant you to be, sincerely walk with Him, and stay open to being transformed by being near Him. Do YOU! Someone else needs to hear you talk about HIM. Bye.👋.

P 3400 You clean fish after you’ve caught them!

/ DVH

In the church today we seem to have forgotten that WE are now the Holy Spirit’s temple. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit Who is within you, whom you have [received as a gift] from God, and that you are not your own [property]?” 1 Corinthians 6:19. Just because we can’t always feel Him, see Him, or hear Him, that doesn’t mean He is not with us. But it can mean we are not making Him welcome or walking with Him! Like I said a few days ago, we can still choose to tune Jesus out when it suits us, and then we cannot hear Him properly to serve Him. Sound familiar?

The Lord promised us that He would send the Holy Spirit back to us, and He did. Now we are no longer our own “… for God bought you with a high price. So you must honour God with your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:20… Now our lives are to be spent serving the Lord… He gave His life for us, and now we give up our lives serving Him. At the office, on the train, in school, at our house, wherever we are … now we are servants of the Most High God and we don’t get Mondays and Fridays off! Death to self is not just a Sunday way to think, it’s an all day every day, every minute of the day lifestyle. Whatever we do now, we do it with all our hearts as though we were doing it for Jesus Himself – because we are!

The consequence of our lack of understanding of our new life in Christ means we can end up trying to fit Jesus in around the way we used to live. Except for one fact, our old man died when we said yes to Jesus. At the same time there are Christian people right now, sincere precious saints, who are trying hard to serve God in their own strength. Sometimes they have the appearance of good or they fail secretly. Then they feel bad … and eventually they fail again. Where we are failing the worst is that we don’t understand, when He died, WE DIED. When we asked Jesus to save us we left our old lifestyle, our way of thinking being and doing behind us. Now we need to become best friends with the Holy Spirit. If He likes it, we like it. If He doesn’t then we don’t either. 

The more we apply the Word of God to this world’s injuries, and sinful activities in our lives, the more power we will have to follow Him. We simply can’t do that in our own strength. Even if we succeed in producing the outward appearance, we can’t change our hearts. However, because of God’s great GRACE, we do not have to do this alone. The Holy Spirit has been given to us to help us – to remind us. To ‘buddy’ us through the process of putting down all our old ways and picking up God’s new ones. I want to warn you, in my experience, that is not an easy thing. Mainly because we’ve begun to think that we already know who we are, so change/transformation is like peeling off your skin inch by inch.

I said all that to say this:  on this last journey we met two very different people, but they both had one thing in common. They had been thoroughly rejected by the Body of Christ so much so they didn’t dare go to church, nor did they associate with Christians. So whatever transformation they are supposed to undergo, became null and void under the attacks of seemingly virtuous Christians. Gird up your loins you ain’t gunna like this one bit …

,,, One person was a homosexual trapped within a lifestyle that offered them a perverse form of love. For some desperate people the wrong kind of love is better than no love at all. This young man cried and sobbed when hubby was kind to him, because he was so used to being rejected by the church. We don’t have to approve of this person’s behaviour to love them. Often we reject people simply because we don’t know how to display the love of God with power, we are not displaying Who He is into the world around us! And yes, I’ve read the book, I know how the Lord feels about homosexual behaviour. “Some will be snatched from the fire.” Jude 1:23.

The second person is a divorced lady, whose father is a pastor.  She had been thrown out of her family, her church, her Christian friendships for getting a divorce.  Divorce is not contagious, people, its a choice, sometimes made under terrible pressure. Her entire family no longer speaks to her, or associates with her. The Holy Spirit loved both of these people. In order to set prisoners like these people free, the people who actually want to love Jesus but have no power to stop what they are doing …  the church must stop eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and stuff ourselves full, daily, with the fruit of the tree of LIFE!

We’ve become like the Pharisees etc. We keep rejecting the lepers and the so-called unclean ones, but our churches are the only place ANYONE can get clean. People come to church to get clean! We need the power of the Risen, Resurrected Christ to help them. We were all sinners, every single one of us. We must stop judging the people who seemingly have HUGE sins against our supposed little ones. And start having compassion on those people who are trapped by satan’s lies telling them: ‘that this is who they are, and they can’t be any other way.’ 

None of us know who we really are, or what we are capable of doing until we are tested. I found that out the hard way. Read the book and take particular note of the things you want to gloss over. Have you ever wished someone dead? Have you ever looked at someone else’s spouse, family, house or job and wished you had them? Have you ever put Almighty God on a shelf because you were busy and asked Him to “please wait over there?”  Have you ever lied to make things easier?

It’s time to display the works of God through love and deliverance, not judgment and avoidance. We only get to clean the ‘fish’ after we’ve caught them – because then they will know for themselves, they are unclean. We didn’t know we were unclean until the Lord’s purity began to work on us. It’s called conviction. Bye. 👋

P 3367 The Bride Jesus deserves.

/ DVH

One day, we are going to the greatest wedding of all eternity.. We will marry Jesus and be His Beloved Bride forever. This time here on earth is our preparation time for that wedding. Everything has already been prepared in heaven, on the Groom’s side. The Groom is waiting. However, it is up to His Bride to accept all the provisions and alterations that have been provided for her. The Holy Spirit is the One Who is in charge of Jesus’ Bride’s preparations. 

Just recently I’ve noticed that there is an ongoing trend everywhere in our world. There is an attitude that minimises people’s obligations to carry out what they say they will do. We’ve stopped being a people of our word. Excuses are made. When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we entered into a relationship, an engagement with the Lord our King, and Bridegroom. It is part of the marriage covenant to allow ourselves to be made ready for this incredible honour.

In today’s current climate I have been puzzled about what seems to be someone’s intentions, and what they— in real time, in real life —actually carried out. There seems to be no difference between INTENTIONS and ACTIONS in some people’s minds. In my opinion, those kinds of attitudes lead to confusion and sometimes even self-deceit. Self-deception occurs when we think saying something sincerely, and doing it, are the same thing. Because we owe Jesus everything – everything is what He should get!

Actions are about someone following through on the choices they’ve made, until the things that have been accepted by both parties are finished, and concluded. But intentions are  based on a person’s communicated desires and thoughts – however they don’t necessarily have to be translated into actions.The general feeling about this concept today, is that intending to do something is the same as carrying it out. IT’S NOT!

Almighty God has always held mankind to our word. He gave us His word and He carried it out. His gracious treatment of humanity is our example of promises given and fulfilled. Jesus’ Bride has a responsibility to be the kind of people who follow through on their promises. What we say at the altar needs to be followed up!  When we don’t, then we need to take the time to confess those things as sin, repent, (which means turn around and go the other way), and allow the Holy Spirit to help us keep our word. 

Father God understands, first hand, (His Son came here!) that because we are human, we can have oppressing circumstances. But the best response if we truly want to be transformed, is to go back to Him and talk to Him about it, not just excuse ourselves. Looking for permission to avoid responsibility, or to cover up things and pretend that they don’t exist, will compromise the very essence of our privileged relationship with the Trinity. 

Jesus paid for our sins, it was a gift, freely given. That means any presumption is offensive in the face of that gift. Gratitude and obedience are the right responses. Jesus won’t hold our sins against us, He has already provided a way for us to deal with our sins and missteps. But that way is not avoidance. Many people have indicated to me about obedience: “I can’t do that.” I cannot agree with that premise. The Lord Himself has provided a way to help us obey, at great personal cost to Himself. The Holy Spirit is here! Obviously we can change – we are simply using our feelings and habits to hide from reality.

The bible is the only way we can actively learn about what our Bridegroom expects from us. Yet we cannot do HIS WILL, His way… without HIS help. We need to learn how to behave like a royal, loyal Bride would. We must determine in our hearts to be steadfast toward our Husband-to-be and grateful for His goodness toward us, above our own negative feelings or fears. I am aware that living like that cuts across our desire for self preservation, and the appearance of looking good to others. Our Groom knows about that! He was innocent and He allowed mankind to punish Him …  yet He said not a word.

My scripture today is not one that is spoken about a lot, so I will leave you to draw your own conclusions about your  responses – just as I need to assess my own. As I have intimated before: I believe the Bride needs to stop cherry-picking scriptures that suit her and read the bible seriously, reflectively, with humility, and then go on to discontinue any course that says””I intend to… one day, when I’m ready.” Instead she must be committed to carry out anything and everything that will facilitate her new role as His Beloved Bride. Humility is our bridal shawl, now we wrap ourselves in everything He did for us.

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 18:10-14.

After all Jesus has done for us, don’t you think He deserves a Bride Who will humbly submit to the Holy Spirit’s ministry and preparations with great joy? Let’s be a Bride Who embraces everything the Lord Jesus Himself deserves from us. Bye. 👋

P 3354 Let your Friend Jesus, help you.

/ DVH

Getting older has convinced me that I am not as smart as I always thought I was! I like to tell other people nowadays:  “I don’t know … but I have a Best Friend, I’ll ask Him …!!” It is good for us to remember that the Lord Jesus is even more wonderful than we can imagine – the truth is that He is our Saviour, Creator of the World, Redeemer, Healer, Deliverer, Brother, Prince of Peace, Counsellor, Mighty God. He is wonderful – praise Him! But… there’s… more … !!!

Jesus is our Friend Who sticks closer than a brother. He is our ‘heart’ Friend, who will never let us down. The Lord Jesus is a wonderful Person Who dearly loves us and enjoys our company. You know, when Jesus chose His disciples, He was also choosing potential friends, and they were kind of a motley group. I think this detail means that there is already a precedent that makes room for each one of us. No matter how different we seem, we all have a Friend in common. HIM.

There is nothing nicer than belting out a good old hymn. Who could possibly beat Charles Wesley’s hymn, “And can it be …?”  Or another oldie but goodie: “Be thou my vision..?” That one was written in the 6th Century would you believe… by a blind Irish monk. Now there’s a poignant thought. If only we realised how blind WE can be. But when I sing an older hymn like: ”What a Friend we have in Jesus” it reminds me of the beginning of my faith.  Sunday by Sunday, in my old church, our men would belt out these glorious old songs in a rich baritone, or tenor, and the women sang alto, or mezzo soprano. Some of the ladies tried for soprano, but they were awful at it — actually, it was kind of eye-watering… 😂  

But those saints, most of whom have since gone home to glory, taught me about the Lord Jesus as our Friend, in day-to-day situations. It was expected that Jesus was now your forever Friend, so He would go with you everywhere. However, that also meant that if someone had a penchant for the pub – well, we all knew that Jesus wouldn’t go there!  Our theology was pretty rigid! Those people were adorable, even though sometimes … they were not so scripturally sound. They conveniently forgot the religious men of the Lord’s day called the Lord a drunkard.

Now to my point: whether we are wrong or right, Jesus loves us for who we are. He sees past our insecurities, our need to belong, and our past misdeeds and the events that have shaped us so far — He can see the person He made. THAT person was made in His image. So here we all are, each of us is a unique person, but we are a little like those proofs professional photographers have. The proofs are very small, yet they seem to have potential, but the photographer takes his magnifying glass to check out the flaws. The real picture is there it just needs to be brought out. This life is about letting our Friend Jesus cut away stuff we don’t need, and allowing Him to develop every single gift He has for us, in us. 

It is a waste of our time trying to bam ourselves into a better, more popular, and far more appreciated shape, so others will like us. Some things that I thought made me a nuisance, were actually things born in me that needed to be there. I simply couldn’t see the whole picture – I had my own magnifying glass running all over the flaws, and to me, those flaws needed transformation. 

And so I grudgingly entered the do-it-yourself movement. I knew I needed fixing, so I tried to fix myself. I failed. Our new life in Christ doesn’t work that way. Like the lovely, would-be, slightly sharp and off-key sopranos in my old church – I was aiming far too high and hating myself when I got it wrong! I had a whole lot of flaws, which meant when I joined that church those things showed up all over the place! Back then, church was about what I went there to get out of it; then Jesus pointed out to me that church is about Him, and what He gets out of it!  

I got stuck because my needs dictated my view of the church. I thought it was a place where you would be welcome, because we all followed the same Jesus. I did not know that everyone else there had as many flaws as I did! Meanwhile our difficulties actually became extremely apparent when we got together. Other people’s flaws bumped into mine, so to speak  … and nobody was edified! I tried to ask questions, but most people looked at me like I just arrived from Mars, so I stopped asking them. Eventually my need to fit in, overwhelmed my need for authenticity. Here’s a riotous truth — it is so much harder to change the things we won’t acknowledge. Humility helps.

However, our friendship with Jesus helps diagnose where we are missing the mark, especially when we treat His book as if He were speaking to US, and go away and apply what He said. That’s when we step out the boat of sameness (let’s remember that eleven other disciples stayed in that boat!) — and we start using our faith to do whatever He asks us do, out of love for Him and others. That action changes us.

We will get nowhere by comparing ourselves with each other … but when we look steadily at Him, the Lord of all, Who dearly loves us – WE WILL BE CHANGED. Bye. 👋 Let’s look through His cross to see who we are now!