Gift

P 2819 Antagonistic people.

/ DVH

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;..”Matthew 5:44.“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.” Luke 6:27. Here’s how it works – you find out who are your enemies then you deliberately, as in, on purpose, do something nice for them. Start by blessing them. Yeah, you know, if everybody did this then it is likely that our so-called enemies would not know they are our enemies! Think about it.

Living like the bible says takes a quality decision. There is no turning back or quitting. Here’s another favourite, much memorised verse – just kidding!!: 🤣 “…and a man’s enemies will be the members of his [own] household [when one believes and another does not]…” Matthew 10:36. I imagine most of the people who read this blog have experienced that last one. Long ago I had a first hand experience of this one. Praise God those people are now following the Lord themselves. But I know enough to know that a happy result does not always follow hard choices … there was a big space in the middle! People can be like mules.

Now, let’s look at Romans 12:20.“On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Romans 12:14 ““Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them.” I have prayed that last verse many times through clenched teeth. I persevered until I was able to let go of my anger! Being transformed involves choices and self-control.

You know, I can’t help but wonder how many wars might have been stopped if mankind acted on these verses. It seems to me that the entire world has gone from what the Apostle Paul said …into this style of thinking … ‘they did bad things to us, now let’s exterminate them.’ O-Kay! …That could be called extreme…!!  We can fool ourselves that we are justified in our anger, but that’s not what the book says – outside of Christ Himself, there is no justification … so why would anybody choose to live there?

This whole subject about enemies is a very interesting personal study. Because we often don’t think we have any! We will grudgingly acknowledge that we sort of kind of don’t like some people all that much. Now here is something else I’ve learnt that is fascinating. Never go into why you don’t like so and so – even in your mind. ASAP take those thoughts captive. 9 times out of 10 that kind of thinking leads to not liking that person/people even more! Many times in the past I have read verses about the way we need to treat enemies, and I have thought to myself …’I have no enemies …’ Hah! That’s like asking yourself “who am I mad at?’ It doesn’t work. Now I will give you my advice for free … 

Try not to excuse yourself on the grounds that “I-am-a-very-nice-person-just-ask-me !!”…  … Instead ask the Holy Spirit what He thinks. Ask Him who you see as an enemy. Take a pencil and some paper with you, OK? Because I’ve learnt that this kind of stuff excuses itself, hides, and jumps straight into blame … We excuse our feelings and put pretty titles on them. Like: ‘This kind of person and I are not compatible.’ The very worst kind of lies are the ones we tell ourselves … because they are so hard to uncover.

The answer to this dilemma is to ask the Holy Spirit to help us to love people the way He does. Even the ones who would like to see our heads on a pike! After that we must be prepared to go to war within ourselves, because our old self does not want to die, and it has strong roots and a big pile of great excuses!

There are times when giving into what the Lord wants, seems to be losing a battle we badly want to win, but: “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12.25. The battle belongs to the Lord, just point your heart at Him and hang on. I will warn you, sometimes it takes a while to hear that mythical fat lady sing … 

There are also times when I think that fear motivates us far more than we realise. “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes; with Your right hand You save me.” Psalm 138:7. When we believe this, and live by it, as well as counting on verses like this one, we are ‘living in the secret place, the shelter of the Most High God…Whose power no foe can withstand.” We don’t have to be afraid, GOD HAS A PLAN. Like Esther we can say: “If I die I die.”  

Except some of the time we have 94 good reasons why we shouldn’t die — yet! Those are the very best times to go ahead and choose to do it anyway. Stop counting how many times you’ve let somebody else off the hook even though they keep right on doing it – and do it one more time. And don’t peer into the future seeing the same result stretching on and on .. that’s not faith, it’s necromancy.

Antagonistic people are a gift. They call our attention to the stuff in our lives that we don’t want to see. They help us grow bigger than the traps the enemy has set before us. Now we get to fight different battles, not the same one over and over again. See you next time, bye. 👋

P 2801 “My beloved is mine …”

/ DVH

Job 9:32-35 MSG:“God and I are not equals; I can’t bring a case against Him. We’ll never enter a courtroom as peers. How I wish we had an arbitrator to step in and let me get on with life—To break God’s death grip on me, to free me from this terror so I could breathe again. Then I’d speak up and state my case boldly. As things stand, there is no way I can do it.”Job’s wisdom was born out of great suffering — unlike Solomon, who was given the gift of wisdom.. Job learnt what he knew about God – the hard way. When I hear what happened to this man I shudder, and then it greatly improves my prayer life.

First of all Job loses all his property, then his kids die in a very suspect series of events, then his ? helpful? wife encourages him to “curse God and die!” And he is struck down in his physical body to the point that he is begging for death. Lastly, His good friends, his companions in faith, his support group … if you will … are no help at all! Anybody been there? I have.

His friends spent ages explaining to him how and why he was suddenly in that awful hole in the first place. This person thinks this, and that person thinks that, and …  everyone thinks they know how the events surrounding his entire life happened. You know, sadly, many people aren’t short on opinions when life goes upside down – judgment flows like a flood around the afflicted one. Meanwhile, nobody seems all that interested in helping Job! They seem to be far more interested in avoiding guilt by association and postulating about why Job’s life is in the bin.

This man was a good man. He tried to do good things! And now he stands defenceless and helpless in front of a Holy Mighty God, and it seems he is a victim of an unfair balance. After all, who can argue with God? At the same time, he acknowledges that God’s plans are wa-ay beyond his understanding. I just want to say one thing here … Almighty God is not fazed by Job’s emotional outbursts. Our anger with God. or the mess we are in does not rate a blip on the radar of His unconditional love for us. That’s the point of the book of Job – Almighty God is NOT LIKE US. But glory! God has done something incredible – He chose to become like us to save us all!…

Job is suffering, he wants OUT NOW … but God is in no hurry … He’s doing something else – He’s establishing His sovereignty. At the same this beleaguered man asks some pretty fine questions of his so-called comforting friends … “How would you fare if you were in the witness stand? Your lies might convince a jury—but would they convince God?” One Person cares about Job – God Himself! That’s a great thing to remember when you are the one at the bottom of a hole.

First, Almighty God establishes His Creator credentials with Job,  “…were you there when I made the world… hmmm?” –  that’s in Job Chapters 38-42 — and then He reveals reality to Job but He does not sympathise with him. Instead He establishes His own right to do whatever He wants with this man He made.  Almighty God does not answer to us, we answer to Him! We may not like that idea much … but I do think that thought will keep us all honest! 

Now is always a great time to fall on our faces and thank Him, that we have a Saviour, Who is the greatest Advocate on mankind’s behalf. Jesus Christ understands humanity, personally. He will not testify to our good deeds, wisdom etc… Instead, He will simply point to His blood covering our lives … from the day that we decided we could not save ourselves, and we realised that we need a Saviour to do it for us. Jesus is our forever Arbitrator, the One Job wished some man – any man – had! 

Jesus is the One Who will own us, as His own. Job’s prayer, His longing for an arbitrator, his heartfelt desire to be reconciled to God, happens because He recognises there is nothing or no-one righteous, worthy of God’s loving Grace. Everything we have is a gift. This is why we must never forget that costly gift, or the Giver. Oh! The incredible sacrifice He made on our behalf! There is no point in asking God to prove to us that He loves us – Jesus Christ already did it. 

Nor should we get so wrapped up in this life, like Job was, that we miss the most important thing. One thing matters above all else –“My Beloved is mine, and I am His, and His banner over me is LOVE.” Because of Jesus, God will not deal with us concerning our sins — they are now gone! Bought and paid for with Christ’s blood. If our celling falls in, and people walk away from us, and our whole life is in jeopardy, and strife dogs our footsteps … His banner over you and I, will always be love!! Love is behind God’s actions and input into our lives. ALWAYS.

Job gives us perspective … we are nothing – God is everything. Jesus Christ glorified our human nothingness by becoming a man just like us. He lifted each one of us higher than we could ever imagine or dream about. He is our Saviour, Brother. That’s why we follow Him! “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!” Bye. 🙌

P 2783 THIS is what I was trying to say yesterday!

/ DVH

Matthew 7:13-20 MSG. “Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention. 

“Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don’t be impressed with charisma; look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned.

“Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with Me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our super-spiritual projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use Me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress Me one bit. You’re out of here.”

Hi! Has this ever happened to you? You dearly want to explain to someone how precious Jesus is, and so you waffle and wander about trying to find the right words, bouncing from one incomplete thought to another…But the next day, you read a verse, that you already know … in another version … and boom! 🤯 Lo, and behold it’s all in there!  And you’ve been  rendered speechless again. I landed there today. After all I said yesterday, I found these verses in the Message bible, and it blew me away … again!

God’s Word is like that to me. Some people find reading the bible boring. I have the simplest solution to that malady, start doing what it says. Suddenly you are on an adventure with God. That will change the colour of your day, trust me! We talk about God’s benefits in the church, this blessing, that gift — like we are negotiating business deals – when in reality each promise in His book is an opportunity to co-labour with Him. We have the power to bring heaven to earth, by simply obeying Him.

That’s another reason I love His book – I have my own feeble limited thoughts, and then I read in His book about His love for everyone, some part of me inside, takes a huge breath. His Word is fresh air to our spirits. I think that is why many preachers preach. They have found some fresh air, and they want to share it with everyone who will listen! Meanwhile, if we are so inspired by just a glimpse of Who He is, imagine what heaven is like! 

I sometimes think about all those people who have left this world behind them, and they are now with Him. The trouble with theology is that it divides people and it insists that its POV is the only one. I love this verse in Ephesians 3:10&11 it says:“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.”Manifold wisdom! I like it.

‘That word manifold in the original language means to be multi-coloured. It was used when describing the many colours of a painting or a tapestry in the ancient world. When speaking about God’s wisdom it describing the many angles, hues, and dimensions of God’s knowledge and its application to all things.’ (Google.)

So, in the light of the above interesting remarks, I’ve decided to cling to those words that Jesus spoke once to a dying man, who was hanging right next to Him, the day He died. The verse I mean is in Luke 23:43:“Jesus said to him, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Well, now, that’s not a bad place to hang your faith is it? 

When we are finally in His Presence, we too will have fullness of joy. Good place for a full stop, right here. I cannot possibly imagine what the people I have loved dearly in this life, are experiencing in the next. I may feel very sad when I think about my own loss of time with them — however, they are way too busy enjoying Jesus and each other! Death is a door, not a destination. 

So, here at the bottom of today’s page I want to leave you with my final thought. We too can experience glimpses of heaven down here, when we choose to live this life dead to what we want and alive to Him. There are no shortcuts in our redemption – we simply need to choose to live it out day by day and let His Word work on us! This often happens right in front of people who have no idea about what we are giving them. But when heaven visits here because of our serious obedience —- Aahhh! Glory!!

That’s the thing I was trying to say yesterday, this life has a purpose, let’s not get distracted by this doctrine or theory. Jesus is longing for you and I to live our lives sold out to His calling. We are still here, to RE-present Him, so others can see and know Him too. Bye. 🕊️

P 2782 We are people of HIS Grace.

/ DVH

The glory of God is more important than our perceived welfare… you might want to sit and think on that sentence for a while. 🤔 I know I did! I have no desire to criticise the church or her servants, whether they are pastors, preachers, prophets etc. But in the last 40 years many Christians have gone right away from our main focus – the Lord Himself. It seems we need to seriously take note of satan’s sin… pride. Our focus needs to be clearly centred around us being God’s servants. It was not above the Lord Jesus Himself to regard Himself as a servant, and He is God’s only Begotten Son! 

I know that the Lord regards each one of us as His brothers and sisters, the bible says so, but that is because even Christ Himself would never dream of elevating His own status above His Beloved Father. Jesus perfectly illustrates that love lifts up its beloved, and has no concern for its own position. Read Song of Solomon and you will perfectly see how love, the Shepherd, treats the Bride – us!

Because of what Christ did and the way He regarded us, we are incredibly precious in His sight, but that is Jesus’ Grace and generosity, flowing toward us,not our right. Our God is mighty, awesome, and above all we can think or imagine. He is the One True Almighty Everlasting God, who made heaven and earth and created everything we can see … …and a whole lotta stuff we can’t! He existed before we did, and eternity will not be long enough for us to plumb the depths of how wonderful, glorious, and how precious our Heavenly Father is! I did not have a father present in my life, so there are days when I am totally wrecked by the fact that God Himself has claimed me.

Unfortunately Father God has been poorly represented in my opinion. He is not some easily fooled fun-loving Grandpa who indulges His children! Many people over recent years, have walked away from their faith, because their faith was in a Santa Claus figure – not Almighty God Himself!  So they quit! Disappointment grabbed them by the throat and choked out whatever faith they had. Presumption is such an ugly condition. It robs us of what His Grace has done for us. 

This meant that when bad things happened in life, and that happens to all of us, these poor souls fell away, wondering why they hadn’t qualified for the benefits advertised! Praise Him, the Old Testament is filled with stories of God Himself making beauty out of ashes. He took inadequate men and women and blessed them with His wisdom and purposes. He is still doing that today, with you and I.

Many preachers still tell us that that was then, and now – we are under a New Covenant. Yes, we are, and praise God for it. But that New Covenant frees us to choose Him for Who He is  … not just for the benefits He lovingly bestows upon His people, day by day. He blesses us, but that is a testament to His goodness … not our entitlement or faith! The bible exhorts us in Psalm 103  “…to forget not all His benefits.”And then that Psalm goes on to list them, one by one. This Psalm reminds us that we can praise and thank Him as the Author of whatever goodness, forgiveness, and mercy that has come our way. And because we know His heart through His book, we can also praise Him for what is still to come.

This Psalm is not a free pass to demand whatever we think we need. It is God Who supplies our needs, and my advice is to have a conversation with Him first. The Psalm is simply telling us where good things come from. Listen to James 1:17. He tells us clearly where blessings come from.“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” If we get so focussed on the gifts and not the Giver we have missed the main event! God is revealing Himself to us, He’s saying when good things happen to you and I —- ITS HIM!

Just yesterday, at our house, there was an incredibly fierce storm. The lightning and thunder were right over our house and the hail was pelting down and I am ashamed to admit that I was afraid. But suddenly, peace swept over me like a river … fear didn’t leave, it simply melted as His greater Grace helped me. I didn’t even ask for it. It just came upon me because God is so kind and good. A gift comes from the Giver’s heart.

We need to stop reading the bible simply to grab at promises that we think He should honour, because we know how good He is. Instead, we are a privileged people who know what they have been given and we are grateful. A people of His Grace. That Grace comes in, and it flows out toward others. Our Heavenly Father is more than just a provider, much much more. He is the love in each one of our hearts, especially when life tests us. Bye. 👋

P 2721 God does not have favourites.

/ DVH

Galatians 2:6-8: “As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favouritism—they added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles?  James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.”

Today I thought it could be good to ask ourselves, do I recognise the supernatural Grace God has given to you? I’m not talking about those nice noises we all make at church, where everyone is kind to everyone else because it is expected. I’m talking about supernatural GRACE – that incredible gift from God that we all need and the thing we are to freely give away to other people. The kind of grace that surprises everybody – even YOU! There is a place for every single person in the Body of Christ, differences are not insurmountable. 

For that to happen we may need to stop playing those games many of us play week by week. The things that project a ‘nice polite’ image… Sometimes we forget that we are actually standing before GOD – Who knows all things and sees all things, so there’s no real point in hiding who we are! When we meet together at church we do it to honour Him, not just swap man-made brownie points. Church is the time to remember that Christ’s death at Calvary released more GRACE than this world, and all the people in it, are ever going to need. Grace swirls around each of us like a hurricane, waiting to be recognised. We have His acceptance because we belong to Him – we don’t have to work at being impressive or trying to look incredibly spiritual. Even though we are a people in process.

The more we realise that in this life everyone needs His Grace, the more we will live aware of what we have and give it away to others. Which makes pretending to be someone nice and happy and perfect all the time … very tiring!  Plus it is a total waste of time!!  It’s a bit like a pear I ate the other day, it looked wonderful, but its skin was like leather and it tasted awful. Here’s a thought – what if someone takes a hypothetical bite out of you, what will they get? What do we do when someone else is mean to us? Do we suck it up and laugh it off, or go away and hide from them, or care enough to honestly talk about it. Or have we learnt to show GRACE. The real kind.

Meanwhile, when the bible says: “All have sinned ..” it means ALL. The people of God are on His conveyor belt of transformation, collecting the things He died to give us, as we are processed by His Word. Pretending we are Miss, Mr or Mrs extremely Nice Person is a waste of everyone’s time – especially ours! Let’s remember, that our time here is finite. I know people who dread going to church because they think they don’t fit in. There are others who get jealous if someone else gets all the attention … 

…And there are others who think they can only fit in if they are always agreeable. Sadly there are also some people who listen and nod at church, and then … they go home and behave exactly the same way they did last week. That kind of hiding stuff is NOT NECESSARY. The actual point of sermons is to open our eyes about change and transformation. So maybe we will want to absorb the truth, instead of pretending we already know? To get there, we need to ask for and absorb His Grace, and be truthful with ourselves. Let’s throw away all those endless excuses and try honesty instead.

Unless we understand that we are all equal in the Lord’s sight, it can be easy to feel unacceptable – other people’s attitudes can be scary. God does not play favourites, after all He didn’t spare His only-one-of-a-kind-Son. If ever there was an opportunity for favouritism that was it! This means He is big enough, wonderful enough, and incredibly intensely in love with us enough, that He can include everyone, and He is not diminished by it. We are allowed to learn to overflow with His love, instead of being plastic. 

Think of church and the body of Christ as an opportunity to actually give and receive His endless capacity for love and acceptance – and honour each other’s gifts.  Maybe then we will begin to comprehend what Jesus bought for us. The King of all Kings died to give us a safe place – despite our sometimes differing theologies. That’s what the Apostle Paul knew. He knew there was a place for everyone, and everyone’s gifting in God’s eyes and he honoured others.

There are no tiers of importance in heaven – Jesus is all in all.  Down here we are all recipients of His great Grace that we all don’t deserve. Let’s think on that today, it will definitely get our own personal grateful going. Bye. 👋

P 2667 The wrapping comes before the gift.

/ DVH

In this scripture, Paul is praying for the church.“I am contending for you, that your hearts will be wrapped in the comfort of heaven and woven together into love’s fabric. That will give you access to all the riches of God as you experience the revelation of God’s great mystery – Christ!” Colossians 2:2. Most of us have experienced receiving a well-wrapped gift, maybe even with pretty bows on the top. But if we simply put the gift aside, after we have admired how good it looks, without unwrapping it – we’ve missed the point! However, let’s not just discard the wrapping paper either – it too has a purpose in God’s Ways.

This is what I’ve learnt over the years … many people want God’s riches and revelations, but they don’t particularly want to be woven into Love’s fabric. I’ve met some truly heinous people with fantastic gifts from God, who treat everybody around them like they are minions, or less than special  … because the person with the fantastic gift sees him or herself as a star. And we don’t help them when we reinforce the gift above their character. Hmmm. There’s a rookie mistake – those people think their gift is them. I’ve been on the pointy end of that error.

Gifts are GIVEN … they are a sign of the generosity of the GIVER, not necessarily the worth of the recipient! Check it out in the book! Start by reading Jonah, who was God’s prophet/evangelist – however his attitude showed up a whole heap of character flaws. The Lord explained to Jonah, very kindly, that he was a fathead who actually knew nothing about God’s ways. Now let’s look at Simon the sorcerer. His last name was kind of a big clue! He wanted to buy the Holy Spirit, and he skated right by that large thin ice warning  sign …!! The people in the bible aren’t there for decoration or to add interest. They show us about the holes in someone’s else’s character that anyone of us can have.

I believe the truth is we cannot afford to elevate individual people no matter what their gift is, but at the same time we need to respect the gift God gave them. Sadly, sometimes elevation can do weird things to a person’s head! There have been times when I’ve seen lovely gifts from the Lord, become a reason for a dictatorship. Yes, I really did say that out loud and in print! 😶 Lets’ be clear, this person I am speaking about may make modest noises. After all, we are supposed to be humble … and they read the rules. But somehow all that didn’t get translated into their innards. So what comes out can seem smarmy and a bit plastic. Sometimes unchecked ambition in an individual uses other people to build its own little kingdom, instead of building His. That’s a short term aim. If we all reach our potential in Christ – we will be strong, standing side by side against the real enemy – satan.  

Moving on from people-who-know-God-better-than-anyone-else-does … to people like you and me, who have bumped elbows, and calloused knees from falling over and getting it wrong a lot… !! 😂 Let’s just finish this bit of cringy stuff with this last thought:  faith is confidence in GOD not men. Our God is so loving that He gives gifts …  He is incredibly generous … as well as kind, and tender-hearted toward all our needs. Gifts are about Him not us. Ephesians 6:11:“Christ gave gifts to men…”

We can become so enamoured about finding out what gift we have been given, we dive right in and forget to pay attention to the wrapping paper. So let’s just look at that bit shall we?  “.. that your hearts will be wrapped in the comfort of heaven and woven together into love’s fabric.” His love for us, and our unity together, is the wrapping paper for a happy healthy gift. Please don’t throw away the bit that wraps us all together! Our gifts don’t work well without each other, and getting woven together is a whole lot of work!

So how do you and I get wrapped in the comfort of heaven? I believe that happens when we keep going back to the cross, and remembering who we were and where we were when He found us. That’ll humble you!! The cross keeps our focus in the right place. We are not all that – HE IS ALL THAT! When we learn to take risks and become obedient we will see what He can do with our teeny tiny efforts. At the same time, we need to continue to love others who don’t want to be part of the wrapping paper. Instead they want to be the source of delight inside that paper! That’s God’s bit, not ours. Any one of us can easily fall into the trap of wanting man’s praise to fill our empty hearts, when the comfort of heaven has been given to us, to do it for us. That’s Jesus Himself, BTW.

Because we all want access to the riches of God, we need to pray for the comfort of heaven to wrap around each and every one us. Then we do everything we can with His help, to be woven into something that will reveal His riches, and more of Christ. The wrapping comes before the gift, but it is still a part of the gift. So let’s cherish drawing truthfully closer to each other, while we build one another up! Bye 👋

P 2645 Faith is our way of life.

/ DVH

In many churches today we have grown to think of evangelism as outreach.  That brave, but weird guy who stands on the corner preaching is kind of embarrassing – so we secretly hurry by him. We don’t like to confront people, instead we invite a ‘special’ person with an evangelistic gift come to our church. Now our job is to ask everybody we can think of to those services so the man with that precious gift can present the Lord to others. Hey! That’s great – do it!…  BUT!! … … you just knew there was a ‘but’ coming eh?… What about the guy who sits in the next cubicle at work, or the person you see daily on the bus, or the parent you meet every day by the school’s gate??? 

When we think about reaching out to others perhaps we feel that we have no spare time to prepare ourselves? What with the kids, our spouse, our church, our job, our extended family, our friends, the gym, and our pets! Here’s something I have learnt. Don’t pray for anything unless you are prepared to be a part of the answer! God loves participation, He loves to do things with us. Everybody gets to join in. WE are His part of that answer to our prayers for the guy at work, or the person on the bus, or little Jimmy’s mum at the gate. 

We’ve forgotten that Jesus goes with US, everywhere we go …even to the school gate. Christ won’t ever leave us or forsake us — the bible says so! He is already standing right by the throne, praying for the person in the next cubical to ours, and the cubical next to that one etc.etc. He also knows the NAME of every single individual on that bus, or train. He knows Jimmy’s mum, and everything that happens at her house. He is limitless.He just needs an interested, available conduit to both pray AND speak.

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect …” 1 Peter 3:15. Our job is to be ready to speak at any given moment. Hubby and I have found a fascinating thing, when we speak to one person, other people often ‘hover’ about eavesdropping around the edges! Jesus Christ is a great fan of ‘as you are going’ … He lived that way. Witnessing is a state of mind, a way of life, not a spiel we have memorised.

It kind of works like this: …you are praying for Jimmy’s mum and you meet her at the gate. She starts to tell you how Jimmy’s been a right pest lately and she is nearly insane trying to deal with his rudeness, and constant obsession with the internet, plus his grumpy moods, etc. etc. She says: ‘How do you get your Johnny to co-operate?’ You shrug your shoulders, roll your eyes, and say: “I have to pray about that all the time. Jesus helps me.” “If you confess Me before men then I will confess you before My Father.”You don’t have to go to that gate all primed up to speak to Jimmy’s mum – you just truthfully answer her questions.

After that I would leave that remark lying out there. Just tell Jimmy’s mum in your own words that you can’t manage Johnny or your life without God! And then leave it alone. It would be good to volunteer to pray for her and Jimmy if she wants you to. BTW the previous remarks are my suggestions to illustrate simplicity  – they are not a script anyone is meant to follow. The REAL secret is, don’t leave the Lord out of anything!  Tell Him you are on deck for what He wants at any given moment. We need to use our faith to be available to love on people, help them and tell them about the SOURCE of our help! 

Our faith is not meant to be a privacy issue … that’s this world’s idea of faith. Active faith is about the way we live. We simply need to be upfront and honest about what we believe. As we go along, other things will be added unto us, which means some stuff happens automatically when our faith is alive, active and central to everything else. That’s what seeking His kingdom first means. A part-time faith leaves room for confusion – you never know whether you should speak or not. That’s why it is good to always be ready to give an account of the faith that is within you.

For years Christians have been taught, and encouraged to think, that they have to be a perfect witness to the society around them. They have to look right, sound right and behave well everywhere under all circumstances. Good luck with doing that, without the Holy Spirit helping us! Sadly when we pretend with others, it actually becomes more difficult to be real with the Lord. Hiding becomes a habit. We stop talking to Him about our failures.

Meanwhile it is highly likely that other people can see through our pretence anyway!. And if they live next door to us, they probably hear us shouting at each other or the kids – on a very rare occasion, of course! 😂 Our whole life’s focus is Christ, what He did for everyone, and that cannot be a part-time pursuit. Faith is not just about salvation, it is the way we live now. “The just shall live by faith.”  Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38.  Bye 👋

P 2643 We all have the power to touch many.

/ DVH

John 6:5-13: “When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for He already had in mind what He was going to do. Philip answered Him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” Another of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up,“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, He said to His disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.”

This is a story that we all know well. Especially if we went to Sunday School, or Children’s Church! It was probably one of the stories that we heard because those concepts were suitable for kids. Back in the ark I told it with flannel graph. (OK, you never heard of flannel graph, it’s a thing, look it up!) There are many things that stand out about this particular story — I love the fact that this little boy was not intimidated by how many people there were, instead he was prepared to share the little he had with everyone. He was generous. Ya might want to think on that for a couple of years.🤔

I believe that this scripture illustrates that nobody’s life is too small, or too insignificant for the Lord to use. The only secret to living a godly kingdom life, is in giving that life to HIM! That child surrendered his lunch. Which BTW, also meant that he no longer had it!  His lunch wasn’t much by this world’s standards. However, we are kingdom people so we do not have to live by this world’s idea of faith! Christ came, lived and died to show us that fame, money, expertise, and influence mean nothing. After all, Jesus Christ, His life and ministry could have been just a tiny blip on the radar screen of this life. But the Lord changed everything, because He surrendered all He had to His Father … to the death.

Your life is not ordinary. The minute you gave your life to Christ, your potential increased exponentially like that little boy’s lunch. That child’s lunch fed 5,000 people … and … let’s not forget the leftovers … because they matter. One basket left over for each disciple. One basket of proof that God Himself was there with them! Meanwhile, I note that there was no left-over fish, and a good thing that was too! Imagine the smell!! … Moo-ving on …

I dunno why, but in the church in recent years there has been this big push on producing, teaching, training and using people who have been given incredible powerful gifts from God. We advertise these people like rock stars. Sadly often the fame and pressure can lead to them acting like normal human beings and falling on their heads and doing some ugly thing or other. A gift, is no more a sign of perfection than that little boy’s volunteered lunch was a sign of a miracle. The power fell when Jesus Christ accepted the gift and broke it, gave it to His disciples and they distributed it to everyone else.

There is a weird reaction to the phenomenon of the famous Christian — the rest of us trot up to church to sit in a pew or a seat and watch that person do their spiritual thing. Well, that’s just dumb! Why waste the potential of the people who are sitting down? There are also times when we ask other ‘gifted’ people to pray for people in the prayer line etc. That’s even more dumb! Now we are telling everyone else it is OK to be a needy passenger, not a pro-active participant! Thinkaboudit. 

Just stop for a minute. Imagine what this world might look like if everyone who names the Name of Jesus as Lord and Saviour lived this life the way Paul describes in the Epistles. Wouldn’t that blow your mind? 🤯  We can get so busy growing big churches we forget about developing the unseen potential of the person warming a seat in the middle of the congregation. Instead we go about looking for the bright shiny ones, the ones who have an anointing. 

PS The bible says we are all anointed ones!! 1 John 2:20 “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.” Sadly those super stars can get knocked over by our enemy because they stand up there in the spotlight ALONE. Or even worse, they stand up there with people who tell them what they want to hear, because ‘you mustn’t touch the anointing.’ 🙄 So instead people just go away and bad-mouth them and complain about them behind their backs. Now there’s a smart move …!!  😱

Here’s my advice to you dear reader, take your little lunch, your only lunch … your only life — and give it to Jesus. Then start behaving like He did, loving people everywhere you go. I’m talking about living your ordinary life, the only life you have, free of the encumbrances of day after day after day of the same old same old! Because your life has a purpose. Trust Him to help you to touch many for His sake. Bye 👋 

P 2627 He is always with us.

/ DVH

“When you pass through the deep, stormy sea, you can count on Me to be there with you. When you pass through raging rivers, you will not drown. When you walk through persecution like fiery flames, you will not be burned; the flames will not harm you,…” Isaiah 43:2.

The bible says – Lord will be ‘with’ us. It does not, however, say that He will always keep us away from dangerous, difficult stuff. I think the reason the Lord does not say: ‘I will make it so you never suffer’ – is because “I will be WITH you…” is SO much better! The very best thing we can do when we are in dire straights, is to look for Him. Why? Because He said He would be there, that’s why! The body of Christ has become spiritually unfit – we stopped doing our spiritual exercises and started demanding God do this and that. That’s what sent the Israelites down the plug-hole!

We can see in the bible, that the fire of persecution could not touch Christ. He stood silently and faced accusation even on the way to the cross. satan couldn’t drown the Lord Jesus either. Even before He was resurrected, He walked on water. He knew Who was in charge of what He did and where He went  He was with those disciples on the water talking to them when they thought they might drown. He stood on the water outside the boat!

Almighty God respects our free will, instead of turning it over to our enemy – we need to remind ourselves Who we belong to. The best thing we can do when things go upside down and inside out, is to ask Jesus to be with us. In His Presence nothing on this earth can bother us – we simply must learn to live in His Presence. Jesus DID it! Kingdom things like grace, mercy, love, and peace etc. are bigger than trouble, they instantly exclude it. Stuff won’t go away – we will WALK RIGHT THROUGH IT.

God’s peace does not sort of kind of shoo trouble out of the door, anymore than turning on the light pushes away the darkness! When His peace is present HE is present. (God’s peace is a Person, BTW – the precious Holy Spirit.) If you and I switch a light on, the darkness instantly disappears. There is no contest between light and dark. One thing simply excludes the other. That statement is our point of faith. Despite how we feel – truth is always truth. Our faith is an ever increasing revelation of Who we know God to be.

The real secret to overcoming in difficult circumstances is to make Him welcome. Tell Him: “Holy Spirit You are welcome in this place” – then point to your heart. It is one thing to do that in church and completely another to do it when stuff starts happening. It’s a faith statement. We aren’t talking about a theory – one that works sometimes and doesn’t others. Jesus didn’t try to walk on water. He simply did it, as casually as you or I would walk up the street. The wind and waves didn’t bother Him one bit. Why not? Because ...“He was going to the other side.” That’s what He said and that’s what He did.

Even on this earth Jesus lived in another kingdom! That kingdom has a different POV than this world does. God’s Kingdom has His POV.“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], IN Whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes].” James 1:17. Knowing God can’t deceive you despite the circumstances, is the place to stand. There is no “maybe” or “I hope so” in God’s kingdom. Everything is YES and AMEN. 

The Lord Jesus quite simply didn’t live in a place that included other possibilities. He took the time to know His Father and relate to Him. Just like you and I take a breath without even thinking about it, the Lord Jesus lived to do God’s will. As imperfect human beings we like to entertain other possibilities — mainly to explain why we are shrieking our heads off in a sinking boat, as it goes up and down in rough seas!

In heaven there is no place for doubt. Faith and Love rule. Our job is to bring those things down here – no matter what is going on around us. That cannot work if we don’t practise the skill of trusting God in all things – big and small. We need to immediately get rid of those thoughts that say: “God won’t help me”… “This thing doesn’t matter it is too small to bother Him about” … “I can’t.” I can’t but HE CAN. Dependance upon Him means we lean back into Him and trust He is Who He says He is.

A lack of peace begins in our soul. In our emotions, our thoughts. Fear grabs at us and we start to sink in our emotions and thoughts first. The reason we have to wrangle this or that all the time, is that we are living in the wrong kingdom –OR maybe we are trying to live in both! That means we end up doing the hokey pokey with our faith! When we live by His kingdom’s rules then His life flows. Remember, nobody can kill us without His permission. And Almighty God will not give permission until it is the right time. Why? “Because there is a TIME to be born and a time to die ..” (Ecclesiastes 3) 

Sometimes I want to say to people, take your earthly glasses off and put on the kingdom ones and just leave them there, and please, don’t forget to read the book!! His book reminds us of Who He is, and how much He loves us. He is always with us. We are not of this world … we are His Kingdom people. We talk about it, carry it, live in it, breath it, and do it – and if necessary – we die for it. Bye.👋

P 2615 Fighting fear at 3.00am or thereabouts.

/ DVH

We all know this one in some form or another. As we start to get a handle on wrangling fear, fighting with the Lord’s strength during the day, the wretched thing pops up at 3.00am when you can’t sleep. I call it the ‘what ifs.’  

What if this bad thing happens. What if that even worse one does? … What if I can’t cope? … What if I let my family down? First of all – let’s remind ourselves that at 3.00am very few sleepless people cope! These thoughts and many others like them, are a direct attack on our faith. Cheer up! The other guy wouldn’t be attacking our faith if we weren’t actually going somewhere with it. It is time to remind ourselves that …

“… God will NEVER give us the spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit Who gives us mighty power, love, and self-control.”

2 Timothy 1:7 TPT. Did ya get the word NEVER??! So that clears up any possible suggestion of just who is behind those worries that are nagging at us, no matter what time it is, because it will NEVER be the Lord Jesus. 

Yeah, I know that seems to go without saying … except in those moments when a lack of sleep robs you of your ability to think clearly. But we can learn to fight for our peace. However, this verse is more about Who we have to help us, than about what we are fighting. We have the Holy Spirit Who wants to give us His mighty power, His love for the Lord and others, plus a spiritual gift called self-control. Ya might want to think on that for a minute or ten. 🤔 But not at 3.00am, or there’s a chance that we will get even more awake!

At that hour I personally need all the mighty power I can get, thank you Jesus! My brain turns into a washing machine. Strangely, that reminds me of something … old person’s ramble alert … many years ago, there was this ad on TV with a cute kid in it who is probably now in his 60s … if not dead. This kid says: “Guess whose mum’s got a Whirlpool?” I dunno about a fancy washing machine, but sometimes it sure feels like a whirlpool in my head! How about you? PS they don’t make Whirlpools any more – they cost a fortune even back then. Let’s mo-ve right along from useless trivia that no-one cares about … 

… And just look again at that terrific verse. At all times, in all places, sometimes even despite our lack of obvious spirituality… God GIVES US the Holy Spirit. I’m going to say that again because maybe it didn’t quite sink in  … our GOD GIVES US THE HOLY SPIRIT!! Now here’s the Gift Who keeps on giving! And He is totally unearned or deserved. At 3.00am very few people feel spiritual, but we know that our God will always help us. Ask for help! ← I’m just going to let that sit there so we can both think about it.🤔 🧐 

Here’s another weapon suitable for the 3.00am screaming meemies …“because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. ”So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my Helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”Hebrews 13:5b-6. Whatever is trying to pinch your sleep is between you and our precious Helper, the Holy Spirit, He’s the Person God has given us to be our Friend forever. He is always there. Other people. and the spirit of stupid they are currently swimming in, don’t belong splashing about inside our heads! Remember, distraction from the real point is the enemy’s biggest tool. he tried that on Jesus … and it didn’t work on Him, either. 

Psalm 34:15-18: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.”← Did ya get that word all? So you and I can’t actually be an exception because all means ALL!“The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” Which is why we repent about anyone we are angry with, even if it IS 3.00am. 

Despite the old fashioned bible version above, I urge you to fight against fear for your right to sleep and be at peace, be-ca-use … “…  to His beloved one He giveth sleep.” Psalm 127:2. You are His beloved one – sleep belongs to you. Hmmm. At 3.00am it seems that I speak King James English. Meanwhile there is no truth whatsoever to the rumour that I am that old!  Bye …👋