Gospel

P 2811 Selective deafness.

/ DVH

Now there’s a subject we’d all like to avoid. I have a theory … anyone can end up being selectively deaf to some stuff in the bible when they don’t like what it says! How am I doing so far? I am not just talking about the whole …”Go into all the world and preach the gospel …” verses either. Here’s a few other strong and challenging verses to start us off:“I urge you, my brothers and sisters, for the sake of the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to agree to live in unity with one another and put to rest any division that attempts to tear you apart. Be restored as one united body living in perfect harmony. Form a consistent choreography among yourselves, having a common perspective with shared values.”1 Corinthians 1:10 TPT.

When we get to phrases like ‘perfect harmony’ it is too easy to say yes but do no. If we aim at nothing we are sure to hit it, so let’s not be intimidated by language!  Today I want to look a bit more closely at that kind of content instead. I think this whole verse hinges on the phrase …”agree to live in unity with one another.”  And I’m pretty sure that “putting to rest any division that attempts to tear you apart”  kind of stretches a lot of people too. In my denomination, people argue with you over the meaning of this verse and its application, but they don’t bother to work it out, instead they quit your church and go somewhere else. Which means nobody learns nothin’! However, trying to put grumbling and discontent to rest, can end up making any chasm of division wider … unless some of the people in the dissenting group are prepared to die to self.

I like this verse from Corinthians, it makes our interaction with each other sound a bit like a ballet. Although I strongly suspect we can keep tripping over each other’s feet regularly! But I like it because this book is His Word and He has given us an Answer before we even asked for one! Like… ‘having a common perspective with shared values’ can help to keep us in step with one another. Sometimes the reason disharmony takes root in our communities is that our common perspective is theology, or the latest trend to come down the turn-pike.

However, I think our common perspective etc. is, and should always be – Jesus Himself and all He did for each of us! Those facts will help our feet to be firmly planted in the soil of His love, and we can be in step with each other again.  We can become so focussed on corporate agreement over what we think are essential things, that we miss the fact that we are only together as a group, because of what He did.  Precious servants of God often leave churches because of differing theology. That’s like my hand deciding that it doesn’t need the rest of me anymore – it makes no sense. Ask someone who has damaged or lost a limb, they will quickly tell you every single part of us contributes to the whole. 

The next verse is another great key to living in love with one another. “Resist revenge, and make sure that no one pays back evil in place of evil but always pursue doing what is beautiful to one another and to all the unbelievers.” 1 Thessalonians 5:15 TPT. Revenge only prospers our enemy’s agendas, but true forgiveness works to find common ground for His sake. I like the phrase; “pursuing doing what is beautiful to one another.” I think this is what separates us from many other religions, that pursuit of ‘building one another up in our most holy faith.’ It seems to me that none of that implies we need to straighten out someone else’s theology! 

Love is the most powerful force on earth – that’s why it is so costly. After all, LOVE saved us! We are told to run after it. Personally I have found if you are running after love – you have no time for anything else. It certainly keeps me fully occupied and it helps me avoid confrontation. Especially about things that may drag somebody else down. The thing is, when we decide this verse is more important than that one we are choosing sides – every single verse is good and profitable.

Last verse for today: “But if we keep living in the pure light that surrounds Him, we share unbroken fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, continually cleanses us from all sin.”1 John 1:7 TPT. This is a great secret. It is not what you or I think about this doctrine or that sermon – the secret is to continue living in the light. People of the light value His Presence above their opinions. His light equalises everything. When He is present, our pettiness and irritability fly out of the window. My advice today is this, if you are struggling to relate to Sister-grumpy-face, or Brother-know-it-all, then just sit and pray together. The Lord Jesus loves ‘together.’ After that we need to forgive and forget all that is past, and press on toward the mark. 

Sometimes, selective hearing comes from a personal desire to hide from the truth, because it is striking too close to home. Sadly it is that very truth that makes us free – so hiding from it is a dumb idea! We must put away our white sheriff hat and stop thinking the other guy is deliberately wearing a black one, and aim at LOVE – anything else is missing the mark. Bye.👋

P 2805 Righteousness.

/ DVH

“This gospel unveils a continual revelation of God’s righteousness—a perfect righteousness given to us when we believe. And it moves us from receiving life through faith, to the power of living by faith. This is what the Scripture means when it says: “We are right with God through life-giving faith!”” Romans 1:17 TPT.

Righteousness, means the ability to live, day-by-day in right relationship with God, and others. It is not a static thing – it keeps unfolding and expanding in and through our lives. We need to live valuing what we have been given, and we do that when we live justly, honestly, and faithfully according to God’s instructions from the book. This kind of life is not a dream, or a wish-thought, it is an ongoing process that we enter into with Him. It flows from a continual revelation of what He died to give us.

Jesus Christ revealed, in Person, what righteousness before God looks like. It looks like – praying for lepers, forgiving those who have treated you dreadfully, giving without measure, and loving others, as we honestly wrangle with the hardships of this life. After the Lord went back to heaven, He left behind Him a small group of ordinary men who changed history. However, those men found out everything He told them was true – firsthand – for themselves. Don’t ever be content with knowledge about righteousness – learn to live in it instead. Let the Holy Spirit teach you.

‘Righteousness’ is an old fashioned word that is easily overlooked or ignored in today’s abbreviated language. As we embrace absorbing this incredible, church-ified word into our lives, and we choose to look our lives through His eyes — the way we think is changed. It needs to be. We must move past the try-harder-to-be-a-good-person school into the I-can-never-do-that-by-myself … one! There we will learn that our faith is not just series of idioms we repeat endlessly hoping they are true. We will begin to see what we believe come to life, like the disciples did. We will learn to rise up to be all each one of us was sent here to be.

That’s because the cross was an exchange and not just a destination — we were taken out of this world’s kingdom and made citizens of heaven when we said yes to the Lord Jesus’ sacrifice. Christ’s righteousness, His Godly, right way of living, giving, and dying on planet earth, is available to us. We gave Him our sin, and He gave us His Grace, His place – His position before our Heavenly Father. 

If you pause and take the time to think about it, Jesus was never ever worried that God would not listen to Him when He prayed. He expected to be heard because there was no sin to separate Him from His Father’s will. “Jesus raised His eyes to heaven and prayed, “Father, I’m grateful that You have listened to Me.I know You always do listen, but on account of this crowd standing here I’ve spoken so that they might believe that You sent me.” John 11:41. That’s why we can be trusted to ask for whatever we want – because now we’ve entered into a new agreement with God. We are going to live our lives for His will, His way, from now on.

We too, can have confidence we will be heard when we stand on the simplicity of the gospel and let it daily work on our lives, thoughts and hearts. Now …”In this [union and fellowship with Him], love is completed and perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him]; because as He is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17. The thing we need to remember is that His righteousness is not permissiveness. Jesus Himself “…only did what He saw His Father doing  etc…” The limitless One chose to limit Himself, as He lived in obedience to His Father’s will. Even to His death. 

The bible tells us that God’s kind of Love avoids even the appearance of wrong. We call that self-control, and it is a fruit germinated and fulfilled by our relationship with Jesus Himself. We choose to live like this because of the passion we have for Him – He is our Beloved! We limit ourselves in this life for His sake, because He limited Himself for our sake.

Almighty God became one of us and He came here to show us He means us no harm! Now when He looks at you and I, He sees the pure, spotless, innocent blood of Jesus covering our sins. We’ve moved out of sin and darkness into His marvellous light. Which is why it is D.U.M.B./stupid to deliberately keep on sinning. God is so good! When we sin – Jesus is our lawyer/advocate – He points to His blood covering our lives and claims us as His own.

Real repentance is our only way back into the light of love. Ask yourself: ‘Why would I ever choose to move out of His light? What can possibly be more important than walking with Him?’ We can see this world far more clearly in the light. Darkness blinds us to reality. Jesus Christ died to give us His righteousness – so let’s live our day-to-day lives for Him, grateful. Bye 👋.

P 2799 Father God gives to us.

/ DVH

“Give, and it will be given to you. …” Luke 6:38 AMP. I don’t think I have ever felt led to do a ‘follow up’ to something I have written before — but today I strongly felt to continue yesterday’s exhortation, because I believe there are two sides to the coin of giving. We give, and the Lord responds to us, by blessing us, personally, or through other people. However, we need to take note that He does not always respond, in kind.

It is a tremendous blessing in the first place to give, but we also need to understand that His blessings may not come back to us in the form of money etc. That’s the receiving bit of this equation. If we happen to need money, then it is natural to assume God will bless us where we have a need… But I have not found that is always true in every circumstance. Let me explain, using the three women from yesterday’s blog. 

Hannah gave up her first-born son and that child was a gift from God to her. Children are a stated heritage from the Lord, and Hannah had 5 more children after Samuel. This restored her stature within her community! God totally transformed her circumstances. That little widow woman with the two coins did something so spectacular that Jesus used her as an object lesson to His disciples, and it is recorded in the bible, but she knew nothing about it. But we know that God has a soft spot for women who are alone. Now, her giving is an example for all of us, two thousand years later.

The lady who broke her alabaster box for Jesus, received forgiveness for her sins, and Jesus commended her even further by telling His disciples that what she did was going to be remembered and recounted generations past their life-times! Mark 26:7-13. “Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”This woman’s act was so spectacular to the Lord, He memorialised it!

Sometimes when God blesses us in return, we can utterly miss what He does because we are looking for something that we think we need. The bible says: “…give and it shall be given to you …” Here’s a thought …. maybe we need favour more than money! The Lord can sometimes give us favour with other people, and unless we have spiritual eyes we will miss His response and we won’t thank and praise Him for it. The Israelites were given so much favour when they left Egypt they literally looted the place — with the Egyptians’ freely-given permission!

Today I want to highlight, yet again, that God’s ways are not our ways. Our loving Father loves to bless His kids because He’s a good good Father! If we stretch our faith to see beyond our immediately perceived needs, and remain aware of what He is doing, it can help us to ascertain what shape His blessings are taking this time.This means we cultivate eyes to see whatever blessings come our way, as coming from HIM.

Hubby and I have occasionally experienced upgrades to something far more expensive than we can afford. I truly believe when that happens, that the Lord is blessing us – with His blessings pressed down and running over. It all depends on how you look at things. People have given us stuff over the years – things we never asked for or even knew we needed, but those things turned out to be an unforeseen blessing when we regarded them from a different POV. Like I said yesterday, the river of His blessings flows through our lives … it is a river not a dam! If we hold on too tightly to things, we will end up closing our spiritual eyes to what He is doing – NOW.

There have been times when hubby and I were given an undeserved discount on a large, unexpected bill. That’s favour. Everything depends on the way we look at this life. Other people have come and helped us when we were both unwell. That’s favour. Our dear neighbour next door has mowed our front verge, which is huge BTW, for years! Favour!  The bible tells us that the Lord Jesus Himself enjoyed favour:  “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Luke 2:52. The Pharisees etc. didn’t have spiritual eyes so they could not see the favour of God on Him. Mary, Jesus mother was called highly favoured by the Angel Gabriel.

Psalm 41:1-3 talks about blessings that are not monetary: “The favour of God keeps my enemies from defeating me.” But unless we are vigilant and living aware of His goodness, we may not see how God Himself is blessing us by keeping our enemies at bay. Living a life filled with gratitude for all He has done, and is still doing in our lives — will lead us into walking, day by day with His Spirit. As we live with internal peace, when the rest of the world around us is in chaos, then that peace is His gift to us. He is blessing us. If we have less money than we did before, but we are still managing … we are blessed.

I will finish with this thought, the more you SEE His blessings, the more your life will be enriched, despite your circumstances.  Ask for eyes to see Him at work, because Father God is always giving to us! Bye. 👋

P 2784 They are not just stories.

/ DVH

The whole time the Lord Jesus was preaching, He was demonstrating, teaching, and living out a kingdom life in front of everyone around Him. Praise God that people wrote this stuff down! These things are illustrations of how God’s kingdom works. He preached about what the people in God’s kingdom look like. And He talked about what the kingdom looks like —  check out what I mean for yourself. There’s plenty of stuff to do in there! All of the Gospels show us what a life laid down for others looks like. It is an error to think that only Jesus was meant to live that way. He’s the Person we imitate with the Holy Spirit’s divine help.

Our Lord went out and did God’s will, every single day He was on this earth. Doesn’t that blow your mind? Think on this: our glorious Savior was forgiving, saving and inspiring someone while He was dying. He didn’t stop even when He was taking His last breath! He was still leading the people around Him into a greater knowledge of God’s ways from the place of His enormous pain. WOW! And we think talking to Mrs Kerfoops next door is hard! Jesus was struggling to breathe, and He still witnessed to His Father’s great love and passion for people. And if you are short on words for witnessing, that’s OK – Jesus didn’t use many ‘cos it was too hard for Him to speak! 

In the New Testament, the Gospels are a visual illustration, an aid, they show us HOW God’s kingdom functions. They are not just ‘stories’ about the things Jesus did and said, they are Jesus’ demonstrating and explaining to us how God’s kingdom WORKS. He taught, then He did, and sometimes He did, then He taught!  And at other times both things happened simultaneously. To be quite honest with you, I could get stuck on the Gospels for the rest of my life. There is just so much richness in there. 

You and I are adults, we aren’t little kids going off to Kid’s Church hearing stories about Jonah and the whale, or Jesus expanding some little boy’s lunch anymore. Everything the Lord Jesus says and does in the Gospels is a life lesson.  It is not just some fairy tale like Jack and the bean stalk! These things are instructions. Through Jonah, God is saying to us, no matter what big thing swallows you up, even if it is your own fault – He still has a plan for your life. And the boy with the his little lunch teaches us that even the little we have, can grow in His hands and feed others, if we will just give it to Him. 

There’s a way to read the book and it is not the same way you read a novel. It is too easy to read God’s book as simply words on a page. This book is God’s carefully preserved and chosen Manufacturer’s Handbook and it has been written down and kept safe for us. The Jewish people are trustworthy, they memorised their own history by word of mouth passing these stories down from generation to generation. We have what we have today because of those stories passed down. Even the New Testament, although written down, was also passed down by word of mouth. That’s what preaching is! The miracle is that it doesn’t matter which version of the bible you read personally, because the Holy Spirit kisses those things that are important to US, with His wonderful Presence. 

Then revelation comes. After that comes repentance – I guarantee that bit! You can’t read the book without finding places where you’ve fallen short of the mark. Don’t be condemned. Getting it wrong is not the end of the world. It’s a place where we can learn to trust in His faithfulness. We must do more than just sing: “Great is thy faithfulness … 🎶” – we need to live believing it! This life is not about our performance, good or bad, it is about His faithfulness to honour His word! People all over this world are living and dying without any knowledge of the One Who loves us all.

Take your little lunch, your little life, and give it to Jesus. Then go and do what He says to you. Read this scripture with that in your mind:

“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.” John 6:5-11.

This kid didn’t have anything worthwhile to feed so many people, yet he shows us that our spiritual poverty is not the end. In Christ’s hands that is always the beginning of something extraordinary. Anything that is given to Jesus will multiply. These are not just stories, they are a living history of how God can use ordinary lives and bring forth His kingdom. Bye. 👋

P 2743 HE is our Hope …

/ DVH

… our ever present help in time of need! “Here’s what I’ve learned through it all: Don’t give up; don’t be impatient; be entwined as one with the Lord. Be brave and courageous, and never lose hope. Yes, keep on waiting—for He will never disappoint you!” Psalms 27:14 TPT  Today, I want to exhort everyone to embrace the hope that we have because of what Jesus Christ did for us!  When we dredge up or try to conjure up hope based on our circumstances, we can get disappointed in God, others, or ourselves. The bible makes it clear —if we have become disappointed, then we’ve lost our hope. God’s hope does not disappoint!  And Christ is that HOPE.

.

It seems to me that we often want the Lord’s help, but we don’t want to live our lives looking to Him all the time. Maybe we are a bit scared that God’s idea of what is good for us, will not match up with what we think it is! Philippians 2:21 says: “For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.”  We must take the time, even if it is just a few minutes every day, to stop, and specifically remember what Jesus did for us and thank Him. This pushes the refresh button in our hearts spiritually.

If we simply take the cross for granted, seeing it as a past accomplished event, there is a strong chance that eventually we will run out of hope, because the world around us is continually creating false finishing lines. I’m talking about running after those transitory things that really aren’t worth it when you get there! But Christ’s work and intercession on our behalf will create amazing things from our ordinary little lives. What Jesus did perfectly for us, is our best point of reference. His sacrifice is the hope that keeps us going, His POV is the lens we deliberately choose to look through.

Here’s what Paul said. It really sharpened my view of HOPE: Colossians 1:22,23a  “But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.”

We choose to stay with the reality of the Gospel because we can’t afford to move. We can’t wander off into theology land. Our hope cannot come from there, owing to the fact that theology land creates debate and uncertainty. Our hope comes from what Jesus did, and it’s in the book! It is very important that we don’t use up our energies running toward false finishing lines. I’ve found there is a huge blessing after I realised that hope actually comes from somewhere else – actually, it comes from SomeOne Else! I learnt that if I’ve lost hope, then I’ve moved away from my real life in Him.  It means I’ve wandered off and gone over into my own agendas.

Christ is always our only hope – not our circumstances, not the possibilities tomorrow presents, or something material we are striving for. He is our HOPE source, and He will stretch and enlarge us as we choose to walk with Him. Our hope isn’t IN what we think we believe, or what our favourite preacher said – but Jesus Christ Himself! That’s what building your life upon the Rock, looks like. The sand in our lives is the stuff in that shifts and moves, it gets stolen away, fades, or falls away and it can’t last! Hope is now our leader, it takes us, day by day, further into what the cross did for us. We choose to trust in Christ because of that cross.

Paul finishes his thoughts a few verses further on:  “I have become its (the church’s) servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the Word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ IN you, the hope of glory.”(V25-27).

Real hope now lives inside of us. We all received that hope when we said yes to Jesus – at the same time we gave away our old life and began to learn how to live the way the bible says.  Our task is to keep feeding and watering our hope with an ever expanding knowledge of what the cross of Christ did, in us and for us. I add to that  whatever the bible has spoken to me today, together with my obedience. We can’t afford to get our hope from our circumstances … practically everything around us can change in a heartbeat. 

The way to get through the times when it seems like our hope is fading, is to look at the cross and revisit what Christ did on it, for us. Because of what He did for us  – we changed kingdoms. Our sins were ever-so-real to us and others, before, but now they are gone! When our Heavenly Father looks at us – He sees Christ. Our bit is to co-operate with the Holy Spirit so that what Father God sees, becomes who we really are!  We need to daily remember Christ is IN us. He is our reference point. He is our hope of glory. 👋

P 2739 Hot off the press …

/ DVH

Here’s a sizzle thought, hot off the press for today. Philippians 1:15-18: “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defence of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.” 

There’s a whole lotta stuff going on in Paul’s heart that some leaders today wouldn’t recognise, even if they fell over it or into it! We’d probably split most churches right down the middle in his circumstances. But Paul sees God’s good in this situation. And God’s good is wa-ay more important than Paul’s own ego. Think about it, this man had loads of really good reasons to BOAST – yet he always put God’s will and purpose above anything else – and nobody made him do it – he lived there.

I have the strongest feeling that if some of the previous generations of the people of God had lived with a wonderful attitude like Paul, we might have less denominations! We get so used to defending our territory, our revelations, our thoughts, our sound doctrine! — that we forget it’s actually His territory, His revelations, His thoughts, His sound doctrine – not ours! I am as much against error as the next guy, but we are slicing and dicing up the Lord’s church, His body, in ways that are not life-giving and good. By doing that we are arbitrarily stopping the life in the arteries or veins from reaching the flesh in another part of the body. A severed artery or vein loses blood, and the whole Body needs His blood.

This means that the flesh is prevailing in some church assemblies – simply because vain ambition has not been voluntarily put to death. His life giving blood is not getting to the whole Body. Church is about God being glorified – that means focus on Him is everything. Yet very few people are prepared to suffer wrong – on purpose. We attack other parts of the body like they are the enemy, and forget that Almighty God won an awful lot of wars and nobody helped Him! Fancy that! … Almighty God does not need our help! Pause and think on that for a minute or nine. 

There is such a huge attack on leadership today — the enemy himself — not to give him any credit, flings loads of horrible stuff at leaders. Then other people catch the junk and fling it at those poor sods as well. Plus a lot of throwers shove a rock inside for good measure! People seem to think that discovering that error may have occurred, means we must split up a church. They see doing that as the only way to resolve differences. Then they get so excited because half the church got up and followed them – so THEY must be right… That’s called pride if anyone is interested. Human logic is not meant to thrive in these situations, read the book. 

Let’s get back to Paul and his wonderful, generous attitude. Like James also said, selfish ambition and jealousy has ruined lives. What do you know, maybe Paul read his letter? Or maybe they both just talked to the same Lord. God is not divided. So if it causes division then guess what…?? You do the sum. Almighty God is not excited about division – He loves multiplication. And splitting a church is not the way to multiply the kingdom.

Here’s another verse that I love to bits:“For who regards you as superior or what sets you apart as special? What do you have that you did not receive [from another]? And if in fact you received it [from God or someone else], why do you boast as if you had not received it [but had gained it by yourself]?”1 Corinthians 4:7. Humility is like a cloak, you must choose to wear it, and not take it off. We wear it because our King wore it first. Some Roman soldiers saw the value in Christ’s cloak and they refused to tear it into bits because they saw its value! It was seamless. Is anybody out there listening?? 

I want to finish with another verse that I think pulls our focus off what we think we need, over into what He wants to give us. From John 21:21-22 Amplified Bible (AMP) “So when Peter saw Him, he asked Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man [what is in his future]?” Jesus said to him, “If I want him to stay alive until I come [again], what is that to you? You follow Me!” Isn’t that fabulous? Jesus tells Peter to mind his own business because Peter is all twisted up. He thinks John might live forever … Jealousy bit him… The Lord loves to simplify the things. “Follow Me” – He says to Peter, again… When in doubt follow Him, and remember, He never wants to tear up the town.

Today God is looking for an OBEDIENT PEOPLE, but we can resist Him, because we think we don’t like that theology. And we fall down smashing our head against its own inflated opinion of itself. Then we boo-hoo at God because we discover we’ve been walking in the spirit of stupid, again … Or we blame someone else like Adam and Eve did. Truth resides with God not us. HE is our reference point. Todays’ blog is hot off the press. Get rid of malice, resentment, slander, and divisiveness and cling to the One Who knows everything. I know we can only see in part, through a blurry window but after all, He knows the end from the beginning. It’s OK! God’s still in charge.

Bye. 😊

P 2711 Faith is not just agreement.

/ DVH

I’ve met plenty of people who agree that God is real, yet they have no visible faith! Some of them have what I call, fashionable faith. However what they say has no substance in their lives. God clearly values OBEDIENCE- read the book! Disobedience is not a viable alternative. So if we truly want our faith to grow, then we need to cultivate an attitude that is consistently, actively obedient. Faith has evidence. Our faith brings unseen things into the realm of things we can see.

Meanwhile, even the devil believes there is a God! (James 2:19) The only way we can showcase our faith is to use it – and not just when the sky is falling. Our evidence is always seeable. People ask both of us why we go on the road a number of times during a year? Because the Lord asked us to do it. Actually, He asks all His kids to follow His Son into a life of voluntary, loving service …it’s in the book! So why is it so hard to obey? Dying is hard! Everybody wants the benefits, but very few people want to be changed and transformed. FYI the older you get the harder transformation becomes.

We meet all kinds of difficulties when we are on the road. Hubby has to do everything. He does all the driving, then he has to pack and unpack the car … all by himself. Then he needs to set up our overnight stay. When we get to the destination, he can’t rest … he has to look after me. Showers, cooking, setting up the bed! If we travel every single day, then he does this every single day. He packs up in the morning, and then he sets up again that night. He only gets a rest from this kind of intense work when we stay more than two nights in one place. However, there is nothing special about this – he is just being obedient. Obedience costs us comfort and ease.

Jesus says this about a servant who works all day for His Master …I’ve put this scripture here because we need to pay attention to it as well as others like it. It always reminds me of my dear husband. Luke 17:7-10 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?  So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

I have found that many ministers ignore verses like these these, because those verses aren’t what I call, popular theology. Most people like the kind of verses that support them – their personal lives as individuals. Jesus didn’t come to earth and do all He did for us to give us a happy life down here – He came to get us to HEAVEN. And when we pray for others – when we tell them what Jesus did for them – we are using our faith for good. Yesterday my hubby shared the gospel with a mainland Chinese gentleman who had never heard it before. What a privilege! Our God is our HOME. He’s the place where we put down roots. Of course, He loves to help us, He loves His kids — but He is not an elderly benevolent ga-ga Grandpa either!! 

When we simply mentally agree with what the bible says, that is not faith. Faith has substance and substance can be seen! Jesus bought and paid for the right to ask us to live that way. Living for Him will involve sacrifices too. We will end up living differently than the world around us. Sometimes Christians are like starry-eyed people who fall in love… they only want the romance, and they never really settle into the marriage. Marriage involves love and romance;  and also sacrifice and hardship. Deep relationships do not come cheap! 

Here are some other less popular verses: John 12:26:“If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honour him.” Ask yourself, would Jesus prioritise leisure time or reaching-out-to-others-time? Galatians 5:13: “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” There’s a lot of them if you want to do the research.

Salvation is not only about you and I going to heaven – we were saved to bring other people with us. That won’t happen if we do not practice obedience. There are enough instructions in those four gospels, to keep us busy for the rest of our lives!! We don’t have to wait upon Him to find special things to do – we have a book full of things we can do. We need to put aside the practice of simply memorising verses that promise US some sort of a special advantage over someone else, and start living by all those verses, so we can demonstrate them to other people. Real faith is not about just agreeing with the truth, it is about living by it. Every single day. 👋

P 2709 We need Boldness.

/ DVH

We all encounter trials and difficulties. On this trip we have discovered that our health can sap our energy and distract us from the task the Lord laid before us. Plus when you are on a mission trip you can find a reason to argue with each other at the drop of a hat! We have been praying about these things, and asking the Lord what to do, and this morning hubby mentioned this story from the book of Acts. 

I love reading about other people’s faith, especially the faith of people like Peter and John who ended up in jail overnight for preaching the gospel – it’s in Acts 4.  Actually, they were in jail for using the Name of Jesus and healing someone (!), and for causing a public disturbance. Go figure! However, the Apostles merely used the opportunity they were given to preach to the crowd about Jesus. They drew 5,000 souls into the kingdom on the spot.

Anyway, the next morning, after spending the entire night in jail, they were hauled up before the oversight – the elders, the teachers, the Sanhedrin, Pharisees and Sadducees – and they were given an opportunity to explain. Hilariously, God short-circuited the leaders religious intention to silence His men, because the guy who got healed turned up at the hearing! So the powers-that-be mumbled amongst themselves, then they realised they had living proof of the power of God standing there and everybody could see it. That man was quite obviously healed – after all he used to sit in a very public place, crippled and begging! 

Then the leaders warned the Apostles not to speak about the Name of Jesus again. Those leaders were really stuck – what could they do about these two men, with all that evidence standing in front of them? So they let Peter and John go. The Apostles went straight back to the church and told them what had happened. And instead of skipping church that week, after their traumatic experience (!), these guys decided to make the whole thing a prayer point and that gathering ended up a huge prayer meeting. 

The people of God prayed an incredible prayer:“Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak Your word with great boldness. Stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.”Acts 4:23&24

Hubby’s first thought today was, we need to pray that prayer! So we did. Then I went back looked at the story again, and realised that the Apostles were already in constant danger of falling into the wrong hands … and then they went and poked the bear!! Which means they could easily have ended up in the land of worse! Why would you do that? TO OBEY GOD! So what did they do in the light of those threats? They prayed to be bolder! And then they asked the Lord to help them all to do more stuff in His Name. Think about it. They didn’t run, they didn’t hide, they did not stand down, they quite literally, asked for MORE. We need some of Your boldness Lord Jesus, every single day! Amen.

This whole story really impacted me. Mainly because I can’t ever remember doing that! I ask for His help all the time, but I don’t ever remember asking to be bolder. I figured out ‘why not,’ immediately! I’m scared of jail. Over the years the enemy has heaped ‘worse’ upon our heads quite a bit, and I am not at all keen on more worse stuff falling on us. I’ve quite literally been intimidated by circumstances, and fear has grabbed me. I started repenting right away!! And I praised God for the courage of His servants in His book and their witness. 

The church is barely in the shallow water of what our God will do in us and through us, in Jesus’ Name. And I think we have wandered back into a safer place through our own choices, probably because we saw sharks on the horizon and decided going out there into the deep, was not all that important … and not my job! Now, Thalassophobia is running rampant – we are ALL afraid of the deep!  So we tell ourselves that ‘somebody else can do it – this is too hard for me – God understands.’ 😳

What we actually need to do now is think about it the situation rationally, and realise this — we won’t see any sharks if we aren’t bothering our enemy! A lack of sharks does not mean we are safe, it means we are hiding. What should we do – hide or stand up?! Instead of standing down – we need to stand up! Wow. Food for thought.  Bye 👋

P 2704 A spiritual vitamin pill!

/ DVH

“God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13 TPT

There are days when I wear this verse out!! (As if I could!) What I mean by that, is that the Lord presses the refresh button in my life, over and over again. And hallelujah, verses like this one never get worn out – thank you Jesus. Here are a couple more FYI.


“For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”Jeremiah 31:25. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30 MSG.

I like the whole ‘revitalise us’ theme. Some days when I get out of bed I sure need a kick start! Yesterday was one of them. Going on the road always requires lots of work from my dear hubby, on top of what he already does. He’s preparing things for weeks before the actual event. Sadly we can’t do the whole fast-food thing while we are away – that means he has to cook a whole lot of stuff before we leave and freeze it. Not to mention how much fun it is to pack the car! I don’t know how he does any of it. 

I had a chat with the Lord about my inability to contribute regarding our adventures and He very kindly reminded me that hubby couldn’t go if I didn’t go with him. It’s nice to feel useful, even when you are doing nothing! By the time I swan out to the car the day we leave, everything is done. My sole contribution is to not fall apart physically while we are travelling – and, of course, I have to trust the Lord for that!!  But praise Him I have been given the gift of encouragement, so I use that along the way.

The first verse above in Philippians is the reason we go. The Lord has given us a passion to do what He likes best –  He loves to talk to people! He just adores it. Because He loves them so much, we have caught His joy, so now we love it too. You just never know what He is going to do next – that’s the bit that always grabs me by the heart – the unpredictability of it all. Some days hubby barely says ‘hello’ to someone, and they go on to talk about their private lives and spiritual thoughts, almost immediately. Because the Holy Spirit is present with us, we eagerly anticipate and welcome Him wherever we go, because we love watching Him work. It’s just like a little kid, watching ‘my Daddy do stuff.’

Here are a couple of really good questions to contemplate: “But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” Romans 10:14-15. 

Three guesses who Paul means by the title – “someone!” The day came for hubby and I when we both had to admit, someone means ME! I know that Christians get closer to the Lord through prayer, preaching, waiting on Him and fasting, or even by operating in spiritual gifts … BUT !!!… one of the best ways I know to grow, as well as use and stretch your faith, is to GO – for the gospel’s sake. 

I have this theory, most people like to stay within their comfort zones, because they don’t want to mess up, or bring the Lord into ill-repute. They often feel inadequate for the task. Plus people have busy lives! In fact if you look at me in particular, the one thing I don’t have, is a busy life. Being disabled means you have to plan your days very carefully and prayerfully, I only have so much energy to go around. Even on the road, I can only do what He tells me then I turn into a pumpkin and need sleep. But here is what I’ve learnt – if you give Him whatever you have, Jesus will take that offering and multiply it. 

Here’s my scripture about that scenario… hold on … it may surprise you. “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” John 6:9. Most of the time I have limited energy, so I just give what I have to Him. The Lord takes my little offering and multiplies it. Meanwhile, some people might have lots of energy and very little time, or even motivation – so today I want to encourage you to give your time and lack of motivation to Him and watch what He will do with it! Jesus has spiritual vitamin pills that make the physical ones look like rice cakes … all air and very little nourishment! Bye for now. 👋

P 2665 His Way.

/ DVH

There is a way to look at this life that will change our thoughts about how we live our lives, today. The Gospels describe this over and over again. They are not talking about a set of rules, they are talking about the way Godly people view their time on earth and what that looks like. These people don’t consider their time here, belongs to them. They consider whatever time they have, to be HIS. Even if we start to want to understand God’s Ways, that thought will begin the transformation process and change how we perceive this life. 

Listen to Isaiah 48:17: “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go.” Human beings don’t walk His Way automatically, we need to learn to follow the Holy Spirit and He will teach us the way we should go. Otherwise we will continue to walk in the way which seems right to us! Proverbs 14:12 says:“There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” BTW that verse is repeated in Proverbs 16:25.

When Christ died, there was a possibility released – an exchange. Our sin for Christ’s holiness, purity and clarity of purpose. We cannot participate in that exchange and still live the same way we always have. We need to purpose in our hearts to progressively put aside OUR ways, and actively go after HIS. For example: Jesus Christ chose to die –  now we choose to die, to our old life, and ways, daily. Our aim becomes what Christ wants … what He would do. So we choose to become even more deeply acquainted with the way He does things through reading the bible, prayer, and our actions. As we seek after God’s Ways, we will stop trying to fit the Lord into and around our existing lives.

When we choose to live this life Christ’s way, dedicated to Him, everything around us changes – because WE change. Heaven accompanies His Ways, and so we begin to release the Kingdom of God right here into the earth. Instant miracles are just one of His ways. Those incredible events are not the only Way God does things. Some things happen in our lives over time, simply because we’ve chosen to die to ourselves. This means that we can see that His Way is a wider and far more encompassing stream to enter. It includes digesting His Word and making it part of us, plus taking the time to continually learn to love, and walk, and live like Christ did … He is our example of how we are to live now because we belong to Him..1 John 2:6: “ …the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” 

Jesus Christ called Himself the Way. Jesus Christ is God’s living WAY of saving mankind and changing our lives. Christ’s earthly life reveals what mankind can look like when they follow the Holy Spirit and live the way we’ve been designed to live. In John Chapter 14 we have a brief paragraph that shows that even His disciples were puzzled by what He said – they needed revelation. The Lord Jesus kept on talking about leaving, dying, and stuff they didn’t want to know! Thomas actually says that He has no idea about this Way Jesus talks about. Then Christ makes one of the greatest declarations in the New Testament. in Verse 6. “Jesus answered,“I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” 

Interestingly enough, the early church was also called the Way …that term appears at least six times in the book of Acts. It represented a totally different kind of life – a life surrendered to, and dedicated to God’s glory. These saints of old gave up their lives because the Holy Spirit had given them a revelation that there was a better way to live. To me those early stories illustrate the gap between Christians today, and all of those the Christians who lived and died for Jesus’ sake back then.

Sadly, now we seem to live our lives to suit ourselves, and we try to fit God and His ways in around the edges. But those early Christians chose to completely become acquainted with God’s Ways and they followed Him to their deaths. They left their old ways of thinking, doing, and being, and embraced whatever He told them to do. Because of that they spread the gospel to everyone, everywhere they went.

Isaiah 55:8-9 says:“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.” Our task every single day is to embrace the mystery of following Jesus and learning His ways. The bible also tells us in Isaiah 30:21: “He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” That’s our aim. Our new life is a new WAY to live. Bye.👋