Grace

P 2859 The ‘back’ story.

/ DVH

Hubby and I have been delivering bibles, and personal words from the Lord, to strangers-who-don’t-know-Him-yet for 20 years, and we’ve travelled nearly a quarter of a million kilometres. We’ve given away thousands of bibles, and a whole lot of personal stuff, together with our own testimonies  about the Love of God for all His kids. We learnt – often in the trenches –  that God is so faithful and He can and will use anyone!

I am sharing this info today so other people know how to start, so they can go and do whatever it is that God has called them to do! It is unfortunately a bit too easy to serve quietly in our churches, but never reach out into our communities. Yet Jesus Himself told us all to “Go!”  Even after the Holy Spirit came on everyone in the upper room, the first thing that happened was Peter preached a brilliant sermon about how and why to get saved!

So hubby and I started praying about doing something/anything for His kingdom. But at the time, it seemed impossible, because hubby had been badly injured at work, he had a ruptured disc at L4-5, plus he was in excruciating pain. Eventually he had surgery and they discovered that one vertebra was rubbing on the other – the vertebral disc itself had collapsed. In the middle of that awful time, we were asked by a dear friend, if we would like to come away with him for a little rest/holiday. Our friend wanted to take us to Uluru and we said: “Yes please!” Hubby couldn’t even sit down on the plane, so he walked the whole way to there, up and down the aisles  for nearly four hours. They had to get a special lift to get him down off the plane, because he could not walk down the stairs.

My point being that neither of us were fit and healthy and up to doing much of anything! The Lord called us to do what we are doing now, just before we were due to come home from that holiday. We’d accidentally locked the keys to our little rental car inside it, and we were at a look-out in the middle of nowhere! Suddenly four big burly men, who looked like rugby players, helped us get the keys out. As we drove away, the Holy Spirit said this to my husband: ”These are your people, I want you to go and tell them I love them.” 

Our pastor was incredibly supportive, and we trust him implicitly. So we submitted what we had heard and asked him for his input. We still do that every single time we go away, because we both believe in the importance of  submission. I don’t think we would have gone anywhere without his personal prayer for us and his oversight. After all of us praying, the pastor came back to us and … … he asked us to wait six months before we went out!  Of course we didn’t want to wait – we were all jazzed up with enthusiasm!! But during that time we learnt that there is wisdom when you wait, because you can’t actually keep running on enthusiasm, it runs out! 

The Pastor and the Body of Christ have supported us in a thousand ways ever since. People we didn’t even know believed in what God was doing, prayed for our safety, and sent us money. We have never had to ask for monetary help, by His Grace, it simply comes. God constantly surprises us.  Along the way, we’ve made many, many mistakes, but I want to say here and now, that He looks after His kids, even the dumb ones, and He has transformed our inadequacies into His opportunities, over and over again. Father God has used our mistakes to give us even more opportunities to talk to people about Him! 

We are seed sowers. Can I just say? … Any fool can sow a seed! We are not evangelists. Many times people have prophesied over us about thousands coming to know Jesus – well who knows? Only God!  We’ve seen two, so far … but we refuse to let numbers be our guide. Our job is to love on people, help those we can, and testify to the power of His Grace in our lives. Through all these travels we’ve been put into positions where faith was the only way out … our faith has grown because of that. If you want to experience God’s love in your life – give it away! If you want Him to touch you – do what He says.

At this moment we are planning yet another trip, and the Lord has already changed our original plan – living by faith means you see His hand in everything that happens. We often tell each other, even if there is only one who wants to listen, let’s keep going out to find that one person that He loves. Numbers are just scribbles on a page – watching Him touch other people’s lives is our goal. Jesus told a number of stories about the importance of the ONE!

Lastly I will leave you with these thoughts — our God can use anything. He can take a whale and make it transport;  a burning bush and make it a place to meet;  300 men to defeat without number; 11 people from all walks of life and make happy-to-die-for-Him disciples out of them;  not to mention a kid’s lunch to feed multitudes! And that stuff has not stopped just because time has passed. We are proof that He will use ordinary people, whether battered and bruised or not, to reach out to others who need to learn about Him and His everlasting love. Our “back story” has changed both of our lives.  🙌

God loves His Son and He adores it when we glorify Jesus.“But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord.” Luke 2:10,11.

P 2858 No strength. No problem!

/ DVH

2 Corinthians 12:8-10: “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

My first thought is that we all need to read these verses at least a couple of times to absorb what Paul is saying. Then I want to ask all of us a question … ‘why do we try so hard to get everything right, when His strength is made perfect in weak people?’ Yeah I know… it seems dumb when you put it like that! Here’s a thought that has greatly benefitted me and I will pass it on to you — go straight into being a weak people! Yes, seriously. Don’t waste your time and energy trying hard to be a ‘good Christian.’ Give up and rely upon His strength. Learn to say: “I can’t do that.” And then step out and act on His word when He speaks to you, and watch and see what He will do.

I know it’s kind of a terrifying thought. Imagine what other people will say if you tell them you really can’t … do the flowers, or bring morning tea, or read the bible out loud from the pulpit, or do the work of 4 people! But when we make ourselves do something without waiting on the Lord and talking to Him about it, we are forming a religious habit that can last a lifetime. We know that whenever He asks us to do this or that, we will need to grab our courage in both hands and do it… but, in those moments we can have the confidence that He spoke to us, to back us up. We know He will complete what He said! 

Listen to what this man said about Jesus: “For I also am a man subject to authority [of a higher rank], with soldiers subject to me; and I say to one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Matthew 8:9. This man understood delegated authority. When we wander off quoting this or that, or something that someone else said, without first interacting with the Lord Himself, we have nothing to stand on. We are trying to borrow someone else’s authority. Each of us has been given His authority but we need to personally get something from the King Himself to stand on..

I am blessed, I know I am not strong at all. And according to Paul that’s a fantastic place to be!!  I have had to learn to rely upon His Grace and strength. All I do is turn up and do whatever He told me to do. At the same time, I am no longer scared to say ‘no!’ Because outside of what Jesus has told me to do, I definitely know I will fail. My strength physically, mentally, and spiritually can falter – but He does not. My faith is aways in Him. He will come to rescue me, even when I’ve done something dumb. I confess my error, and turn it back over to Him – then I stand still and wait for further instructions. I know I have a part in what He wants to do, but understanding authority and how it works helps me apply myself.

It is far better to appear to be weak, than it is to save face. ‘God hasn’t talked to me about that stuff, I’ll ask Him,’ is a valid reason. At the same time, it isn’t a cop-out either! In reality: ‘I don’t want to do whatever it is,’ is not a valid answer. I think that many of our church institutions need to revise what they keep on doing, over and over again, but unfortunately the people within them keep on doggedly filling roles, so all will appear to be well. The Lord is not interested in the appearance of good, He wants His good to prevail — only God is good! Mark 10:18. 

The best thing we can do is to start from, and finish with, whatever He has asked us to do, using our faith. I get so happy when I know can’t do something He asks me to do, because I know I’m about to see His supernatural strength in my life. Many people get burnt out and exhausted because God didn’t tell them to do what they are doing in the first place! It is the Lord Who will build His house. Our job is to ask Him how He wants us involved. I cannot begin to say how many times I have heard Him say: “Not yet. Wait.”

Actually, I think we often rush ahead of His timing. We want or need the Lord to do a quick work, so we try to sort-of hurry Him up with our own activities. The Holy Spirit will leave! And sadly, He leaves so quietly we won’t even know He is gone for a long time! One of the Lord’s favourite things is when He can see that people want to embrace His timing. His will His Way. Having no strength to do what He asks us to do is not a problem. It is actually an asset. His strength is made PERFECT in our weaknesses. So, the thing is – do we want ‘kind of good enough’, or perfect Answer? No strength is never a problem…👋

P 2855 He will give what we need to us.

/ DVH

You know, I hardly ever feel like forgiving people when they have hurt me. I’m usually too angry or wrestling with my  logical/illogical thoughts, plus my own personal justification. Our feelings are not the right resource for us to look at our reasons to choose to hold onto unforgiveness. Personal justification is anti-everything-that-Christ-died-to-give-us. 

By reading His word, and taking what I read as Him talking to me personally, I’ve learnt that deliberately cultivating forgiveness, plus responding with obedience, are two of the best ways we can keep our communication channel between us and the Lord, clear. In this new life as we live for His Kingdom – we definitely need to be able to hear Him.  I’ve also learnt that consistent choices to obey to what He has already said – opens our ears and eyes more and more. 

The Holy Spirit is far more willing to trust me, than I am willing to trust Him. He is incredibly generous, beyond what you and I can think or imagine. He will even take our heart effort to obey, and still steer us through every pitfall. Even if we fall off the wagon, He will help us back up! Because He is so generous and gentle-hearted, we must never misuse His generosity. Seriously, we must not treat such a precious Person carelessly. It isn’t that we simply respect Him and His wishes – we need to honour Him with our substance … which means all that we are, and do!

Deliberately planning on the Holy Spirit glossing over something we know that we intended to do, without being genuinely repentant, is not on. We are talking about SomeOne so special … He’s the One Who brooded over, and cared for this earth before it was ever formed, and then carefully designed each one us within our mother’s womb. We look the way He planned for us to look. He sees you and I as beautiful –  because we are people who have been made in God’s own image. The Holy Spirit is SomeOne Who knows and understands our weaknesses. He walked with Jesus, and He has an incredible depth of understanding of pain and suffering. 

I like to actively reflect upon what I read, and I know the bible says that our Heavenly Father could not look upon His dearest Son, Jesus, when He became sin.  We all know that when Jesus became our sin, that sin disfigured Him beyond our imagining. Yet our Heavenly Father IS a FATHER and that was His lovely Son, humanity deliberately and maliciously killed. Think about it, even if you knew one day your precious child would die for a good cause, right in front of you – do you think you could watch while He was being tortured? Our God has a bigger idea of good than we do! That’s why His goodness is the essence of all He does.

He needs to be more than a distant figure, too holy for the likes of us to look upon – even though that thought is true. He knows how to make hard, wise choices! He chose to enter into mankind’s existence. And in Isaiah 53:10 it says: “Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the LORD makes His life an offering for sin, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in His hand.” This shows us a great deal about God’s Ways. He can rejoice in things that are happening because they are for mankind’s greater good. We can get so wrapped up in our idea of what’s good – we can miss that our Heavenly Father has a bigger plan. We must learn to trust in His processes. 

When I choose to forgive you, I give my thoughts of who you are and what you do, and how I think you should treat me – back to Him. I put you under His Grace – a glory that is more powerful than anything this world has ever seen. This is not something I owe you because I am religious, it is my own hard choice to forgive you and that is what obedience looks like. We need an ever-deepening understanding of how His Grace works.

On a mountain long ago, when Jesus stood there with Moses, and Elijah – His glory was revealed to the disciples. His glory contained His chosen obedience to the Father and His will. Jesus only wrestled with being obedient once in His life and that was right before He went to the cross, and faced all that His death contained. But He did not flinch … He still went forward. He went forward ALONE and He did not defend Himself. The disciples lost their leader, their friend and teacher, but, it took the Holy Spirit’s intimate knowledge of what actually happened in those moments, to change their lives at Pentecost. They received a download of spiritual revelation that transformed them. 

Today, we continually need greater revelations of what was done for us, so that we will happily choose to live joyfully respecting and honouring Christ’s life and death. At this moment in time, it seems to me like, we are living like usurpers not children of the King. We never have to demand what we need, because if we truly need it, HE WILL GIVE IT TO US.  Bye.🕊️

P 2847 God is long-suffering.

/ DVH

God puts up with a lot from us. That thought is how I began to see that we need to focus on walking in His love, instead of just gathering more and more knowledge. At the same time we can end up working hard to be somebody we are not, while we are trying to gain something from God that is already free, and belongs to every man, woman and child, ever born! 

When we read the Old Testament and study the Way He interacts with each individual person, we see that Almighty God loves our uniqueness and He is prepared to work with every person mentioned, personally. Inside their perceived limitations. The Holy Spirit is currently teaching me how to follow Him in ways that stretch my faith, while He is showing me how to love. He started me off with the most difficult person in my life, someone I could not relate to, at all. My natural response was to react at this person. Instead of pretending to manage the situation, I began admitting I was an abject failure, I could not possibly change myself  – plus I had absolutely no faith for it. I realised I could not live up to an impossible standard, by myself, and failing all the time was extremely discouraging. 

That is when I came to the conclusion that there is a strong possibility that we have been reading His book incorrectly for years! We’ve studied it like we might study Maths or English, instead of applying it so it becomes part of who we are.“Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:11-13. God wants us to know and experience Jesus in His fullness, for ourselves. The result is that we will do what He did – He lived to obey His Father.

If you happen to be a pastor, prophet, apostle, evangelist etc. then you are merely one of Christ’s gifts to His Body. You are a GIFT … you are not the star .. HE is the star! I’m so OVER people following other people who are supposedly more spiritual than we are! When we follow other people and their revelations, we begin to lose sight of our Saviour personally, and we start following man-made directives. That means that we start thinking like Pastor Rex or the Apostle George, and shape our lives around the way they think and preach. No wonder the Lord said it was a huge responsibility to be a teacher – people could end up following individuals instead of Him! The Lord Jesus is so kind, He does not want us to have second-hand faith – He wants us to have our own testimonies of His active grace in our lives. 

Meanwhile, I do wish that some leaders would tell me HOW to apply the scriptures into my life instead of merely explaining what it says. I think it is a leader’s job to teach us HOW. In 1 Corinthians11:1, Paul says: “Follow my example, AS I follow the example of Christ.” How did Paul follow Christ? Wholeheartedly to his death!!  If I choose to learn information from someone else and I do not personally learn how to let Jesus carry me through life’s impactful situations;  I will have nothing at all to stand on. I need to hear from God for myself, and follow Him, step by step. As I do that I will learn about HIM and His Ways for myself.

Leaders LEAD – they are not just there to pray for us when our prayers appear to be hitting the ceiling. They give direction, encouragement, they take the scriptures and make it plain to ordinary people, and we all add new believers to our churches. Sometimes they lead by example, showing their flocks how the scriptures have impacted their lives. They teach us obedience, and submission. 

Paul explained the teachings of Christ brilliantly and he lived that way, himself. Best advice ever … don’t follow anyone who does not live the way they speak, especially if they never ever share their missteps or mistakes. Our God is incredibly generous, He will share His wisdom and His power with anyone who has faith and seeks it – but that doesn’t necessarily mean that individual has a Godly character. Gifted people can usher in miracles and still live this life with an unredeemed character.

We cannot afford to follow everything Brother-I-seem-to-know-a-whole-lot-of-fancy-stuff-you-don’t-know says … that road can lead to huge disappointments. Keep on FOLLOWING JESUS, do what the bible says, and read God’s book for yourself. Do what the Lord Jesus Himself did, wait on God for answers personally. It is sad to say, but the love of many has grown cold – I think this is why there is often no power of God in our churches! Yet, we have access by the Holy Spirit’s Presence to all walk in His power, not just a select few. We can all participate in the miraculous, that should be normal not extraordinary. Our lack of devotion to Christ Himself has led to many of us being passengers on someone else’s bus, instead of soldiers, daily fighting to set captives free for His sake. 

Our God is long-suffering, He puts up with a lot in His great tender mercy and love,  —- so I think He deserves our total devotion.“For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain…” Philippians 1:21. Now there’s a good verse to live by this year. Bye. 👋

P 2844 Into these times!

/ DVH

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. …”2 Timothy 3:1-17.

“If we are faithless, He remains faithful— for He cannot deny Himself.”2 Timothy 2:13. WE SERVE A FAITHFUL GOD. That fact never changes. He is looking for people who will believe in His faithfulness. Sadly, the verse above in Chapter 3, reads like today’s news! How scary is that? And then Paul says to Timothy “… avoid such people!” I mean really? HOW? Join a nunnery?? That’s the thing about the bible, it has contradictions in it, and we desperately need our Helper to sit with us and explain His book. He’s the Author and He knows what He wants to tell US as individuals. Don’t just read what others think … ask Him yourself … then insist.

Our bible is a unique book – it’s not just full of instructions, it is chock full of God’s words, there on the page for you and I, every single day. What I hear Paul saying is this: “don’t pick up this world’s ways of thinking, doing and being.” And my thought bubble goes like this: “I will definitely need to hang around with the Holy Spirit, more than I hang around with this world’s ideas of what life is meant to be like.” Speaking for myself, that’s a tall order! I am stuck inside all day – and I’ve exhausted all the Big Bird meets Bambi movies. Sigh. One thing is for sure, I can’t do anything He wants without His help.

I permanently need His assistance for my mind to dwell on things that are good right and profitable. However, at the same time I have also discovered that a lot of supposed ‘Christian stuff’ makes me cringe. It’s like eating a terribly sweet icy pole … total brain freeze! Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that Christians can’t make Spirit-friendly movies unless they are being led, step by step by Him. And I don’t just mean that He inspired the movie maker – I’m talking about Him inhabiting what is said and done right throughout the movie! Otherwise our clever ideas make the church look weird, and a le-etle bit soft, and wimpy …! We need His power present, everywhere. In every industry, place of employment, schools, hospitals, trains, planes and automobiles! And love is the vehicle we travel in. 

At the same time, when Jesus shows up people are instantly affected by His Presence. I’ve seen that happen with my own eyes. Our job is to invite Him to come with us. Then we listen, then we obey!  People start crying their eyes out. They say: “I don’t know why I am crying.” And we tell them: “That’s Jesus, He’s here, He wants to talk to you because He loves you.” Neither of us are clever, or insightful enough to touch and reach the lives of the people we meet everyday. That’s the very thing Paul is talking to Timothy about – we must see, for ourselves, that this world is in a desperate way, but not condemn it. We must reach out. We need His guidance, direction and help – because our God cares about everyone.

I think Jesus is saying to all of us today: “Don’t go anywhere without ME.” The Holy Spirit is our filtering system, so we need to learn to run everything by Him. I believe that through these verses the Lord has given us a glimpse into this world’s future, to help us understand the times we are in. These times have not taken Him by surprise, Paul wrote about them nearly 2000 years ago! Are we in the end times? I dunno! I’m not that smart. I just know that my life will end one day, and I want it to count for His kingdom. 

I may never meet some of you guys this side of heaven, but I write this stuff in the hope that you can hear His voice through mine, and that will make you thirsty and hungry for more of Him. Living this life from day to day, going nowhere – except for making money – is the total pits. I exhort everyone I meet to yield to Him because that’s the way forward. In my heart I know that the coming generations are going to go so much farther than my generation will ever go, and do things I have never even dreamed about. Remember, the darker the darkness, the more HIS light shines. 

Just don’t be afraid to share what you know about Him with someone else. Who knows what that person will remember if their ceiling falls in and this life betrays them? Our trembling little faith-steps give the Holy Spirit something to work with! Maybe they will remember someone telling them that God loves them so much, in moments of quiet desperation. We’ve been born here, into these times, to be blood-bought containers of His love, visible illustrations, of His love in action. We show other people, what Love looks like, what Love sounds like, what Love acts like.

These are the days we can give glory to Him… wherever we are, whatever we are doing. Christ was GRACE under pressure – He died for us so we can be grace to others, no matter what is going on around us.

Bye …👋

P 2839 Waiting precedes fruitfulness.

/ DVH

I enjoy this time of the year because I love looking at, and smelling the fruit of summer. Plums, apricots, peaches, mangoes, nectarines, raspberries, strawberries etc. However, waiting for harvest is time consuming. All that weeding, fertilising, watering etc. as well as pruning, which creates more fruit – it all takes time. Fruit trees can even  take a long time to produce fruit – most immature trees take 3-5 years. 

Our mango tree, which was originally grown from a seed, took about 7 years to start fruiting. But boy! That first crop was sooooo yummy. 🥭 Meanwhile, we had to fight birds, possums and creepy crawlies to get it. We have a pretty lush front garden, but it is periodically invaded by big fat locusts. Hubby kills them off one at a time and it gives him great pleasure. There is no John the Baptist at our house! We enjoy our plants and fruits, and we ain’t sharing it with bugs! Sadly, insects love those fresh green shoots – it’s all salad greens to them.

In the natural, there is no point in periodically digging up a newly planted seed to see how well it is growing. You will kill that plant stone dead!  So, today, I want to briefly look at Mark 4:26-29 – Jesus knew a lot about horticulture, He often used illustrations about growing things. “He (Jesus) also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. ALL BY ITSELF the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

When it comes to growing stuff, we’ve found experience helps, but everyone is in the dark, until that fledgling seed pops its stalk and leaves through the ground! Then we are off. Clipping this, feeding that, regularly watering and protecting the plants. I have huge admiration for farmers! Such patience. The time it takes for any sort fruit to grow is labour intense and tedious. We’ve had a lot of storms this year, and they’ve manage to whittle down and eliminate the potential little nubs of our would-be mangoes. Fortunately we have still had had a good crop – some were 900grams!  

The thing is, when it comes to spiritual fruit, the process of growing His graces in our lives is very similar to growing actual fruit.It takes time!  First God plants the seed, (the Word) and then it is fertilised by His Grace kissing it. We know we have a seed that is just for us because He highlighted something when we read that particular scripture and now we’ve start praying about what we are to do about it. That kind of waiting on God waters the seed. We are saying to the Holy Spirit: “What You have given me is important, and I am paying attention to it.”

Feeding whatever grace the Lord wants to bring out in our life, comes from seizing opportunities. This, just like edible fruit – is not an instant process. Unfortunately, right after we have read the Word, our enemy often comes along to steal it. he will try to explain it away, or point out that you were given it so you can tell someone else. he will do anything to distract us and prevent growth in that seed. Father God, however, will bring opportunities across our path for us to cultivate this new fruit. I would just like to mention that those opportunities are hardly ever convenient, and they involve dedication.

What keeps us, keeping on, is the fact that God is at work, to His will and good pleasure!! This is what makes His Word flesh in our lives. It goes from theory, or thought into actions. I need to mention here that the first few times we try to obey might be quite difficult. We have already a tidy little group of cultivated weeds in our lives  – they are excuses, happy little reasons why that scripture isn’t there for my attention so I don’t have to do whatever it is. 

Then comes the assault of the rampant weeds, which grow more quickly than your plant!  Weeding is hard work. It goes against the grain and it pains the back!! Two roads face us at this moment, one leads to the death of that seed God Himself spoke into life, and the other leads to dying to self, so His seed will prosper inside us and start pushing against any resistance. The seed of God’s word will always seek the light of His love and His enabling. Remember, the Holy Spirit is always there to help us – but He will not do it for us! 

But ignoring our weariness in the well-doing, our feelings or even stinky attitudes is actually hard work. As soon as I get to this stage, and I know that have done everything He asked me to do – I stand. The bible says in Ephesians: “…and having done everything, … stand!”  Whenever the enemy fires fiery darts at me from others or my own thinking I give the whole situation over to the Lord and leave it there. On purpose. 

There are times when I have to give stuff back to Him over and over again, because those weeds of doubt and insecurity have grown quite large. So if He gives me something to do as all this is happening, I do it. I am enlivening my faith – that is hard work. Then I go back to standing and WAITING. Growing God’s fruit of Grace takes time, and I want to be in this battle for the harvest of fruit in my own life. I want to see that fruit growing so I can share it with others… Bless you, bye for today. 👋

P 2835 A little Christmas gift from me.

/ DVH

““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 laughed when I read this scripture today, because I put it at the bottom of yesterday’s blog, and it just seems to be following me around – I had better pay attention!  First of all, I think this version is such a sweet one because it is so accessible. It accurately diagnoses the things that cause us to lose sight of what Grace looks like – tired, worn out, fed up with religion. And it doesn’t just diagnose, it also provides sound spiritual medicine! Win, win.

Religious rules are easily learned and quite easily applied — but in my opinion, they do not further productive relationships, particularly spiritual ones. In fact I think religious rules can make you excessively watchful and very cranky about somebody else blatantly breaking them.You can become more like a policeman than a loving participant. The presence of any type of threat does not produce good fruit. It is like a child obeying its parents purely because it knows if it doesn’t it will receive a thrashing. 

Conversely, God’s love brings out the very best in people. So when we have someone who is a thorn in our side, we know we have a person that can be used by God to teach us this God-given, God-kissed skill. But first we will need to choose to die to looking after me, and what I want!  Yeah. You just knew there was a catch eh? We talked about forgiveness yesterday, so we will take that as a given, but we can’t just focus forgiveness, we must move on into pressing into God.  That’s because people do dumb inconsiderate hurtful things – A LOT. Sometimes it can seem like that is their gift to society … when I know people like this, I quite often want a refund! 

I try to be real when I write this blog. So if I recommend something, it is because I have tried it and I know it works, but it only works with HIS help. I’ve checked that out, I can’t do any of this stuff without Him! I want to qualify those remarks by saying, I don’t think I was ever a ‘Lone Ranger’ type. I need my hand held and someone nice to teach me, and the Holy Spirit always does that.  Plus I’m pretty sure I’m the kind of person who seeks shelter in a storm rather than braving the elements … BUT … I know I am also quite opinionated, and I can fly off the handle when I think something is unfair or unreasonable. It’s hilarious isn’t it? I hate people being unreasonable but I can easily become excessively unreasonable about things when stuff doesn’t suit me! There’s a lesson in there somewhere. 😳

The Lord Jesus is giving us brilliant spiritual advice in this verse. Don’t go to your Mum, or Dad, or best friend, or your spouse – go to HIM, first. There are lots of great reasons why we should do this- here’s one: “In His presence there is fullness of JOY.” The secret is to seek Him no matter how we feel, because although the Lord sometimes plays ‘hide and seek’ to draw us closer to Himself, the bible reassures us that we will find Him! The bible is truer than our knowledge or experiences – or lack of them. We can’t measure His book by what we know, or even don’t know. God’s Ways work best when we take His Word over whatever is going on around us. And “help” is still a great prayer. 

If someone said they had left you a million dollars, wouldn’t you at least get in touch with the bank to check it out? You know you would! Everything God says in His book is accessible when we apply our faith. Faith means we can’t see it, but because of the veracity, stature and nature of the One Who said it, we believe it anyway – we believe it enough to act on it. Believing is more than agreeing. If you never go to the bank to get your 1,000,000 dollars it will stay in the bank forever, waiting for you to claim it. God has given us a measure of faith, it’s OURS.

Almighty God knows everything there is to know about rest. The bible tells us He did it first. He rested from His labours on the seventh day. Why? I dunno! As an example to us?? I know He wasn’t tired, because He does not grow weary! That’s also in the book!! The more we know and deliberately act on His word, and seize every opportunity that comes our way, the more the truth of everything the Lord has said begins to resonate in our hearts. Learning to rest is a great place to start. God’s word will stay a theory if we never ever check it out. 

Our personal faith deposit from Him, will continue to sit in the bank unused, until we get desperate, or the ceiling falls in. Unfortunately, when bad things happen to us, that’s actually a lousy time to start practicing faith. When life gets hard, our spiritual hearing aids stop working. Panic sets in. In the above scripture, Jesus is encouraging us to walk with Him and work with Him – absolutely nothing in that sentence is passive. My Christmas gift to you is to exhort you to start acting on what you already know. Bye. 👋🎁

“What good does it do for you to say I am your Lord and Master if you don’t put into practice what I teach you?”Luke 6:46

P 2834 Clear out the cupboards.

/ DVH

In order for our lives to be transformed, God has given each one of us so much help. We have His book. Full of the Lord’s dealings with others. Plus the ongoing Presence of the Holy Spirit. Who is always active to remind us of what our Father has said.

However, when I want to follow the Holy Spirit, that means I am going to have to learn how to WAIT for His answers, and learn to trust that the Lord knows what’s going on.  At the same time I will need to believe that Almighty God is bigger than any of my immediate problems. I need to choose to change my behaviour, as well as my reactions, to facilitate and undergird my new belief. I cannot enforce that decision I’ve made upon you — because you need to learn for yourself! This means I will be stretched even further because I’m not living in a vacuum. 

Living this way is part of God’s ongoing process for us. It isn’t always easy, but it will teach me patience and perseverance, and draw me closer to Him and the Way He thinks. As I digest how He thinks, by doing what His book says, I will need His help – right from the minute I open my eyes every single day. Meanwhile, Father God doesn’t want me to learn  how to wait just because He likes to take His time … actually the bible says that ‘He is quick to answer us…’Father God wants me to learn how to wait, because I will renew my spiritual strength and because of that, I can resist any temptation to give up easily. We have His book full of His Ways to use as a prayerful reference point.

Today, I want to look specifically at something difficult that Jesus said. Matthew 18:21-22 gives us a tough illustration.“At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, “Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?” Jesus replied, “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.”  When I read this I chose to do the Math – that means every 2.9387755102 minutes in a day, if someone were to sin against you or I, over and over again, the Lord is saying to us – we still need to forgive them. Let’s round that number up to someone sinning against us every 3 minutes, all day. It is easy to see His point when we do the Math! Nobody would want to forgive someone if they sinned against them that often and consistently. I’m pretty sure that the person sinning against us might even run out of the energy to sin with those numbers!!

Jesus went on to tell us a parable that we all wish we hadn’t read – the unforgiving servant. Personally I don’t think that the Lord’s point is even remotely about how many sins and how often – Jesus was telling Peter if he wanted to be forgiven then he needed to have his reference point changed. It’s not about numbers … because of His Presence in our lives, we are changed. It was all free to us but it was incredibly costly to our Lord.

Through these verses I believe the Lord wanted to show Peter that human beings cannot forgive others without God’s help, and oodles of His GRACE.  Jesus was exaggerating to illustrate His point. He became sin — so we can become the righteousness of God. We were given forgiveness for free from the Lord, but it was incredibly costly to Him. Now we give it away to others for free, but will cost us, just like it cost Him. Our gratitude expresses itself in showing mercy to others, when they don’t deserve it either.

One of the things that can definitely hobble us spiritually from acting like His kids, is our unwillingness to forgive the way we’ve been forgiven. People sometimes say that they can forgive easily, but they can’t forget. Personally I think if we can still remember what happened, that will probably have the worst effect on our forgiveness factor! Those two things can’t go in the same equation, because one shoots the other one in the foot. So why am I writing about this today? Because some of us are going to have families descend upon us as we move toward Christmas. Family can, and often does more damage than anybody else. 

Our families don’t always consist of beautiful Godly people who always get it right. After all, WE belong there, and that fact alone just plain ruins that idea! Jesus is saying to us we need to live a lifestyle of forgiveness… and let past hurts and injuries go. Why? Because the greatest power on earth is released when we forgive, it’s GRACE. Some of Christ last words spoken from the cross were: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do…” When He said that … God’s Grace started raining down upon the earth out of all proportion to whatever would be needed for all time.

Grace moves mountains. It heals the sick, it restores our souls, it changes our circumstances. It opens up things that have been shut down and left to fester, so they can heal. Grace is the AIR of His kingdom. We can’t afford to count how many times that dumb person we know did whatever they did – because when we do that we step out of Grace, and literally stop breathing in the Spirit. God takes no pleasure in our grudges. So we need to clean out our spiritual cupboards asap. Then we will be amazed at how differently we can view the people who are around us. We all need to: “learn the unforced rhythms of Grace…” Bye. 👋

P 2830 Be a blessing to others.

/ DVH

Matthew 3:1-6. “Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shrivelled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched Him closely to see if He would heal Him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shrivelled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.”

I know I have talked about this scripture quite recently, but the really really cool thing about God’s Word is that it is like a kaleidoscope — it has a tremendous capacity to present so many different truths in new ways, so we can see something remarkable each time! As I was chewing these verses over, I saw something I hadn’t seen before. In the face of overwhelming opposition- including the very real prospect of death – Jesus still chose to do good. He remained true to His nature in the face of great danger. He understood His purpose in this life, and knew that He could not be killed outside of His Father’s timing.

It is one of this life’s little ironies that although living like this is a great place to live, that means we often don’t know what comes next! Meanwhile, we have been instructed to pray for the sick so they can be healed etc., and to love others. We are His care-takers who happily pray for the people around us, and share their joys, sorrows and suffering. We care for the lost, lonely, displaced, ignored, rejected people of this world – things we can only do by drawing on God’s incredible Grace. 

Many people might have whispered to the disabled man: “Could you come back next Tuesday and I will pray for your hand then? We’re in the synagogue and we mustn’t disturb what God wants to do here today.” You know, He’s God, He does not have to fit in with our timetables. His will has perfect timing. That’s because the immediate is not a problem to the Lord, He knows the end from the beginning! That’s a powerful thing to know and it can change everything else about our lives.

There is a problem with paying lip-service to the status quo … it accomplishes nothing, except to increase our cowardice. It magnifies our errant thoughts that God did not stop us from doing this or that, so it must be OK. Jesus didn’t care about what anybody else was going to do with what He did. He knew what His Father was doing in that moment, so He did that, despite the consequences. Sometimes His Father’s will didn’t include the appearance of safety!

Our God’s eye is always on the sparrow … in this case it was the man with the withered arm. So that man became Jesus’ primary goal, and he was healed. Jesus Himself said in John 9:4, “I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work.” Challenging the Pharisees also became part of that process – yet again God was giving them a chance to let their hearts be softened. Dismissing someone else’s pain is a terrible flaw. It hardens our hearts toward God, and the Holy Spirit’s tender kindness.

Father God has a plan for each of us. This is one of the things we pick up from reading the scriptures … it means we can confidently sit back in the boat and let Him steer … but living like that will require our constant humility … and probably a whole lot of interruption! Because we know our purpose in this life, we can stare opposition in the face and tell it to ‘go away.’ Jesus Christ knew His purpose on this earth, He knew He had been sent here.  At the same time, He also knew that offence was going to lead to His murder, but He lived for what God gave Him to do day by day.

Our lives, right here, right now, are to be used for the glory of God, not for our own comfort and personal satisfaction. I exhort everyone reading this to learn to find your joy in whatever He gives you to do, rather than what this world says you should be doing. Life can become very boring doing the same things, day by day by day, but when we follow the Lord … this kind of thing happens: “The seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!” Luke 10:17. 

Yesterday hubby went a few doors down to check up on an older man in our neighbourhood. This man was so grateful that someone was aware of his presence, as he lives alone. Lots of people may notice stuff, but not many get up out of their comfort zone and go and check for themselves. Hubby and the old man had a great conversation. Meanwhile, we sent out about a dozen Christmas cards to the neighbourhood etc. and we’ve received just one back… but that single card was filled with so much gratitude. Our job is to be like a radar operator, we send out a spiritual “ping” and we wait to see if somebody will respond!

Opportunities to serve the Lord and the people around us, are everywhere. Unfortunately this world requires us to always be in a hurry, plus we have constant day-to-day anxiety about the next thing that must be done … so we sometimes miss, or we don’t follow up the Holy Spirit’s leading. Actively showing others that their lives have meaning to God by investing your time in them, is one clear way to communicate God’s love.

Our aim is to be like Jesus. He did what He was asked to do – despite the personal consequences and threat to His life. Our purpose is to share the Father’s love in whatever way comes naturally to each one of us. I have found it is important to be sure that my communication is personal, because remote control does not communicate the same depth of affection the Lord has for people. Today, I want to bless you to be a blessing to others, Amen.🙏

P 2828 Be proactive – learn to speak life.

/ DVH

Hi! I’m following up from what I said yesterday with more road building tips. Forgive me for repeating myself, but to see how to help anyone else, first we need to get rid of the planks/ rocks/pebbles/ boulders in our own eyes. How can we possibly fix anything – at all – if we can’t see properly? 

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:3-5.

I love the way Jesus goes straight to the point. The point isn’t to avoid helping others! Instead we live this life in such a way that we keep our hearts open and clear toward Him. This means we value our relationship with Him more than we value our own perception of ourselves, our convenience, or the way we are regarded by others. 🤔 So if I say something and someone else thinks it’s dumb or critical, I repent on the spot. If I hurt someone and I know it, I ask them to forgive me asap. Why? Because I want to see clearly! I can’t pray blessings for you if I am tolerating a bad attitude in me. The words will fall on the ground or choke me. I sincerely want you to know you are loved, and be blessed by the knowledge of His love for you. 

Love is HIS chosen highway and we are all labouring on it. You’re doing your bit on your stretch of the road, and I’m doing it on mine. We don’t want love to just be words on a page, we want people to experience His love through us. Real love, the love that embraces humanity – love that never ever gives up! God gives practical advice not just pretty words to remember. When we begin to know the will of God, through our own experiences, we will end up praying more confidently. We need HIM. All day every day, every second of our time here. He is our wisdom, our strength, our ever-present help in time of need. 

What do we do with offence when it smacks us upside of our head? This is what I do … I ask for Grace, and I keep right on asking for it. That’s because I am absolutely positive I will respond badly unless the Lord helps me, plus I have plenty of negative experiences with my old nature. My aim is to kill that off asap. I need to stop imagining, and perhaps even saying terrible stuff about the other person who is hurt, or has hurt me, and I ask for His mercy, and compassion instead. At times I pray that a situation will be redeemed. I simply pray the way He tells me to pray and then I step out in faith and do the opposite of what I might want to do!

Compassion is invaluable. Sadly, loving compassion evaporates quickly in the heat of dark situations, so, along the way, we will have to do a whole lot of repenting and dying-to-self. However, we will gain even more compassion in this life when we experience a need for it ourselves, and we recognise our own sinful attitudes, because we too hurt others. Just because we think what we said, or did was OK, that does not mean our opinion prevails over someone else’s experience!  We are not meant to be legalists excusing this behaviour and giving permission for that. Reconciliation doesn’t grow in an atmosphere of justification. I never ask if I have sinned, I ask Him to show me where and when. Then I take care of business. 

Jesus died to make us pure and innocent, and it cost Him everything. He deserves our obedience to His Word, including the humility to say we were wrong. When we say we are wrong, we’re humbling ourselves. Sadly, our old nature is always going to be at war with the new one. So we will have to choose, over and over again, to walk His highway of love, especially when we don’t want to do it. People are not always NICE. And hurt people can be UGLY. Read the book. My thought bubble about someone else might be: “Boy that guy needs avoiding big time. What a grouch!”  But when I pray I stop being blind to my own faults, and I can see my own attitude, then I can see the other guy more clearly.

Many people expect this life to be easy…  we are not in a fairy tale. Life is hard. We need a daily scrubbing with the blood of Jesus to help us develop eyes of love. We are designed to be part of the Answer – not the problem. You know, our enemy wins if we are so busy concentrating on our own problems, and heartaches that we don’t see other people’s pain. Undeserved love is by nature … not deserved! 

Here’s some advice worth noting …  people may not fall at your feet and start cheering even when you’ve repented etc. Nobody is perfect. People make mistakes, and they hurt themselves and others – it’s what humanity has in common. Almighty God will empower us to obey Him, but we need to take faith steps and keep at it. Refuse to believe the worst in others, instead, speak to the good. The power of life and death is in the tongue, and we’ve been given a huge responsibility – we can proactively speak life and build Love’s road.👋