Grace

P 2232 How to witness.

/ DVH

When we go out to give away bibles etc. hubby often finds that people weep – even grown men and women. Then they get embarrassed about crying and say things like: “I don’t know why I’m crying.”  Here’s how we explain that to them: “Oh that’s Jesus. He’s just crazy in love with all of us. He came here 2000 years ago, and personally fell in love with mankind. Then people killed Him… but He didn’t stay dead. Now He lives inside me. He sent me here to show you His love and bless you, and the thing is, I just can’t stop Him – He loves us all so much, He can’t help Himself. He is always reaching out to people.”

I am not trying to give you some sort of a formula, instead I want to encourage you to put something that resembles this into your own words – as He leads you. Just allow the Holy Spirit to give you a way to talk about things like this, that is natural to you. I’ve only written the above words today, because so many Christians only speak Christian-ese. 

That’s the language in the church that we all understand, and use. It has words like faith, joy, grace, saved, redemption, salvation, sanctification, propitiation … in it. However, those words have complex meanings and they sound old-fashioned and out of touch with this world we live in. For most people the way we think in church is like a foreign language, filled with unmanageable incomprehensible concepts. Faith doesn’t make sense to people who don’t have any. 

And Jesus Christ sometimes isn’t an actual person to them, He’s an historical figure. So when He reaches out and touches someone through you, it is good to explain to them that it is not you – it’s Him. We understand a lot of what we’ve been taught as normal, but it is not normal to the people we meet in the street. Our aim is to make the Lord visible and accessible, and the more we mystify Him, the more we are making Jesus inaccessible. I am not speaking about being sacrilegious, far from it, we definitely need to be reverent and honour Him. But it is more about presenting Christ as a God-Man.  A Man Who came and died for all of us – on purpose.

This is why I really recommend that we need to know the four gospels really well – everything we will need to talk about the Lord is in there. The more well-rounded our thoughts and ideas are about Jesus Himself, the easier it will be to talk about Him to others.  In my opinion, talking about the Lord should be so natural, it flows out of us. That takes practice, it doesn’t just happen and we all have to start somewhere. It should flow the same way as it would if you were talking about your friend, mother, father, brother, cousin. Christianity needs to be much more accessible in this world, less intense, and more natural. Also talk about what Jesus has done, recently in your life – that’s your witness.

Hubby told the people we’ve spoken to on this trip, about the Lord helping him to paint with his non-dominant hand. He explained that he is right-handed and he rarely if ever uses his left hand, except in conjunction with His right one! People were astonished simply because it’s a miracle. And if I were talking to someone about what God has done in my life recently, I’d tell them about losing my earrings, as well as looking hard for them, and then finding them on the floor in plain sight! Our experiences with the Lord and His great Grace, need to be repeated and we should brag on Him! Tell them that when He touches them personally, that Jesus sent you there to pray for them and/or help them. So it’s not you – it’s Him … making Himself known.

Our greatest strength lies in the fact that we know that we ARE the same as the people we are talking to. The difference between us and the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet is what Jesus did for all of us. We know about what He did… and they don’t! This fact is Christianity’s best kept secret and it shouldn’t be. Jesus died to open the doors for everyone. At some time somebody told us that truth, and now we are telling others. Christians and non-Christians are not on opposing teams – we have our humanity in common. 

Some of us grew into understanding what we believe and some of us encountered Him in a remarkable way but we all live our lives for Him now. It isn’t the experience or lack of it that matters – it is the real live Person that we know personally. 👋🏻

“But in your hearts set Christ apart [as holy—acknowledging Him, giving Him first place in your lives] as Lord. Always be ready to give a [logical] defence to anyone who asks you to account for the hope and confident assurance [elicited by faith] that is within you, yet [do it] with gentleness and respect.”  1 Peter 3:15

P 2220 Choose the things you want to be rich in, carefully.

/ DVH

Ephesians 2: 6-10 “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,  in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”Giving away Grace to the undeserving is part of our good works.

The first part of these verses above explain clearly how we can do whatever He wants us to do, using His Grace. But we also do whatever we do, from heavenly places (it’s in the book!) – not from earthly wisdom or effort. Father God did what He did for us all through Christ’s sacrifice, because now WE are designed to be part of His display of GRACE to the rulers of this world and the next! Not to mention satan and his cohorts! Our presence here in this world – our Grace-inspired faith-filled works – show this world and all that follows from here, what His GRACE looks like and how bountiful and glorious it is. That is what we do.  We are living illustrations of His GRACE in action. Ya might want to think long and hard on that one. 🧐

Now because it is GRACE … then people won’t deserve it.  We give Grace to others because that is part of the new way we have chosen to live. That means, sooner or later, that somebody is probably gunna get clobbered and treated badly. And then the clobber-ee will have to forgive the clobber-ER! That process is His GRACE on display, through us. At that moment HE gets all the glory. Grace is the coin of His kingdom.

I know, personally, that this kind of stuff has nothing whatsoever to do with who I am – and everything to do with His power at work in me. I don’t have the desire in me to be that altruistic and forgiving about some of the stuff that went down in my life! How about you? We cannot live our lives for His sake and not live supernatural Grace-filled lives – otherwise we are open to deception from the other guy. Living in His Grace is not optional – it is essential. I talked about His fruit a few blogs ago – Grace sets the fruit in our lives. Blossom trees get lots of flowers but many of those flowers are fruitless.

The thing is, these riches in Ephesians are a testimony to what our Heavenly Father did and how God’s Ways work. The word Grace means – (my translation) – ‘nobody deserves it!’ That includes you, or I, or the person who hurt us! Humanity has a distinct lack of deserving Grace in common – we ALL NEED IT. Sin is sin and His Grace levels the playing field. The only Person Who ever deserved these kind of riches is Christ, and Jesus left everything behind in heaven, to come here and pay for our sins so we can have these Godly traits as part of our inheritance and witness!! So let’s not hold grudges – let’s go after reconciliation!

The amazing thing is, God is rich in things that human beings don’t value much. Think about it. In the main people value material things – food, comfort, safety, somewhere warm and dry to sleep  … material things. Father God regards the things mankind goes to war about, as our needs. He promises to supply them, but the non-material things, that last eternally, matter more to Him. He used things like gold, jewels etc as building materials. (Read Revelation – the streets are paved with gold – not to mention the gates and walls!) WOW!! 

Here’s a fun thing to do while reading the Word. Go through your bible and highlight, or select all the things it says God is RICH in. It will blow your mind. And there is not a diamond, or a ruby, or even piles of gold on that list! That’s because He doesn’t value what we value. He knows we all need stuff … but we need Him more. It seems to me to be the spirit of stupid on steroids, to want to serve and follow Him, and not use our faith to ask for those non-material things, we actually desperately need every single day. Who doesn’t need patience, or kindness, or love, or long-suffering every single day? I know I do!

Now, to my final point: these eternal non-material things are the essence of Who Father God is. When we love and embrace those qualities, we are loving Him. We dare not say we truly love Him, if we do not value what He values. And boy, does HE value PEOPLE! There is no need to ask Him for the material practical things we need down here, because He has already promised “to supply every need according to His riches in Christ Jesus.” We need to learn to ask, and keep on asking, for all of the eternal things we lack. Let’s choose our riches carefully. 👋🏻

P 2216 We need His unforced rhythms of GRACE.

/ DVH

Matthew 11:28-30 says: “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.”

The place to begin to learn those unforced rhythms is to teach yourself to focus on Him. You know, Jesus didn’t start a bible college, the Pharisees etc. might have killed Him a lot sooner if He’d done that!! Instead He called men and women to walk with Him – all day, every day. Not just a quick – “Hi Lord” in the morning and “Bye Lord,” before they crashed out at night … like we are all tempted to do. 

Here’s my advice, periodically, during your busy day, just stop for a second and on the inside remind yourself that Jesus is your Lord. Tell Him: “Lord Jesus, I’m just turning my focus to You. You are the centre of my affection.” Doing that shifts our focus. It’s called ‘setting your affections on Him.’ And it is mentioned in Colossians 3:2: “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

Christ Himself said: “I only do what I see my Father doing. I only say what I hear my Father saying …” His mind was set on the things above. Jesus needs to become our life because Grace’s rhythms don’t come easily when He is an add-on.. “In Him we live and move and have our being …” Acts 17:28. We start with Him, and everything else we do comes out from that relationship.

There is a flow of Grace – Grace in, and Grace out toward others. I just ask for more Grace whenever I think of it, whether I need it or not at that moment. Something is bound to happen that will irritate me! We are the only ones who can interrupt this flow. I call this process the power of choice. Choose to focus and ask for His help. It can take an effort to get free of our human ideas of ‘what is meant to be our priority.’ We aren’t just here for Him on Sundays! So we can’t just do what we think on Mondays.

The Psalms are also a wonderful road map to living like this. Try Psalm 91. Look for instructions. Meanwhile, I have found it is very useful to follow scripture like you would instructions from the doctor or the chemist. Pray, then ask for the Lord’s help, and go and do what it says on the label. In our situation … it’s in the book.

Next we need to pay immediate attention when we hurt others or they hurt us. There is nothing like being angry with someone else, or them being angry with you, to cause human beings to stumble and leave what God thinks, behind them. That kind of stuff is a whirlpool – it sucks you in! The Holy Spirit knows how to guide our steps through the pitfalls of human emotions and thoughts. He knows what the other person meant when they said that dumb thing that really got our goat! 

Many people think that worshipping the Lord, praying and reading His word is all that is necessary …BUT – walking with Him minute by minute actually revolutionises our lives. WHY? Because HE knows the way we should go – that’s why. “Our steps are ordered by Him.” Psalm 37:23,24. The disciples walked around with Christ, and now because of what Jesus did for us the Holy Spirit wants to walk around with us. If we let Him and make Him welcome. He will teach us, guide us, and help us to do what we are here to do – love people. And we all need His Grace to do that!

His Grace is like fresh air, it gives us a fresh perspective. We breathe it in when we mess up, and we breathe it out toward other people no matter what they did – or haven’t done. Our own will power is not enough. We need His Grace to die to self – the Grace that faced CALVARY. Grace needs to become the rhythm of our lives. I believe Grace is the Holy Spirit’s air in our spiritual lungs. 

Grace is so much more than just putting up with difficult people. Grace is love under pressure. And it refuses to give up on anyone or go into self-preservation. We cannot ignore this quality – it is the currency of His kingdom. 👋🏻 “Nothing is impossible WITH God.”

P 2212 It’s OK to be a weak people! I recommend it!

/ DVH

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 “But He (Jesus) said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Our new life in Christ HINGES on these verses.

I think this is one of those oxymorons in the bible that kind of muddle and mess with our minds. It seems to be saying: ’Let us be glad about being weak because then Christ can be strong in us?’ Huh? How does that work again?? It works and relies purely on the power of His Grace. Christ’s death released so much grace and power it not only saves us, it can utterly transform us – from the inside out. But we have to LET it – and letting it means giving up before you even start, or turning it over to Him when you realise YOU can’t do it. It means unconditional surrender.

We need to learn to deliberately lay down all our escape plans, clauses and subclauses, and decide to live our lives helpless without His help and input. Jesus totally relied upon the Holy Spirit and we need to learn to rely upon Him too. But first we need to admit we cannot possibly be spiritual in a way that is acceptable to the Lord – without His help.  If we want His perfect power, then you and I need to start from our utter weakness and live there!

BTW, I am not talking about indulging the flesh with things like polishing off a large packet of potato chips or a whole chocolate bar! That may well be a weakness but it is not the only weakness that Paul is talking about here! The weakness Paul means here, is the lack of willingness, or motivation to live this life we have been given, differently. It is the weakness that shows up in our flesh and attitudes, when somebody treats us badly, or life squeezes us tightly and everything starts going wrong. It’s about dying to self at those times when we want to give in to our old self, and do and say, whatever we feel like! That’s called living by your own strength and it is not only over-rated –  living that way has no real Holy Spirit power in it. 

Well, for me to continually live out what these verses say, I follow Him … straight down onto my knees! Then I tell the Holy Spirit I want to obey Him, but it’s too hard and I’m not going to lie to Him! This is where my all time favourite word motivates me. Nevertheless … I’m gunna give in to You anyway Lord. It’s where I ask for His strength and admit my utter weakness, plus my lack of motivation and I ask Him to help me. So, what’s the difference between making yourself – or praying first asking for His help – and then still doing whatever it is anyway? After all you still end up doing whatever it is you don’t want to do! Well, NOW, I am leaning on Him not me – I gave up on MY strength when I asked for His help. Then I tell Him I am so sorry I didn’t want to do whatever it is, I get up, blow my nose, use my faith and go and do it.

You see to collect this particular promise you have to start with ‘I can’t’ and sometimes … ‘I am not sure I want to either!’  Speaking for myself – I can’t – a lot! So I give up – A LOT.😂 I can’t shower myself, dress myself, give myself energy, eat anything I want, sleep well all the time, or even make myself something to eat or drink. Most of the time I have just enough energy to do whatever that day requires. And some days I run out early. (I usually make no sense at all after that!) And on other days I just plain don’t even want to try. So then I hope that being sick and disabled is an excuse He will accept. Fat chance! Those are the times that the Lord likes to blow my mind by asking me to do something utterly impossible without His help. And, low and behold, I can do it after all. 😳 “… But because you say so, I will…” Luke 5:5

Meanwhile, strangely enough, I actually consider myself extremely blessed, and fortunate. God has given me a learning curve that is pretty steep at times, but that curve has actively demonstrated to me that my ability to perform, is ZERO. I learnt to rejoice in my weakness. I discovered His strength really IS made perfect in weak people – because I ARE one! With the Lord I can do anything, without Him I can’t even tie my own shoes. What a blessing this life is! I feel very sorry for other able-bodied people who have to wrangle with the reality of this verse, because they are hindered by their own human talents, strength and abilities – including the ability to push themselves … and I am not. Bye… 👋🏻  Hang on folks…  Easter is not over …Sunday’s coming!!

P 2208 Walking with Jesus = REST.

/ DVH

Matthew 11:28-30 says: “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.”

Hubby and I go away at least a couple of times a year on our bible trips. What we do when we go away sounds like work … but it isn’t to us. We do what we do from His rest. So what does that mean? We go where He says to go and speak to the people He picks out. We’ve learnt to live with our spiritual ears and eyes open and we trust Him to make our paths straight. 

We’ve also learnt to let Him choose what happens, and when. Walking with Him in this way is amazing. We have been sent to people we didn’t know, in places we’ve never ever been before. We both love to choose to stand back and let Him move. Out there, with non-believers, is His favourite place to be!  He’s a shepherd, and a true shepherd wouldn’t dream of walking away from any of His sheep. Jesus loves to go after the lost ones! 

Did you notice that the verse above said “burned out on RELIGION?” Religion uses compulsion, guilt, punishment and shame, to motivate. Unfortunately that stuff produces works, and works produce resentment, comparison, despair and jealousy. That’s the wrong production line! (Galatians 5:22&23)  But when we walk with Him, this life is an adventure – it is never predictable. We’ve found the Lord’s attention to detail is astounding. I always tell people that we just follow the prompts. We are no longer motivated by a desire to get things right – we are motivated by a desire to do what He tells us to do. (John 2:5) And sometimes that happens on the spot!

This means we’ve learnt to listen and follow His instructions – and He always gets the glory. Jesus says: “…walk with Me and work with Me.” This shows us the Lord never intended for us to be spiritually idle – or ALONE. Anyone can live in and from His rest, every single day, even while we are doing whatever is in front of us. You just keep your heart open to whatever He might say or want, and then obey Him. 

So, how did the Lord Jesus rest and still work?  He ‘only did what He saw His Father doing.’ This means Jesus kept His spiritual eyes on His Father. Now, because of Jesus, we have a highly personal guidance system inbuilt in our beings – the Holy Spirit! We need Him like we need air – He is not just some happy feelings or goose bumps while we are worshipping in church or at home. He’s outside in this world, sitting beside a dirty smelly homeless person or a broken hearted mother. And He wants to get our attention!

A young man we knew years ago was part of that church’s ministry team. One year, he left the Christmas service, almost at the beginning, prompted by the Holy Spirit, and he went outside. There were literally loads of street kids hanging about outside the church. He took out his phone and asked them: “Who would like to call Mum or Dad, or someone at home for Christmas?” Many of the kids said ‘yes,’ and he gave them his phone and stood there with them while God reunited these kids with their caregivers. It took hours.

Now here’s the miracle. Those kids called people all over the country, so his cell phone bill was bound to be astronomical!  He was just an ordinary guy and he didn’t have loads of money, but he did what he did in faith, because the Lord prompted Him to do it. Eventually, the time came for the bill to arrive. But the charges were not on the statement. So he went and called his telecommunication server to check because he knew he must owe them money. However, when they carefully checked the date, nothing was there – at all. He never ever received a bill for what would have amounted to hundreds of dollars.

My story about this brother had a sad ending, he was rebuked by the leadership for leaving the Christmas church service that day. Today, he is no longer serving Jesus. What a tremendous gift we lost because religion and works got in the way! God’s Grace can be learnt, even though it has unforced rhythms. (Matthew 11:20-30) It is not rigid, it flows toward people with needs. It is far more like water than ice!  His Grace is not designed to be controlled … it is meant to be let loose! You might want to think on that. 👋🏻

P 2206 Use the sword to set yourself free.

/ DVH

People sometimes ask me – ‘what’s wrong with trying hard to do the right thing?’ …They almost never like my answer. God’s REST is not about striving, trying, or working at it. If we are working at it, or trying harder, then we have left His rest far, far behind. He is our glorious God, and He knows the way through all of our difficulties, dangers, and personal snares. He does not want any of us to have secondhand faith – He wants us to have the sort of faith that stands when everything around appears to be falling and failing … including us! Please don’t ever second guess yourself, or rehash what has happened because you think you got it wrong. Every story in the bible proves our God can get mankind out of anything.

Does rest mean that we do nothing? No, now we begin to rejoice in our inadequacies, prejudices, and infirmities, and tell Him – “I feel like I am getting nowhere BUT: – “nevertheless it is not I who lives – it is YOU living in me.” …And YOU can do anything! Now suddenly here we are, in the heat of our own personal battle with a sword in our hand, and a purpose. Now we get to use our faith that He will never leave us alone because His Word, the bible – says so.

I start by telling the Lord that I want and need Him to be much bigger in my life – bigger than my failures and supposed inability to change. Sometimes we make God small by default. We ignore Who He is and what He can do. When we start to feel that this or that is impossible, that is the time to get happy. Jesus did not let any storm overwhelm HIM! He knew where His help came from. Jesus never put His sword down – He lived by it. We have a God of wonder – He is not small! He is bigger than we can ever imagine – and He loves us!

If handing stuff to Him, and leaving it there so we can rest in what He has already done, is too hard for us then we need to pray and ask Him to reveal more of Himself to us. Start with honesty, read the bible, and use that opportunity to take the lid off what we think, or how we feel about Him … or even ourselves. “Faith comes by hearing … (and hearing – personal fresh revelation) – comes by the Word of God.” This verse is our sword – we need to pick it up and use it against our feelings. He will reveal Himself to us in a new way from His book. He knows we are frail and sometimes faithless, but it is essential that we do not stop stretching our view of the Lord Jesus and what His did. Our spirit of stupid is not bigger than His GRACE. The disciples walked around with Jesus in full time ministry, they knew Him —- and yet one day the Lord took three of them up a mountain, and blew their minds! 

After we have acknowledged and prayed about the problem (difficulty or fault) – and repented … and stopped punishing ourselves with self-abuse …then we move on. This is when we build ourselves up in our faith, by reminding ourselves that our precious Father God is working on our behalf. He is stretching us, as well as doing things we can’t see yet. He is transforming the things we can’t do for ourselves. 

The Lord allows difficult scenarios to come into our lives, to give us an opportunity to turn them, and our responses to them, over to Him. Now we actively wait and watch to see what He is doing. Over the years, in the past, you and I might have chosen to panic, rather than rest – to react rather than extending love. But now we recognise trouble for what it is: it is not the end of our world … trouble is a chance to stretch our faith in His goodness and make it bigger. 

We need to deliberately choose His way of love, which may mean we say nothing rather than respond roughly to an angry person, or resort to self-abuse for not getting it right. Or allow ourselves to drown in our feelings of anxiety and fear, or beat ourselves up, and start trying harder. Give up! Let HIM take you through. At this point, remember: ‘He knows my frame and He’s turning my faith into gold.’ Job 23:10. This does not mean that we stop asking Him to send us help and deliver us, but this type of prayer is filled with faith in His character not resignation or frustration with ourselves or the situation. “God has got me and He has got this.” We remind ourselves that we are learning to “walk by faith not by sight.” 

The Lord is not satisfied with us merely agreeing with Him – He is aiming at increasing our actual trust in Him. Self doubt, or difficult problems are God-allowed opportunities for change. Do things differently. In those times I am learning to refuse to accept my own assessment or worry. I haven’t dropped it or pushed it aside – I gave whatever it is to Him and I am leaving it there. People are often tossed about by their emotions but God’s Warriors stand still and wait to see what their Commander says and does next. Maturing in our faith is a process, not an instant solution. The Lord does turn things around in a heartbeat sometimes, but often He wants us to stretch our faith and follow Him through the hard bits.

At this moment in time we are living among still-to-be-redeemed humanity. They are stuck within mankind’s limitations. But we are the people: “who can do all things through Christ because He strengthens us.” Transformation and healing are processes, they take time, but our God is always on time, He is never late. However, the time to lean on Him is always now. “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.” We acknowledge Him and He makes things straight. Even if the road ahead of you appears to be filled with pot-holes and you seem ill-equipped to deal with it – put your confidence in WHO HE IS instead. Remember we are in a war – true peace is not a cessation of hostilities – it is the Presence of Jesus. God be with you. 👋🏻

P 2205 A different way to regard ministry.

/ DVH

“So if you know of an opportunity to do the right thing today, yet you refrain from doing it, you’re guilty of sin.” James (Jacob) 4:17 TPT. Well that seems pretty clear to me, if I can see it, then it is my job to do something about it! However, it is not my job to force things to happen, or even make them come to a satisfactory conclusion. I must do what I see in front of me, however the Lord says to do it, even for someone else – and then the results are up to Him. 

After that I give everything back to the the Lord – including the results – and leave it there. “Come to me all of you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Rest is not snoozing on the job, rest is trusting Him to finish what HE started and we go on to have faith that He will help us through the processes. BTW that’s where the miracles are! We are spectators of His Grace in action, in us and through us.

The problem, with noticing opportunities, as I see it, is some people like to ‘fix’ everything, and others regard themselves as being busy – and they hope somebody else – ‘with more time than me,’ will do something about any of the stuff that happens around us. However, there may not be anyone else looking. I hesitate to say that most people rarely see what is going on around them, at all. In my opinion, it is way better if we all end up bumping into one another doing good.

Because if no-one does anything, then that means that everyone is leaving whatever it is, to someone else! And poor old no-one is not helped – plus things will not change. James is also talking about taking the opportunity to do the right thing. At our house we want to live this way every day. That’s our aim, but we don’t always get there! However, we look for opportunities to do other people good –  plus we make sure we repent if we have a hissy-fit on someone else. We’ve discovered that this means that we regard another person’s well-being as important. 

The great news is, when you do what He wants simply because He asked you to do it – either personally, or from the book –  you are stepping into His will. And that’s the place we all need to be … in His will. People often freak out trying to find out what the Lord’s will is – here’s a not-so-secret secret… HIS WILL IS IN THE BOOK. So whenever we help the poor, or widow or orphans, we know we are in His will. Whenever we do good to somebody who despitefully uses us – we know we are in His will!  Whenever we walk the extra mile … we know we are in His will. Whenever we ask for forgiveness no matter who did what – we know we are in His will!

If we read the Beatitudes bearing this attitude in mind – they will blow your mind. Our attitudes need to be like Jesus’ attitudes were – nothing was an interruption to the Lord! Not the disciples talking away about nonsense, or the people who accosted Him in the street as He walked about. Please take note – Jesus was approachable so we need to be approachable. Some people can make others feel invisible and they didn’t say anything yet! When Jesus wanted to pray by Himself, He went somewhere … by Himself. He even gave up His own sleep so He could be with His Father. BUT, when He was awake, He was there for the people around Him.

I think the Lord lived that way because He wanted to reveal His Father’s heart to as many people as He could while He was with us. He saw everything He did, and said, as His ministry. Ministry is not just on Sundays – ministry is the way we all live. Our lives become a ministry just like His life did. Even unto death. We don’t need a label, or a title, to minister to other people. And Sunday is the day when we take the time to minister to the Lord. But on every other day we are looking for opportunities to love on other people … and sometimes on Sundays as well! It’s a LIFESTYLE.

Our problem comes when we try to fit the Lord’s instructions IN around our own already existing lives. But the bible says: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you…”  That’s the order, God’s kingdom first – then the other stuff follows along afterwards. Let’s say that another way … before we jump in to say something, or do something, or speak to someone, or go somewhere, seek His kingdom first! 

BTW I don’t mean pray about this stuff first thing in the morning, and then forget-about-it for the rest of the day! Living this way doesn’t have to be hard – we just ask Him into whatever it is we are doing. Remind Him that we want to do what He wants us to do as we go along. I ask Him to help me not to miss any opportunities to do others good. It isn’t what we are doing that counts, we could be cleaning the downstairs loo! 

But: “Whatever you do, do your work with all your heart, as if you are doing it for the Lord and not for people…” based on Colossians 3:23. It is our daily intention, our full-time ministry, to be in service to Him, for others. So that means that people can’t interrupt us, rather they are giving us an opportunity to show love.👋🏻

P 2186 Break out the rods and nets.

/ DVH

One of the worst side-effects of Covid – quite apart from the awful physical ones – was that the enforced isolation caused many of us to lose contact with others. And so we lost the Way of love in the process and we lost the lifestyle of always reaching out. However, it would be a great pity if Christians were dissuaded from their primary calling, by a virus! Yet we’ve left behind things like sharing His love, witnessing, and evangelism – out there where the people Jesus dearly loves, live. Maybe because fear has taken over and squeezed us silent.

Looking down on the rest of this difficult world is another wrong viewpoint. Sadly His love goes out the window whenever we forget where WE came from. We’ve been given His holiness – and now we steward it.  In other words we are made holy by what Christ did for us, and we have to look after that way to live – carefully, with the Holy Spirit’s help. Holiness matters to God … nobody will see Him without it. Jesus gave us His holiness – and we are still here – today – in this life … the only one we will get … to live our lives like He would. We were not saved to go and sit down in a comfy chair, and criticise the pastor, or each other, and wait for eternity.

If we are ever going to reach the unreached people of this world we need to stop treating other people like we are in some kind of exclusive club. We are not better than others – we just know what Christ did for humanity. There are so many times when we leave behind sharing His grace and love with other people  – because we are too busy with our own lives. Or we go into judgment and make that an excuse. Christians disapprove of the way people dress, or the way they live, the way they talk, the way they smell … the things they do. But those people are not saved … yet. Why on earth would we spend hours commenting on the way others live – instead of living this life the way He told us to live? 

This can be a real problem … I call it the older brother syndrome. He’s the guy who stays at home doing the right thing endlessly. He gets grumpy when some dead-beat lost son staggers in, because the father is so happy to see his lost son, he throws a feast! There are times I’m not sure any of us totally understand what SIN is! The sin we are guilty of, is living our lives for our own benefit – instead of dying to self for His sake, daily.

The church at large has forgotten that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners … and every single human being qualifies. We put out the vibe -“if you want to be like us, then come and join us!” Most people in this world don’t know there is an another way to live. And from the outside, we don’t look that good! That’s the problem when Christians start to think we are now somehow special.

Because we’ve collected our eternity ticket – we’ve become immune to other people’s heartache and pain. Sadly, we don’t change the way we live. Or perhaps we think that we don’t actually need to change  … surely God would not want our lives to be difficult? Perish the thought! What book are we reading? Nobody in the bible had an easy life! However, the longer the Apostle Paul was saved, the lower his estimation of himself became: “Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: …” Ephesians 3:8. Whatever we have has been given to us. 

So here’s my point today – we gotta learn how to throw out the net of the gospel where the fish are, and most of them won’t come into our churches! We simply must stop deciding who qualifies and who doesn’t, and go out everywhere we can, whenever we can, and share His love. The people who don’t-know-Jesus-yet know nothing about GRACE. Sometimes it seems to me that we want to sort out the fish even before His wonderful heart has caught them! In many churches we want to throw out the noisy ones, or the smelly grubby ones, or the ones who don’t dress properly, or perhaps they are living in sin. But a net catches anything and everything swimming past it.   

Finally, I want to look at the parable of the wedding feast. Those people who were already invited made all kinds excuses not to participate in that joyous event. So He sent His servants out to the streets and lanes to compel anybody else wandering about to come in. The servants didn’t have to check to see if the people out there were ‘eligible.’ I wasn’t eligible and … neither were you. I think the greatest harvest ever, is going to be from the people who are so soaked in this awful world – it will take a miracle to save them. And Jesus loves 💕 doing miracles!!

I want to leave you with this final thought today … where are you fishing? The best place to fish is in a river, a lake or the ocean – not in your own puddle.  👋🏻 

P 2183 His word has power in it.

/ DVH

1 Thessalonians 1:4,5. “Brothers and sisters beloved by God, we know that He has chosen you; for our good news [regarding salvation] came to you not only in word, but also in [its inherent] power and in the Holy Spirit and with great conviction [on our part].” V6-9 “You became imitators of us and [through us] of the Lord, after you welcomed our message in [a time of] great trouble with the joy supplied by the Holy Spirit; so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 

For the word of the Lord has resounded from you and has echoed [like thunder], not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place [the news of] your [great] faith in God has spread, so that we never need to say anything about it. For they themselves report about us, telling what kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,..” 

V13 “And we also thank God continually for this, that when you received the word of God [concerning salvation] which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its inherent, supernatural power in those of faith].”

God’s word has power in it. I’m talking about His power ACTIVE in our lives to genuinely change each one of US from the inside out. Paul talks about that kind of transformation, here in Thessalonians.

The biggest transformation in my life came from doing what the bible says – even when I didn’t want to. I simply asked Him to help me obey – and then I did what He said, anyway, in faith. He began to change the things that looked impossible in me – things like changing life-long attitudes etc. I needed His Word to change my mind, and I went on to think about spiritual things His way. That’s what renewing our minds means – we start to think about this life the way Jesus did. He totally relied upon His heavenly Father to keep His Word. Disobedience to God’s ways distances us from the Holy Spirit’s loving ministry in our lives. Repentance puts us into a position to receive again. Repentance means changing our ways, not just agreeing that we are wrong.

When I first met Jesus, in order to fit in, I modified my outer behaviour. The church frustrated me because I strongly felt unaccepted, I was not able to be myself. The reality was, I did not know my true self, I only knew the person this life had bashed about – and I thought my responses to those hard things was who I was. But now I had been born again. I was no longer the same person I was before, I was now brand new! I couldn’t just put on a religious jacket – I needed to start to live out that new life inside me by using my faith.

The Holy Spirit taught me to obey Him by obeying the bible, and He helped me to co-operate with Him. I no longer felt controlled, I felt grateful, helped and free instead: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it, labour in vain.” I had to let the Holy Spirit rebuild my ‘house.’ I knew I could not change myself, because some bad attitudes were entrenched in my old self. It was all I could do some days to simply be ‘nice’ to others!  We can’t do His work in us for Him – we must learn to accept our circumstances and yield to Him.

The book of Romans points out that Paul had this struggle too, but he had a revelation about what happened at the cross. He knew he was delivered from this struggle from his former ways, by what Jesus did. He was now a new person. You and I weren’t just saved on the cross, the potential to be totally transformed happened there too. The power to change who we were happened back there at Calvary. We really are brand new, but it’s like click and collect – you just gotta go and get your parcel! Bit by precious bit.

We are not acquainted with this new person until Christ starts to be revealed in us. And, eventually, through us. We are no longer the sum total of our sinful reactions to other people, now we have been taken out of that world and brought into the world of the Spirit that Jesus Christ lived in. Cherish His company. It is a world of loving service to others and the Holy Spirit will help us live there.

It is as if God put our new life into a bank account and gave us His faith to access it – now we rely upon His reliability – His word  – not our own efforts. When we give away the Grace we have already been given to other people who don’t deserve it – we begin to live in the same spiritual place Christ did. Now we regard other people’s needs as more important than our own.

Paul preached this good news to the church at Thessaloniki and the result was other people far away, heard about the change in the Thessalonians’ behaviour and actions. And Paul said that change happened because of the power in God’s word. Test it out for yourself. Believe you’ve already been changed and start to live that way. Start building your new life on the foundation of salvation not on who you were before. We haven’t just been remodelled, we’ve been reborn!  👋🏻

P 2178 This life has snares.

/ DVH

You may have noticed, when you have come through a period of brokenness, that compassion for other people will begin to rise up in you without any effort at all. Unfortunately, for some people, those moments of brokenness become a snare. They get stuck in the eddy of ‘looking after poor me.’  When we live in self pity, we are leaving a pathway open for the enemy to continually harass us. He lays down snares that take us out of the flow of the Holy Spirit’s compassion. Self-pity, blame, and distraction are satan’s tools.“Poor you” is a snare. “It is someone else’s fault not yours” is a snare. “Ignore it and it will just go away” is another one!

When we allow those things room in our hearts, we are postponing the opportunity to gather in more of His Grace. Personally, I need all the Grace I can get .. all the time. I run out of it a lot, particularly when I am stressed, over-stretched by circumstances, sick, or tired. But there is a real transaction that happens in the spirit when we acknowledge our spiritual poverty and we ask the Holy Spirit for His input. His Grace starts to flow in us again and then through us. I’ve noticed it is very important to learn how to reverse quickly. What I mean by that is that its good to quickly back up, and back down when you are going the wrong way. The Holy Spirit loves to transform situations and He is incredibly good at it. He once took dirt and made a human being, remember? 

In combat warfare, soldiers are constantly on the alert for any sign of danger. The Holy Spirit can see any snares or danger better than we can. We need to listen to Him and stay alert. The bible says this: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” 1 Peter 4:12. It is critical to understand that the presence of this kind of sneaky warfare in our lives doesn’t mean we are doing something wrong. It is often enemy attack. satan hands us thoughts and then blames us for thinking them! However, the ONLY place to find real justification is in Jesus Christ. 

There are some people who try hard to distract themselves from pain and difficulties by ignoring them. Pain is common to mankind. Since the fall, we all experience pain and suffering, and a passive response is an easy one. But those people who have transformation in their hearts take an active stand, pick up their sword (verse/s of scripture) and fight! They live alert to the real enemy around them. That doesn’t mean we fight others! We need to fight that kind of thinking – bad thinking feeds itself – and our enemy often stands by handing us reasons to stay there.

There are plenty of pitfalls and snares that pop up when we purpose to take our thoughts captive to Christ. EG: We can end up blaming someone else. This is another pointless pathway. We have no control over another person’s behaviour, the only thing we can change is our response to their actions. Blame is a distraction. It takes our focus away from the real battle – which is our transformation – and creates a smoke screen. Taking ownership of our own faults, and inviting other people’s help to overcome them, is a pathway to humility. But blame leads to bad outcomes. We need to identify all that for what it is, and stand squarely against the thoughts that hand us illustrations about other people and how they have treated us badly. 

Distraction is another snare. Distraction clouds our ability to identify what is really going on by telling us to go somewhere else, watch TV, or not to think about it so we won’t feel bad anymore. In my experience distraction nails one of my feet to the ground and I go round and round and round feeling bad, and not knowing why. I try to pray and the words fall right on the ground in front of me. I need to seek God as a priority instead because at this point there is a possibility that I have shut off God’s bowels of compassion for others. 1 John 3:17. Our position in this life is to forgive others and we are to reach into their lives with His love.

To avoid snares we need to stay alert spiritually. Our primary focus is always what Jesus wants. It can help to realise that repentance is a normal part of the Christian life, it is not something to be avoided or used only in emergencies. Repentance shows that we have spiritual strength – we know we don’t have to be ashamed to be wrong. And we know that we can ask for more of His love and grace after we have done what we need to do. The Holy Spirit will sift our hearts for us if we ask Him to. He can see all those snares ahead and warn us and help us avoid them. Bye 👋🏻