Grump

HAVE A TWICE BLESSED CHRISTMAS! Once because he saved us, twice because He loves us.

/ DVH

P 3203 Let the Lord be the flavour of your life.

We can easily get caught up in this idea, or that new invention, and forget that Almighty God has a purpose for our lives. We can even take those current, incredibly ingenious ideas, and bam them into a shape that we think will accomplish what God likes or wants. We’ve done that in so many of our churches, the majority of the people ended up spectating, instead of participating!

At the same time if you do choose to take that ‘let’s be popular’ road, please be careful …you can get really giddy going round and round … trying to maintain something God isn’t doing. Jesus taught us what we need to do and how to do it. He said: “I only do what I see the Father doing .,.. I only say what I see the Father saying…” We can quite easily get distracted from our purpose and caught up in one of this life’s out-of-the-mainstream eddies.

Meanwhile today, I want to talk about what flavours you and I! I happen to enjoy a cup of tea. So a few times in the day, my hubby takes boiling water, and he puts my fav teabag in it. He leaves it there to steep… to soak in the flavour. I’m a bit of a fuss-budget, because I like strong tea. So if someone else makes the tea for me, I ask them to leave the teabag in because I want more of the flavour than most people like. What do you like to steep in? Coffee, the movies, work, games, sports – what do you enjoy enough to just sit and relax into it?

Here is what I think the Spirit of God wants for us – He wants us to steep in the Lord’s Presence so that when our little cup gets bumped, all that comes out is a concentrated form of His Love inside! Life bumps us all the time. Ask yourself, what comes out of your little life? Obviously my illustration gets a bit overworked if I take it any further, but you get the idea. Remaining in the Lord’s presence, can and should include “Walking and leaping and praising God.”  No, I haven’t lost my marbles, you don’t have to sit still to steep!! You even can dance in the shower … just don’t slip over OK?

There is a youngish man on Youtube, who quite obviously loves hip-hop. He makes brief video clips .  I can tell the Lord has steeped him in JOY, because he walks up to perfect strangers in Walmart, while he is dancing. Then he grabs their hand and they start dancing and laughing and enjoying themselves. It’s the Lord’s gift over his life, but because the young man has taken the time to allow God’s gift to stretch and challenge him – I’ve actually seen this gift grow. 

He is fearless. He walks up to grumpy people, and before they know it they are bopping away to the music, and they have obviously forgotten whatever it was that made them grouchy! The busy grind of shopping just melts away in the light of God’s joy as it is let loose in a supermarket. Boy there should be more of that! 

Why do we keep His JOY in our churches, when so many people don’t want to go to church anymore?How will they know Jesus is loving, real, and happy…if we don’t share what He has given us outside the church doors? In the past we’ve thought sharing meant preaching at them, but I think it is sharing whatever God-gift we have steeped ourselves in!

Listen to Romans 12:6-8: “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.” Why should all this good stuff God gave us to give away to other people, be locked up inside our churches?!

Hubby and I prophesy outside the church all the time. Mu husband gives people prophetic words, and I give a word of knowledge or whatever God tells me to give. The people-all-around-us-who-don’t-know-Him-yet need to know He is real, and that He cares about their lives. When the Lord uses you to release His flavour to everyone around you, they know it’s Him. He made them inside their mother’s womb … we’ve all heard His voice before!! 

If you have a serving gift, then go find somewhere you can bless people outside your fellowship, with your serving! Serving people as Jesus leads you, helps them see that He cares about them, because He will send you. It’s the same with encouragement, it isn’t only the people in church who need to be encouraged. We have been given His Words of eternal life, that means they are powerful! Instead of criticising or correction, try prophesying what the other person needs over them. I do that a lot!  And let’s stop thinking that generosity is restricted to tithing! Tithing is the norm. You have to ask yourself, do you want to be normal, or do you want your giving to be extraordinary like Jesus’ gifts to us are? 

I’ve had the Lord correct me about only blessing people when I am happy with what I received from them… He asked me … ‘Who needs more love? The person other people like, or the one who is a grump?’ Isn’t it amazing how speechless you can get when He says stuff like that? It is like you no longer have a leg to stand on, and repenting is the best option. 

Meanwhile, trying dancing, singing or humming your way to the toilet, or your car. Who cares what other people think? He deserves the glory! We should be the happiest people on earth! Let the Lord be the flavour of your life … … and Merry Christmas!! 🔔  Bye. 👋

P 2598 No fake smiles please!

/ DVH

My dear hubby loves the Emoji movie, especially that over-the-top female smiley face that blinds people with its toothy grin. He thinks she is hilarious. You know, that face is actually pasted on – it’s stuck. In other words that emoji has been carefully drawn to pretend to be something it isn’t.  So when bad things happen, that smiley emoji isn’t being REAL — which is just like a whole lot of Christians. Bad things happen and they paste on a smile but inside they feel God, and everyone else, has let them down. 

Most people in this world know FAKE attitudes a mile off. It is so much better to be your real self and repent for stinky attitudes, than it is to hide who you are. Now if you happen to be a grump … then the answer is to be transformed. 😂 The bible covers that! Please note: transformation is not instant. It’s repetitive… it’s re-pet-it- ive … it’s actually quite repetitive! So now we spend our days learning to lean. Getting stuff right is no longer our goal, leaning on Him is! 

If we are not careful we can make living for Jesus … into a future goal. We can live this life hoping that if we fake it we will eventually make it. Yielding, surrender, dying to self – these are all key words.  Otherwise transformation becomes something we work hard towards achieving, but we never seem to arrive!  The bible says we need to be living for Him every single day. 

Almighty God wants us to draw on His strength all the time, using our faith. Faith grows when you use it! So we exchange His beauty for our ashes. His joy for our mourning etc. We are human and we run out quite quickly — but Jesus is rich in these things ! He will give us what we need as we live a life of total dependence. The Lord is not fooled by our positive, Sunday morning smiley faces.

We could see miracles every single day if we stop trying to be what God already made us and learn to yield to and trust in Him! Listening to yourself being kind to someone, when you wanted to smite them mightily a minute ago is a miracle! Success is no longer our goal – because we know can’t do anything without Him and we don’t want to be without Him.“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6.

We need to be changed inside, and honesty matters.  We can’t! … But He already did it for us. Some of our nice attitudes are barely skin deep — so when they are provoked they end up coming out. The Lord is not looking for perfection … Jesus already nailed that, and then He generously gave it to us – for free. Ask yourself this: why would Almighty God – Who loves us – want us to live our lives pretending to be something we are not? But oh! How He LOVES a truly transformed heart and life. Then when someone else hurts us, we feel worse for them than we do for ourselves.

I know some transformed people. They know they can’t do anything without Him, but they yield in obedience to what the bible says daily, so they can change the way that they live. They are not perfected. Not at all! But they enjoy being close to Him, and they don’t want to give that up for living a shallow life that has no substance. Things stay shallow when we stop living by our faith.  We must learn that we are not called to exhaust our OWN patience/love/joy/peace,  first — only to find that we have run out! Here’s a hot tip, let go of your pride and GIVE UP RIGHT AWAY and fall into His everlasting arms. He will supply that need.

My point is, learn to pray “Help help” early! We cannot afford to wait until we are overwrought and exhausted because we’ve been wrangling a problem in the natural. I pray a surrender prayer all the time now. I remind the Lord that I won’t be able to  manage anything at all without Him. I do that at the beginning of the day and I repeat it when I find myself pasting on a fake smile. I could care less about looking incompetent, or inefficient. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy seeing Him active in my life. I feel Him help me to go further than I ever could in my own strength. I know I can’t meet Christ’s standard, what He did was perfect. So I start with surrender and I don’t move from there. 

We have all developed coping mechanisms over the course of our lives and when we get saved, we carry those coping mechanisms over into our faith. Then when we read in the bible and see what we are supposed to look like, who we are meant to be, we increase the pressure on ourselves to be like that. Unfortunately, when we fail in our own efforts – we feel we are letting Jesus down. And if we do happen to succeed, then WE GET PROUD.

All that leads to a level of inadvertent deception, and a lack of transparency that prevents intimacy. It stops Christians from becoming all we can be in Christ. It also leads to a form of religion with no power in it. We need to learn to live our lives dependent upon Him, using our God-given faith instead of striving to reach an unattainable goal. We cannot make ourselves perfect. He has already accepted us.  No more fakey fake smiles. Learn to lean on Him. 👋