Heavenly Father

P 2175 The treasures of redemption.

/ DVH

“Since we are now joined to Christ, we have been given the treasures of redemption by His blood—the total cancellation of our sins—all because of the cascading riches of His grace.”Ephesians1:7 TPT

I have a passion for words, so I’d rather read a really good book than watch some dumb thing on TV! Today those words in Ephesians …’cascading riches’ … caught my attention. When I hear that phrase, I can immediately see Niagara Falls in my mind’s eye. Hubby and I stood beside that magnificent wonder once, watching tons of water succumbing to gravity … endlessly. It was a force of nature like nothing else I have ever seen. The water just roared over the edge. The sheer power of so much water endlessly moving, falling down to smash on the rocks, just took my breath away. 

We also went on one of the boat tours, the ones that go right up to the bottom of the falls. Man what a rush! I was standing next to a tiny little Asian girl, who was nearly blown away by the power of all that falling water hitting the rocks and river below. I had to gently put my hand on her shoulder … she very nearly achieved lift-off! 😂 Wow! Seeing that particular waterfall was such a memorable experience – it was inspirational. Now, when I think of His love, I think of those falls. It blows my mind, every single time. 

These words in Ephesians 1 describe how rich, how wealthy and more-than-we-could-ever-ask-or understand, in LOVE, redemption, and passion our Lord is. Much, much more than we can ever imagine.  When we came to know Christ and recognised Who He is, we stepped into a passionate endless river of love – and we get to jump off the edge with Him daily, in our own private waterfall. Plus, because of our decision to follow Him, we are now part of Him as well as each other – we are all a part of something so much bigger than our little lives.

From now on we have something we’ve all dreamed about – endless unconditional love. The Precious Holy Spirit looked through time and saw each one of us, standing there covered in the muck and bad choices of our lives in this world and then He came after us and washed us all clean in that river. Love was on His mind. 

I don’t know about your life before Christ, but mine was a total washout before I met Him.  Even though I was married and had two gorgeous little girls, and all that I thought I wanted … I was not happy. Life did not turn out the way I thought it would. I certainly knew very little about the sacrifices of love. So I was vastly under- prepared for the kind of human love that quickly turns into endless daily routine. But one day the Lord Jesus came along and interrupted that life, and offered me a chance to live differently. He asked me to live for Him, because He came here once and lived for me, long ago. This life became an adventure – with good bits and bad ones. However it was not ever boring again!

Before that day, I’d tried religion … many, ma-n-y kinds! My sole parent dragged me with them into some really weird things. But as I got older I realised the stuff I had experienced was pure religious hypocrisy, and so eventually, I walked away from all of it. I found out that there was nothing there to hold my heart. But the minute I met Jesus I knew immediately. HE. IS. REAL. He taught me a different, lasting kind of love that involves sacrifice. Redemption is a treasure that cost Almighty God everything, He sacrificed all He had and we cannot take that gift for granted. 

Personally, I think that when redemption becomes habitual, and not a great source of joy, it leads to traditional religion. That sort of religion sucks all the joy out of loving God, and shrinks relating to Him down to a series of unobtainable obligations and rules. It overwhelms people and numbs them. Either they hide who they really are – or they get so enamoured by the rules and regulations and run about trying to control everyone within the sound of their voice. Neither of those things even remotely look like the redemption Christ died to give us. He died to restore our relationship with our Heavenly Father. 

Jesus’ kind of redemption always leaves us free to accept or reject Him. He gives us choices. The downside of those choices is … we can easily end up part-time Christians … if we want to live like that. The Lord of all,  Jesus Christ, allows us to choose our own rate of growth – how amazing. The sad thing about that way to live is that every second we spend in this life living for ourselves is a second we freely give away to something that cannot last! However when we allow His complete redemption into our lives, He will transform us from self-centred, bigoted, controlling, weak human beings into loving, compassionate people with the strength to serve others daily, gladly. Transformation through redemption sounds like treasure to me.  👋🏻 

P 2172 Beauty for Ashes.

/ DVH

The bible says that God wants to give us something incredible through all the discomfort, sorrow, pain, suffering and difficulties in our lives. Here’s a question for you. How can God give us beauty for ashes … without us having ASHES first?  Bad things happen to all of us. The problem is, especially in the Western world, we think of hard and difficult things as something to be avoided – or perhaps that the Lord is punishing us for something or other. Almighty God does not see suffering etc like that – He sees suffering as a doorway to something new – as an opportunity to trust Him more deeply,

Isaiah 53:10 says:“But it was the LORD’s GOOD PLAN…” (in some versions it actually says good pleasure) “… to crush Him (Jesus) and cause Him grief. Yet when His life is made an offering for sin, He will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the LORD’s good plan will prosper in His hands.”  It is very easy to think, how can a loving Father be pleased to hurt His precious Son so badly? Because something far greater was going to come from what happened to the Lord Jesus…WE WERE. Father God went froman ONLY Son to MANY sons and daughters.  And it was all part of His very GOOD plan. 🤔

Sometimes what Almighty God says in the bible seems tough and it can hurt us, but He hurts us to heal us. There is such a thing as good pain. Like the pain you get when exercising something that has been damaged – it hurts initially, but done correctly, it will help the injury heal. “Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For He wounds, but He also binds up; He injures, but His hands also heal. …” Job 5:17&18. “Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.” Hosea 11:3. 

I am not saying that if something terrible happens to us we should rush about cheering. Although… the Apostle Paul DID actually say that in Romans 5:3-5: “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”  

Remember, we always need the Holy Spirit to help us read His book, because …… THE HOLY SPIRIT SPEAKS OUR GOD’S LANGUAGE! He knows Father God’s Ways and He speaks the Father’s language. And, most of the time, human beings don’t. We speak man. And mankind can only see what is of benefit to itself – our Heavenly Father sees what benefits the WORLD – even the people we don’t like!

Despite how things may look outwardly, our Heavenly Father loves us all very dearly.  We need to regularly pause, and deliberately reinforce the truth when life gets dark. Living using our faith can be difficult when this world presses in on us. It takes courage to get up again, and face this life and the stuff it throws at people. It’s a “coming ready or not” kind of world at this moment, and most of the time none of us feel ready for what turns up next! 

It may seem like you are carefully trying to build something worthwhile, and then someone else walks past and kicks everything over! And now you have to forgive that person who hurt you. Personally, at times like that, my biggest problem is that my feelings are jumping up and down. But our God doesn’t love us because you or I feel like it. He loves us because it is His nature to love and His nature does not change … EVER. This life is about HIM. His good plans, not just us. It can help to remember how much He loves us. This life is about us learning to trust in His reliability, His Word, His promises, and that can be tough in the middle of terrible hardship. But that is what faith does – faith stands up, when it really wants to fall down.

If we want to see His beauty in the midst of this life’s ashes we must reconcile within ourselves that it will be costly. To start with, it will cost us the right to wallow in hate, self-pity and complaining. It will cost us the effort it takes to discipline ourselves to look at trouble through His eyes. Plus, we will have to pray when we definitely don’t feel like it – and believe in Him when everything inside says: you are wasting your time – God has given up on you and your situation! Trust me – He hasn’t! He just has a bigger plan than we can see. This world needs our faith in His wonderful character. Our faith is in the One Who deliberately came and died to reconcile us back to our Father.

The Lord Jesus wants to give us His incredible beauty in the middle of the overwhelming ashes that threaten to swallow each one of us up. The physical, mental and emotional stuff that the enemy uses to torment us. Remember, the beauty we find, is IN WHO HE is – it is not our circumstances. May the Lord grant you the courage to find Him in the hardships you are experiencing today, may you experience His love and kindness when your world keeps throwing ashes at you. Amen. 👋🏻

P 2166 Learn to wait, harmonise and agree.

/ DVH

Like I said yesterday, sometimes the best thing for us to do when heaven seems to be silent, is to be still, figuratively get on our faces … and wait. When we do that we are showing the Lord that what He wants is more important than what we want. Meanwhile, intentionally waiting for God IS doing something. Waiting, the bible says – strengthens US. 

Scripture from Isaiah 40:27-31”Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” 

Human beings don’t always understand what the Lord is doing, so sometimes waiting can be very difficult. If we actually understood what Father God wants to do for us, and in us, we would yield … immediately. The problem is our own personal perceived needs, together with impatience and all sorts of agendas. The problem is never with His plans.    

Sadly, Christians don’t always trust Him, or each other, and this can mean we are so busy trying to protect ourselves …  we’ve missed out on the blessing of agreement and harmony. Harmony is not about us all singing the same note. It is about the sound we all make when we are working together, doing what He wants. Harmony is about blending, not standing out. It is about facilitating other people’s joy, peace and love, by using your gifts to help them grow and thrive. Whether they are Christians or not!  It is not about MY gift – it is all about you finding and using YOURS. That sound gets bigger when we help each other.

The Father, the Holy Spirit and the Son are in perfect harmony. They excel at blending love, joy, peace etc. together and They want those sounds for us – in each of our lives. Love is exactly the right chord to initiate and sustain these things. Because we love Him, and each other, we will gladly die for each other. That’s what true submission to the Lord and each other looks like. I take my mission – which is what I want – and I intentionally make it less important than what HE wants. Plus, I lay down what I think I want or need, to help you become all you can be.

At some stage or other, most of us have come across the Coyote and the Road Runner. In the past I always felt soooo sorry for Wiley Coyote. And then one day I realised that the silly dingbat creature set himself up to fail. His desire to have what he was chasing pushed him into danger all the time! If you think of Wiley Coyote as humanity, and the Road Runner as satan – you can quickly see that the Coyote’s own passion for gain is causing his awful injuries.

“Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.” James 1:14-15. You know, if that Coyote had only waited a minute or two, before setting out on his new cunning plan, he would have seen the anvil, truck, boulder etc. coming at his head! We need to learn how to wait. Not procrastinate … but wait. Procrastination, or putting off what God says to do is like the Coyote wondering why he is falling … on the way down. We can use our waiting times to learn about the Lord, ourselves and each other.

Remember, OUR HEAVENLY FATHER’S mind is always ON us! This is why we need to take our minute by minute choices far more seriously. We dare not just pick out the bits of the bible we like and obey them, we need all of it. His Word cleans, renews and heals – it can’t do that without application. Skipping the application is like cutting your leg and not applying some antiseptic and a bandage. The Word is the medium God uses to reveal Himself, transform us and heal us.

Waiting makes US stronger and living in agreement with each other multiplies the power of our prayers. We must learn to harmonise together and that begins when I care more for your life than my own. It is like putting a seed into exactly the right medium. God’s love is the right soil for those seeds of the Spirit to grow in. Finally … this is where waiting comes into it… seeds need time to germinate and grow.   👋🏻

P 2151 We are the new influencers for good.

/ DVH

“The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8.

In the recorded history of the bible, Our Heavenly Father, God, has never quit on humanity because He was totally fed up with us. Instead His book is filled to the brim with His interactions of love, direction, correction and passion for all of us. He has spent thousands of years reaching out to us. Human beings are the crown of His creation. This world is the setting, and people are the precious jewels He deliberately put in that setting. His book clearly shows us His intentions, plus His great great Love for every single person who has ever been here.

But if humanity tried to go into His Presence without a Saviour we would instantly be overwhelmed by our own sinfulness, because His holiness is all encompassing. Sin separates us from Him, as well as other people. It separates families, marriages, congregations, denominations, countries …  all different kinds of people. So, because of His incredible love and forgiveness, and desire to know us, and be known by us – He took our sin out of the equation. Now we are free to love Him back … or not … the choice is always ours. 

The Lord is not like other people we have known, who wanted us to behave for their reputations, or convenience. Rather, our God wants us to be close to Him. In order for that to happen we cannot afford to have pieces or parts of our lives that are not submitted to His sovereignty. Those supposedly harmless things that don’t seem to be all that important, are the holes in our lives that our enemy can aim His darts and arrows through, to wound us and try to take us away from the Father’s Love and His Way to live.   

We begin our journey by understanding Who He is. He is so marvellous, so precious, so incredible, so beautiful, that even being around Him, changes us. Have you ever had a friend that  seemed to bring out the worst in you? Conversely, have you ever known a person who left you feeling bigger, freer, more able to be yourself?  His influence in our lives is not only for our good, but it has an effect on everyone around us. EG: Have you ever been grouchy around someone else only to find that they, in turn, became grouchy too? People influence each other… and not always for good. His influence brings out the rainbow colours in all our personalities – we stop being one dimensional.

One of my biggest disappointments with this world at this time, is that our children are being greatly influenced by others who are angry at others, or themselves, and angry at this world’s systems. These people live carelessly seemingly unaware of their effect on the people around them. They do this for MONEY. Their influence is a little like the measles or the mumps – it’s contagious. Most of us were born with a desire to belong somewhere, and if nothing good, pure, right and just is available, unfortunately, even our children will tend to gravitate to the instant, glossy, glittery, fashionable over-the-top and often evil expressions of humanity.

If Christians do not put something of His Love out into this world’s atmosphere — then our kids have nothing to guide and lead them in His Ways. We have the power to bring His kingdom here by simply cherishing His Presence in our lives, and sharing that with others. You and I are living illustrations of what His Love looks like in action. It is time we picked up our real inheritance! Jesus left this world to us, in our hands. And right now it is our responsibility to influence others for good – to point them toward the Eternal, ever living, ever loving God.

Remember, our God is not just with us, He goes before us. Even before we start out. Imagine that! Whatever you go and do, He has already been there. He won’t leave us, because our God is loyal and true to His Word. He has always been loyal to His chosen ones, the Israelites, and now He is loyal to us because of the blood of Jesus. He signed His agreement with mankind, in Christ’s blood, and that agreement stands forever. Even when it seems to us that He is not there, He is there, purely because He promised to be there.

It is time we decided to believe His promises. We have so many!! In these busy, turbulent times, He wants us to stand on, hide behind, and trust in what He told us in the book. You and I have been given those promises for us to use them. Forget the Lear Jet, or new fancy house,our God told us He would be with us always! Now there’s a promise!  We are to hold His Word up in front of us like a shield, against the onslaughts of the many fears and threats in this world, when things try to overwhelm us. So when the wind and the waves bash us and threaten to drown us, we simply stand still and trust and wait for Him to do what He has promised. We cannot afford to be overwhelmed by the activity and noise around us, because our eyes need to be fixed on Him. 

Focussing on how much Father God loves us, instead of the turmoil outside in the world, will transform us into wells of peace and light. People will be drawn to us purely because we are able to be content, even when the world around us is rocking and tossing with hatred, anger, sickness and sorrow. The thing is, we must learn, in the middle of a world that values how we feel, more than anything else – how to have and use our FAITH. 

This world only values things that make US feel good. However, we need to actively learn and practise minute by minute, relying upon HIS WORD more than what our eyes see, or our ears hear, or what we even think. He has made His desires for us, His people, plain. We have it in all in writing!  We no longer have to be afraid of facing this life alone – HE IS WITH US. His Presence with us helps us influence others for good. 👋🏻

P 2131 God is our ever-present help.

/ DVH

Psalm 77:1-I2  “I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. When I was in distress, I sought the Lord at night I stretched out untiring hands, and I would not be comforted. I remembered You, God, and I groaned; I meditated, and my spirit grew faint. You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak…”

This person is so troubled that they can’t speak or sleep, simply because they are in great pain. Even thinking about the Lord doesn’t help how they feel, and when He doesn’t answer – that pain and anguish gets worse! It overrides all the other good things in someone’s life and demands our full attention. However, the next part of this Psalm is where the writer starts to turn their focus around, because they start to meditate on what they personally know and remember about the Lord. and what He has already done for them. Our background, and testimonies of His Grace in other circumstances, are an important part of making it through any new hardship and difficulties. David remembered he’d killed a lion and a bear before he ever tackled Goliath! 

Back to the Psalm: “I thought about the former days, the years of long ago; I remembered my songs in the night. My heart meditated and my spirit asked: “Will the Lord reject forever? Will He never show His favour again? Has His unfailing love vanished forever? Has His promise failed for all time Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has He in anger withheld His compassion?…”  

When our pain and suffering overwhelm us, we can easily end up asking questions like these. I’ve been there!! Most of us have asked the Lord at some time or other: ”Don’t You CARE?” When the wild sea of our circumstances means we think our boat might sink – (Matthew 8:23-28) – that’s the time to cry out for help. Those men in that sinking boat woke Jesus up! But on the plus side the disciples knew exactly where to go when the world was overwhelming them. Because this person wrote this we can see that hard circumstances can come between us and what we believe, and our peace of mind. That is when we find out what is true faith and what is wish faith.

In the next part of this Psalm we can see that the person’s experiences from their past start to help sustain them. They start drawing on those things about God that they already know to be true. This does not mean that they are not still struggling with what is going on, but they return to what they know and remember about Who the Lord Jesus is.  HIS CHARACTER AND REPUTATION.

“…Then I thought, “To this I will appeal: the years when the Most High stretched out His right hand. I will remember the deeds of the Lord;  yes, I will remember Your miracles of long ago. I will consider all Your work and meditate on all Your mighty deeds.”

Remembering what the Lord has already done gives us something substantial to stand on in the middle of any current difficulties.The thing I love about this Psalm is that we can see that this person complains. I mean to hear some people speak, it is as if you are committing the ultimate sin when you can’t cope under terrible circumstances. Rhubarb. We cannot lie our way out of pain … just Who do we think we are trying to fool – the One Who knows everything?? 😶 Fortunately this Psalmist knows where to go with His pain. He goes to God!  

It is far better to get alone with God and tell Him what is going on in your life and talk about how you are coping … or not. It is also quite normal to share with another person, as well.  But choose that person carefully, it can be even more heartbreaking to find that the someone you have confided your deepest fears and feelings to, has betrayed you by passing that info on. As helpers, we must remember that whatever we are told privately, needs to become a subject for prayer – or giving aid as the Lord leads us. 

I sincerely believe all of us go through dark nights of the soul. Sometimes it is because of our circumstances, as well as the lack of relief when we feel we need it. In those days, weeks, whatever .. etc!… I’ve wandered around my house saying things like this to my self: “My Heavenly Father’s knows my frame. He knew this would happen, and if He has allowed it, then He knows He and I can get through it. Please help me find the way through it Lord!” Amen. On really bad health days I simply say: “God’s got this and He’s got me!” 

I’ve gained confidence in the Lord’s Character from reading about how the Lord Jesus interacts with other people who are just like us. He was incredibly kind to the sick, sinful and suffering. The truly incredible wonderful thing about our God is we don’t have to pray long arduous prayers to get His attention. Jesus is standing right there, beside our Father, praying for us with personal knowledge of our humanity. That is what ever-present help looks like! 👋🏻 

P 2122 Thoughts on the New Year.

/ DVH

“Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 TPT

I love belonging to Jesus! My life has meaning because He brought His meaning into it. Because of the bible I know that if I had a difficult day struggling with my flesh, I can repent, repair things with Him and others and … start again tomorrow.  However, I praise God that “His mercies are new every single morning!!” because I definitely need that. Read all about it in Lamentations 3:22-23; Psalm 30:2l; and 2 Corinthians 8:1-9.

The secret to being a joy-filled Christian is to live our lives continually being enfolded into Him. Isn’t that a precious thought? I remind myself daily, that His forgiving Love utterly depends on Who He is and what Jesus did. I am loved because He is lovely – not necessarily because I am all that loveable.😂 The Holy Spirit puts His arms around each one of us and He is holding each one of us up, in prayer. He freely gives us His help, and He reminds us of who we really are, by God’s good Grace. Our task is to stay in His hidden place of refreshing and comfort, focussing on HIM and not the humdrum stuff that rushes headlong at us. We may sometimes feel overwhelmed but we do not have to be overcome by this life.

Today I want to talk about another way to read the bible – we can read it to be informed, and transformed, but aside from that because of this book we can also see and know our King. It is good to read the bible as a love letter from Him to us. Part of being enfolded by Him is being aware of and comforted by His Loving Grace. Many people at this time of the year often make New Year resolutions hoping to change bad habits etc. – well here are a few things to think on today that we all need to be reminded of regularly.  Here are some thoughts I had: 

“I will remember, by choice, every single day just how much my Heavenly Father loves me, because of what Jesus chose to do for me. His love has no dark side or purpose in it. It is more constant than the sun in the sky, deeper than the Marianna trench, higher than the heavens, and it does not vary one single bit from one second to the next. People may get sick of me, leave me, hate me, or neglect me – but the Holy Spirit is always there for me, helping me, teaching me, filling me, guiding me, and caring for me.” 

“I am reminding myself, on purpose, that because God’s love toward me is infinite – His love toward YOU is infinite too. So if I feel I cannot love you then I need to remember that my love for you is proportionate to the amount of love I gratefully receive from Him. I cannot truly love you until I understand how wide, how deep and how truly undeserved and unconditional His love is for me.” 

“I am going to stop living with the expectation that everyone else needs to get everything right all the time. We all make mistakes. And with God’s help, I want to stop blaming other people for my own responses and reactions to this life. EVERYBODY has difficulties. So, I set my face to stop demanding that other people understand me before I approve of them. I will no longer excuse myself from doing the very things I get mad at them for.  I’ll remind myself that I cannot say I live in forgiveness, if I won’t own and confess my faults and stop making excuses for what I’ve done. I am not perfect, but God is not finished with me yet. However, He is not finished with you, either.” 

I believe we need to take the time as often as we can, to actively reinforce the things that our Heavenly Father has said and done, as well as the things He has asked us to do. This world encroaches upon us from every side, and the world view we face daily is selfish, and lacking any peace, kindness and true spirituality. If I am not aware of my own faults I could easily turn into a petty, mean-minded individual who is just looking for a fight or disagreement. 

My mission in this life should be to make other people so comfortable, they love to be around me because of His Presence in my everyday life. Christians need to be like honey to a bee. Sweet, appealing, life-giving and satisfying – helping the people around us, by inadvertently creating hunger and thirst in others for the reality of God Himself. 👋🏻