Help

P 3384 Not done yet.  

/ DVH

Apparently, I am not done with yesterday’s theme. Here are some verses to chew on, and Jesus Himself is speaking – actually, He’s praying, for us!  “I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” John 17:14-20.

Did you notice that our Saviour did not pray for us to be taken out of the world, but rather that we would be protected from the evil one while we are in it. A lot of lovely Christians kind of clump together, forming a sub-group in society. I’m not sure that’s a faith step – actually I think it’s more like opting out! It means we hardly ever interact with the people-who-don’t-know-the-Lord-yet. Jesus loves us so much, He prayed this prayer for His family, (us!), long before we ever arrived here. That prayer is still out there, protecting us. Instead of clumping, maybe we could listen to Him and learn to use our faith daily.

When we were born again, we entered a new kingdom – HIS!  We left behind all the temptations and irritations of this world around us and started out on a journey to learn how to live in His kingdom. This is why we are IN this world but not OF this world. We no longer need what the world has to offer, it has no appeal to us, because we have something far better! That’s why we don’t have to hide together all the time – what the world has we don’t want! We quit hiding when the Holy Spirit came! We live here, but we don’t belong here. Our ‘true home’ is with the Lord, wherever He is and whatever He is doing. 

Just like Ruth with Naomi – wherever Jesus IS, that’s now our home. When our Lord came here, He lived the way He did sacrificially, for our sanctification, but He did not live like a monk. He had no fear regarding this world and what it could do to Him – He believed that the “… steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord…” This world could not even kill Him, He prayed about it with our Father and then He went out and laid His life down. The Lord is with you while you are reading this, and He’s with me while I’m typing it!

The Spirit of God is with us, to be IN us. He gives us the power, minute by minute, to live this life, from day to day, differently. We can’t, and should not do a thing without Him. The Holy Spirit speaks faith, fluently. Now we are learning from Him how to speak faith too. We learn His kind of faith from being obedient. Heavenly languages are things like faith, hope, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Why? There is no law against those things in heaven or on earth. Father God speaks them, that’s why we can hear Him – if we can’t hear Him, then we aren’t speaking His languages. Let’s go out and BE what we say we believe.

Our new life is not just about going to heaven when we die, our lives now are about bringing heaven down here, to one person at a time, challenging their perspectives. Just the same way His Presence in our lives is changing ours! Despite our often outward appearances – Christianity is not a secret society – nor is it a bunch of do-gooders who love to ruin other people’s fun. 

I’m just going to leave that remark there, laying around staring at all of us. 👀 … We are a people on a mission. It’s not just the pastor who participates, it’s all of US. So, let’s make a plan to obey what the Lord has already told us to do in His book. We need to follow our Leader and do what He would do. In the bible I cannot find once where Jesus shot, stabbed, maimed, punched or blew up someone else in the Name of God. I don’t care what David did to His enemies, I’m following Jesus. He forgave His.

In the following scripture we have a fabulous example of someone who had no idea where he was going, and no clue how to find what he went to find. It seemed an impossible task — but He obeyed His master (Abraham) and went! “And said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, Who has not left my master bereft and destitute of His loving-kindness and steadfastness. As for me, going on the way [of obedience and faith] the Lord led me to the house of my master’s kinsmen.” Genesis 24:27. 

The God of Abraham is still guiding people to this day. He didn’t quit talking to us after He sent His only Son to spell stuff out — instead, He turned up the volume, exponentially. He gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us, a book full of instructions, plus the things Jesus taught. Take a risk: find someone to help. Give to someone in need. Tell someone Jesus loves them. Do something different. because we aren’t done yet. Bye 🙏.

P 3358 More of Jesus.    

/ DVH

Colossians 1:3-8.“Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can’t quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope. The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn’t diminish or weaken over time. It’s the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what God is doing, you’ve been hungry for more.”

Have you eaten too much of something you like, but you kind of still kept on going? Yeah me too. Maybe you’ve binge-watched something on Streaming? Yeah me too. Well today have I got news for you! I found something you can indulge yourself in that isn’t fattening or mind numbing – the quest for more of Jesus! 

People say this all the time, and we might easily feel like an inferior Christian, because that thought never even crossed our minds. My question today is: what does it actually mean?  We can say a whole lot of Christian-ese words sometimes, without any bible verses or experiences to back them up. So what does wanting more of Him look like? 

I can remember being so in love with my hubby that I would go long distances to spend five minutes in his company. Hmm. I would still do that, but I might need some personal assistance nowadays! He’s still the nicest person I know …  well, most of the time. I think more of Jesus means, at the very least, that I will want to spend more time with Him getting to know Him. I actively ask and look for the Lord in my day. When I see Him, I thank Him!

I’m just going to let that sit there while we both think about it. That’s because spending more time with Him means we need less time for us to do the things we have cultivated in our lives to relieve stress, and fear, and help us to cope. Yeah. I’m just going to leave that one there too …

I think more of Jesus is like falling in love. Ad when life gets difficult, we approach those things with Him as our Saviour, Lord and Friend. Then we choose to appropriate what He said He has given us, using our faith. That means WE DO SOMETHING. It’s an exercise of our will, and we accept whatever comes at us, because the bible tells us He filters that stuff.  If I need something, He will provide it – if we don’t, then He won’t. We live to make love our aim, because Love is His language, and that means we are looking at life through His eyes.

More of Jesus also means our value systems will become  like His, and our hearts will break for the things that break His heart. Because Jesus lived to please His Father, and we like being around Him, so we will choose to live that way too. Our needs and wants become secondary; we pray, ask, then we leave it with Him. He’s God He can do anything. If someone provokes us or pokes us in the ego – what will come out of us automatically is a help prayer.

All of those things are great aims!! But like the Psalmist says: “Such knowledge is too lofty for me to attain…” Psalm139:6. My translation to that bit of this Psalm is — we can’t possibly do this stuff and not exercise our faith. We need His help, because change happens one step at a time, but we begin with the firm knowledge that what Jesus did is already complete.

We no longer have to live like other people, the Lord has given us His word that He won’t leave us. He will also provide us with a way to get out of whatever dumb thing we’ve gotten into. Our minds and emotions, become secondary to His Word, because they can fool us into thinking that reacting the same way we always did, means we have not been changed. It’s a lie. Jesus did everything that ever needed doing on the cross. So we choose to use our faith to apply what He did, once and for all, into our own lives, now. 

There are times we can get stuck because our convenience wins over what Jesus said, but we know that repentance restores our relationship with Him. There can also be times we haven’t done the things we know He asked us to do. How can we learn to trust in Jesus, and want Him and His ways more, when we choose to be a slave to convenience and time?

This is the real point of today’s blog. I think we fail because we live in a fast-paced society where time is a thing to be used … … not savoured. So let’s look briefly at the consequences of not using our time well. We will probably stay in the same place spiritually, going up and down, always waiting for God to make the difference, when He already did! We allow His truth to be merely a reminder, instead of a prompt for change.

According to Colossians Chapter one, more of Him also contains a whole lot of thanksgiving! Actually, the bible says we shouldn’t stop giving thanks, no matter how we feel. So we need to practice thanking Him that He is in charge, even when it looks like He’s not! Now there’s something to go on with. Remember that’s not lying, it is lining ourselves up with His Word, instead of being led around by circumstances.

Paul thanks God for the growth of the faith of the Church in Colossae. He can see it because it is seeable. We go on and on about answered prayer, but what about Jesus’ prayers?? Paul himself has heard about the things that are happening in that church. God’s Word grows spiritual fruits, and that fruit is visible, not a euphemism. Wanting more of Jesus means we recognise the difference between what God says, and what is seeable and actually true in our lives. Visible fruit is proof of more of Jesus in our lives.

The believers in Colossae used their faith that what Jesus said He did, He did. They staked their lives on it. We need a whole lot less of ‘spooky filter’ Christianity and more fruit! More of Jesus signifies that we choose to obey what He asked us to do, and we get to see the results and so do other people. Bye.  👋

P 3352 Holy Spirit please give me strength!

/ DVH

Our daily battles are proof that our Heavenly Father is taking us at our word. Somewhere, somehow, at some time or other, we told Him – “We want to serve You. You are our Lord and Saviour and we choose to follow You, Jesus. Nothing of me, Lord and all of You.”  Amen. Guess what? He remembered that prayer… Yeah I know, bring that up! However, let’s not get offended when He takes us at our word! 

In this life there is always a suddenly! Somebody does something unexpected and we feel lower than a snake’s belly because they just proved we were wrong. Well, maybe you don’t hate that, but I sure do!! Instead of being angry, defensive, or feeling rejected, let’s see what has happened as an opportunity to learn to do this life, His Way.

Here is some great advice from the bible: “Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.” 1 Chronicles 16:11 NIV. It is natural in unexpected moments to realise that we need His strength, but we are better off acknowledging that before we get overwhelmed by our feelings. I know we need His strength to overcome temptation and sin, but we can easily forget how badly and how often we need His strength, minute by minute, from day to day just to deal with ordinary things … not just when the ceiling falls in. Let’s depend on His strength, and run to Him first! 

Sometimes there can be a big catastrophic event … you get a waterfall in your bedroom, and you can’t take delivery of your nice new helpful bed because the roof is still leaking and you don’t want to mix electricity with water, and become a pop-tart! … BUT, some days a disaster consists of the cat deciding to do it’s business in a random corner;  plus a kid can’t find its very important project, and it’s weeping and wailing all over the place! And now you seem to have less money in your wallet than you thought you did. In those moments of extreme irritation and angst, his mother calls to see how you both are!

We need His strength all the time, every single day, because we don’t know what comes next. The following is one of my favourite prayers: “Help, help Lord, I need Your strength.” Sometimes it doesn’t quite come out like that, but He knows what I mean. I can’t count how many times I call upon the Lord’s strength, especially now I have grown older. I feel feeble a lot!

The Holy Spirit says His strength is made perfect in our weakness, and He gave us every right to call on that strength. Here’s a secret I’ve learnt:  don’t start out in your own strength, ask for His strength when your feet first hit the floor. Why would we wait to ask for His help, when we know we can be easily distracted by circumstances. His strength is right there with us, why exhaust our own strength first?! This life has proven to you and I that our own strength is limited – start out poor!  Remember the bible says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit because they will inherit the kingdom of God…” well, that’s kind of what it says in Matthew 5:3. That’s a promise for today not when you are dead. Start and finish poor, it’s one of His ways into kingdom living.

Let’s look at our verse from 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.”

First of all, I want to say that it helps me to find that the Apostle Paul had a weakness, or three — and he wasn’t ashamed to admit it. Our decision is simple, do we want God’s perfect strength or our own? His strength comes with the understanding that we can’t do it on our own. Our effort comes with a pile of control, agitation, worry, and — don’t forget how anybody can get angry — especially when the other person is not on the same journey we are. How many times have we all said:“I did all I could!” Yeah, we probably did, but we forgot we have heavenly resources now. My best is pitiful, His best means REST.

This is how you get into rest. You give it all to Him and give up striving to do something you clearly can’t do, or even maintain. God has already provided a way, and that way includes Him helping us to reach the goal. Jesus sent us back SomeOne to be with us Who has the Name  – HELPER. The Lord died to give us a brand new way to live, He doesn’t want us killing ourselves trying to be something we are not in order to please Him. It pleases and blesses the Lord when we learn to lean on Him, then we step out in faith as He leads us. We will stay humble and He gets the glory … win win. 

Back to Paul and my last point – God’s Grace is sufficient for me. Sufficient means we always have enough. We have enough for anyone who might be temporarily driving us crazy. We have enough for the kitchen sink tap that won’t stop dripping. We have enough for the kid who seems to perpetually have a cold and is always sniffing! We have enough! God says so. So we pray, ‘Holy Spirit, please give me strength’ and we do what He says – and then we end up with a testimony about what the Lord did. It’s a no brainer. Bye. 👋

P 3351 People walk away.

/ DVH

Jesus’ disciples walked with Him, talked with Him, questioned Him, and at the same time, He sent them out. They did everything He told them to do, and it blew their minds. Yet Judas remained untouched by what he had seen and heard …“Jesus called His twelve disciples to Him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” Matthew 10:1, Mark 6:7-13. “So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.” Luke 9:6.

Then Jesus expanded the ministry group to 72. “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in Your Name.” The extra 72 disciples found that although they enjoyed ministry and power, there came a time when they found what Jesus said unpalatable – so they left. It happened to Jesus and it can happen to us! People do this. They want to run their own lives with their own plans, and when Jesus doesn’t suit those plans anymore , or they think they know better, they leave. Sadly we can be devastated by their decision to turn away from Him, and us.

John 6:66-67 “From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.” And Peter said in John 6:68-69: “Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” I think Peter had been touched in his heart, but the 72 who left, had not.

These things can happen to people close to us, and it is startling. They are passionately praising God one minute, and wandering off after strange theories the next. They mutter stuff like: “I tried Christianity and it didn’t work for me.” (Take note of the word ME.) We have had people we dearly love in our own family wander off into lah-lah land. It is extremely distressing. My advice is – please don’t stop praying for them … and keep throwing love, as the Lord leads you … over the fence they’ve constructed around themselves. By throwing love over the fence, I mean only do the sweet things the Holy Spirit tells you to do, and then let go. If you can’t reach them anymore, then you need to trust in God Who is always pursing them, and helping you.

Hubby and I have chosen not to ostracise people we love that have wandered off, and on some occasions we sent food when they had none. Never give money to an addict, BTW. Give them food. And please don’t ever forget the prodigal son! He came home when he came to himself – and that took a while. But his father’s loyalty to him never wavered, he stood at the gate waiting, watching and looking for his lost son. Sometimes people have to see how bad this world is before they will even consider turning around. It is good to pray that the people you know will see through any deception that has attached itself to them. That prodigal turned around and went home, when he remembered his father’s kindness and generosity, even to pigs.

After all —“Not ONE promise from God is empty of power. Nothing is impossible with God!”” Luke 1:37. BTW, don’t write people off, I’ve seen the Lord go to amazing lengths to reach out to wayward people when everyone else least expects it. Just hold fast to what He has already given you. Those promises He made when you and He were deep in prayer together, both of you weeping over this huge loss. Keep your faith in Him and what He will do, moving. Please don’t park your car in grief, just keep walking forward with the Lord. When He brings your loved one back there will be no distance between you. Our part is to keep exercising forgiveness and forbearance, and keep on praying, then leave the results to Him.

It is so easy today for any one of us to believe lies. There are lies all over the place – in the news, in parliament, in advertising, in sport, in the media…  Many people believe what they feel is who they are. Personally, I think we all have no idea who we really are! The Lord made us for a purpose, so Jesus knows who we are! Sometimes who we really are can show up when we are under pressure, please don’t ignore these revelations or excuse yourself, instead pray over them. Nobody likes these thoughts, trust me. In those moments we like to blame circumstances, other people, or pretend stuff is an accident not likely to happen again.

We are fooled if we think of sin like a pool that anyone can dabble their feet in, we simply can’t afford the consequences. Without the Holy Spirit’s power helping us, minute by minute to overcome sin, we are dead in the water. Shark bait! Chum! Let’s remember that Jesus Himself is well acquainted with everyone’s sin. It killed Him. He died to give us power over it and He wants us to have compassion and pity on those who have been dragged under by the worst predator this world can imagine … satan himself.  

When people walk away, our hearts often go with them. I’ve learnt to take mine back, and give it to the Lord instead. Simply because the person I entrusted my heart to, can’t hear Him anymore. I am not, BTW, rejecting them, I am rejecting the way they have chosen to live. Bye. 👋.  “Lord so many of Your children are crying out in secret for those whom they love, who have lost their way. We need Your strength to keep moving forward, and Your compassion and love to comfort and help us, so that we will not falter no matter what others do. Thank You for Your ever present Grace, In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”  

P 3340 Learn to fight …

/ DVH

…for what is yours by birthright! And remember, we don’t fight against flesh and blood. It’s not your spouse, or your parents, or your uncles and aunties – it’s the devil! 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 :“The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.”

And Ephesians 6: 1-18 says: “And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and He wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the devil throws your way. This is no weekend war that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the devil and all his angels.                                                                           Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare.” 

We are in a battle, day by day, whether we like it or not, and even earthly soldiers get battle fatigue. However, we have the power of God within us to make the difference, and we need to use His power to help ourselves thrive in His Ways, and for the benefit of others. We don’t just fight under adverse conditions – we learn to thrive. Many times in our lives together, hubby and I have commented it seems like it is one thing after another, and another.

You can get very weary from fighting things. Like battling to maintain a Godly-attitude with His help; or not reacting to the same thing happening for the 479th time! Let’s face it satan doesn’t fight fair. he will kick you and beat you when you are down. One of the best weapons against despair and disappointment is the realisation that Almighty God will not ever give up on us. There are things float through our minds: “Does God care about what is happening to me?” Those are the battles we must fight in our emotions, and minds — they can be overwhelming, and potentially, destructive.

Remind yourself that Jesus took every single sin and mistake we’ve made to the cross with Him. And our God is not a fair weather Friend! Now you and I are blameless in His sight – that’s what His Grace is all about. The truth is a weapon we can use when our minds are full of doubt, unbelief, and anger or disappointment with ourselves or others. We must stop! — and remember Who we belong to now. It’s a supernatural task, so it needs supernatural tactics, not just mind games. 

We can’t continue to quote the scripture without knowing the reality behind it. The reality comes from living this life eating His bread, daily, and reminding ourselves of His blood over our lives, daily. I am reminded of someone else who tried head knowledge in Acts 9:11-17: “Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are you… ?” Being known by our enemy means we are bothering him. Good! Someone famous once said this, I have no idea who it was – “Be the kind of Christian that the devil says every day – oh no! He/she is up again!!”

People can sometimes be defeated because they are not pointing their will toward what the Lord wants. Obedience is essential. If you feel you can’t obey, then point your will toward His will and ask for the Holy Spirit’s help. When God talks about truth, He means His truth, not just something that sounds like truth, but it is indulging me in self-pity – or making me feel justified in my sad sack attitude. I cannot BE justified outside of the blood of Jesus. He gave that to me, I didn’t earn it… I’m so grateful for His goodness!

When God says “renew your mind” He is not talking about parroting off some scripture or other, as a weapon against satanic attacks. Our own personal knowledge of His goodness, is a mighty weapon. I stand and face my fears, or other people’s accusations and misunderstandings  by saying: “This one thing I know — MY GOD IS GOOD.” Ergo, if it is not good, then it is not God! … BUT!! Please remember to check your heart first, and  make sure you are not blaming someone else simply because you don’t want to deal with yourself! Our beliefs are not second hand they are up close and personal. I dun fell down that hole many times! Sigh.

When it comes to battles I am like a three year old. I run to hide in my Father’s robes. I want to be that spectator in Psalm 91… I don’t even try to peek out to see what is going on. I let what He has already done do the work for me. Shape your life around the Lord, make Him the centre. Then we can’t be dragged about by the winds of change and impulses of whimsy. If you are under attack drag your heart back to thinking about how good He has been to you. Read the bible aloud!

Let’s choose to live this life, by finding out stuff from the bible for ourselves. I am no longer a child, if I need to know something, then I ask the Holy Spirit to help me find the answer. Then I go and dig around in His book. Learn to fight for what is your birthright by the way you live. I need to participate and feed myself daily, digesting what He said with actions. We can’t win with hot air, we need real weapons forged in our lives with the fire of His life in us. Bye. 👋

P3333 There’s great value in resting.

/ DVH

We’ve been actively resting in the past four days. After the intense chaos of making many deliveries and having lots of positive interactions;  by God’s grace we found a quiet spot on a farm stay, and we’ve done nothing – apart from eat and sleep. We needed it. Neither of us are 23 anymore! There is one thing I’ve noticed about God’s kind of resting, the more you do it, the more you want to — plus you start to feel better.

Resting from our labours here, BTW, consists of me falling asleep several times during the day, as well as sleeping for 7 or 8 hours per night. Hubby nods off regularly and then quietly snores, and then … he wakes himself up with the snuffly noise. It really is better that he wakes himself up – the alternative is that I whack him on the arm and say “Honey you’re snoring again.” OK! You got me, I don’t whack him alright? But-I-do-sometimes-think-about-it!

Rest is something the bible tells us that we are to enter into. In other words, it’s a place where you leave everything else outside the door, take the Lord’s hand, and just be content with the fact that He is in charge. It is God’s gift to us, and He made it clear that rest is available any time, any place. It means that everything else fades into the background. When we are away on a trip, we even like to cut down on extraneous noise from the TV and stuff, and just sit. Sometimes we don’t even talk, or pray. We just let the quietness sink in. At the same time we do restful fun things — hubby trots about taking brilliant photos and I get to see them.

Resting in the Lord, can get even deeper… it’s in the scripture. It’s a place where we leave the results and the work to God Himself. In my opinion this is one of the most challenging ways to use our faith. It’s not the Lord’s fault, it is just that we have spent our lives doing the next thing and the next, and then suddenly we realise we have stumbled back into trying harder and harder. Pushing ourselves to make things work. Meanwhile other people start to give you the pip, because you are tired of wrangling and managing stuff, and nothing is simple anymore. 

God’s rest is the place where you don’t have to make things happen. Here’s my point today — this kind of rest is part of our birthright. The secret is to live in the hustle and bustle of this life without constantly engaging our emotions and our minds. Step back into the Lord and breathe, and defer to His wisdom, simply because we love to walk with Him, even in ordinary things.

I can almost hear a mother somewhere yelling at me: “If I don’t make my kids get out of bed and go to school they won’t do it. They won’t do their homework either!” I really dislike those happy happy pictures of tidy little smiley kids smartly marching out of the door, dressed properly. It’s a wonder they don’t have sunbeams coming out of their ears! In most homes this time of the day is a bun fight – making sure this kid has this, and that kid has it’s socks on, plus leave the house yourself! This is not the kind of rest the Lord is talking about in the bible, His rest is internal. Your kids may not want to go to school, etc., but you can still be at rest in Him. He’s ultimately in charge of your well-being, and theirs. It’s the place to say: “HELP, LORD!”

You can choose to be upset with them, or cry out for His Grace and patience for those moments. We don’t have to lose our cool because the little darlings won’t co-operate. Often we willingly give up our internal rest and peace, because we are deceived into hoping and thinking, that worrying or shouting will work … because nothing else seems to! However, God’s idea of rest is stepping back momentarily and leaning on Him. When, and if you can – remember, humour helps. He organised a couple of million grumpy Jews to get up every morning to a ready-made breakfast … your kids are a piece of cake!

His rest inside of us flows out of us as His peace toward other people. Deal with you, and then deal with them. The whole gotta be, gotta do, gotta go, gotta get it right thing – falls away as we focus on His bigger picture. He’s God and He won’t let us down no matter how it looks, simply because He is so-o-o faithful. I call this stuff my faith work out. It’s the place where all the worst cases scenarios smack you in the head and you can’t think clearly anymore because your mind is filled with scenes and thoughts of “what if.” There are no “what ifs” in God’s rest – there is only the bigness of Who He is. 

We enter that rest by focussing on Him and deliberately choosing to momentarily lay everything else at His feet. I think this kind of incredible stillness was inside the Holy of Holies in the Temple. Any other noise stayed outside. So did agendas. You can be present with the Lord and still do the things that need to be done. It’s good to remember YOU and I are now the Holy of Holies. Father God produces the kind of quiet comfort that releases an atmosphere of safety. Nothing bad can happen in His Presence, He’s just too awesome. 

As we learn to cultivate the Holy Spirit’s Presence by living our lives His Way – we will find our confidence in Him grows. Jesus lived like this. He lived in God’s grace and assurance that He was at the right place at the right time — doing what His Father wanted Him to do. Jesus’ confidence in His Father’s Will allowed the people around Him to experience God’s loving kindness easily. This rest means we cease from our labours and lean on Him and there’s great value in it. Bye. 👋

P 3327 Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

/ DVH

Today we hit the coal face of life in country Victoria, and NSW. It became personal. So many of the people living under threat, are women, who have had to run for their lives, grabbing their young kids, and taking little or nothing with them. A young mother we met today is a mum of a 2 year old. Just pause for a moment and try to imagine a life like hers. These women face rage and beatings almost daily. 

They are quite literally running for their lives, and they want better, safer, peace-filled lives, just like we do. Safety is a real human need and yet these people are forced to live with far more fear than we can imagine. They are scared that their partner might come home violent – tormented by uncontrollable anger, drugs or alcohol. Out here, where we are, this sort of scenario is in plague proportions — one of the helpers we met in a major country town said that: they had spent a whole year’s budget for 260 clients: but now they are currently looking after 596 clients and it is only APRIL! 

I have no answers, but I do know that we have been designed by God to love others, that means we can’t just stand by and watch, or wait for some sort of government to fix this. Governments want votes and not many voters live on farms! This is a nightmare of huge proportions, and sadly symptomatic of the way we’ve chosen to neglect farmers. Whether it is drought, or floods, it doesn’t matter – both lead to hardships at a level we simply do not face in the cities. 

Now the current political situation world-wise, means that diesel is at outrageous prices. We passed many petrol stations in our 2,400 kms to get here that were closed. No petrol, no diesel signs were displayed out front. We also travelled through usually bustling towns where nobody was in town, except when necessary. You could have fired a cannon down the street and hit no-one. 

Our farmers need  diesel in order to plant the food we enjoy in the cities. No diesel, means no tractors, no harvesters, no planters, no watering systems, NO harvest. Plus no petrol means no fertilisers either. Big price rises in food for everyone! Currently our farmers get paid 70c per litre of milk. It sells for around $1.85. The bulk of that charge goes to our supermarkets.

“Petroleum, specifically natural gas (methane), is crucial for fertiliser production, acting as the primary raw material for hydrogen needed to create ammonia via the Haber-Bosch process. It provides the energy for high-temperature/pressure manufacturing and aids in the production of phosphorus/potassium fertilisers. This dependency makes fertilisers fossil-fuel intensive, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, and links food production costs to oil prices.” (Google)

There is no value in blame. Whoever has done, or not done whatever is needed is irrelevant. Now we need to work together to help those at the bottom of the pile, the people who were already badly underpaid. The real question is what can I do? You know the most impactful part of travelling around like we have, hasn’t been the blankets, toiletries or the bibles, although everything was received so gratefully – it was the fact that we came in person to show them we care. 

We must pray! Then we need to turn our prayers, into actions. If you can’t go yourself, then find organisations that are already there, and make donations. Remember the Good Samaritan. He personally put the wounded man on his own donkey, poured his oil and wine into the man’s wounds, and paid for him to be cared for until he was well again. Luke 10:25-37.

“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” 

“In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. 

Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” 

I think it is time we realised that biting the hand that feeds us is sheer shortsightedness. Our farmers need us to appreciate them and support them, and I pray the Lord will give all of us plans, and strategies to do so. Bye 👋 PS. One of the things the farmers have to face seems small to us, but it is their connection with the outside world – the internet fell over in the area we are staying in this morning.

P 3306 Learning to yield.

/ DVH

“You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a spell on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, FOR IT’S OBVIOUS THAT YOU NO LONGER HAVE THE CRUCIFIED JESUS IN CLEAR FOCUS IN YOUR LIVES. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough. Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God.                                                  

If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up! Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with His own Presence, His Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does He do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust Him to do them in you?” Galatians 3:1-6 MSG bible.

You might want to sit a while and think about those 6 verses. Then if you dare, ask yourself some questions … ‘Do I act from day to day like the Galatians did? Does what I think and how I behave, seem more powerful than the Holy Spirit — Who was specifically sent TO ME, to help me? Am I excusing myself from the things I know He doesn’t want me to do and saying: ‘I can’t help it?’ “Our help comes in the Name of the Lord Who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:2. Our own welfare depends on forgiving others. We need to surrender and yield.

Does anybody reading this have a toddler? You will probably be well acquainted with the: “me do it” stage! It’s a healthy, but annoying sign of independence in a toddler – but it is less than healthy in a grown person. When it comes to spiritual matters, giving up quickly and asking for help is the way to go. Those people who work hard at ‘being Christian,’ are trying to BE what God already says they ARE. I’ve learnt that trying harder without Jesus, leads to even more fruitless effort. Expending all that effort can result in despair. Or even arrogance. Especially when we are dealing with other people who do not have the same strength of will we have. We can end up in judgment quicker than a bee sting hurts!

The Holy Spirit has helped me to manage my feelings and responses on countless occasions when I was interacting with someone who was difficult. I had persevered and anguished over them in my prayers, with loads of tears, anger, frustration and lots of effort. At times, I actually made myself go and see them and I’d tell myself: “It’s the right thing to do.” I dunno why! You would think that bumping into that brick wall would have registered on my Richter scale … but no! I just kept trying harder and falling flat on my face. I not only came up with bruises, I came up angry.  After all, I was doing my best! 

Here is the solution the Holy Spirit gave me within seconds, when I stopped pouting, and complaining, and asked Him for His help: “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,…” Philippians 3:13. I was holding on to the way they had treated me in the past, and the past could easily have been last week! I had to forget the past. What they had done, what I had done, and the things I felt. Then yield to Him and move on. I was stuck because I wasn’t forgetting what lay behind me. 

‘You don’t know what they did to me blah blah blah.’ In my life there were many people who had damaged me to the core. So how do you forget that stuff? DELIBERATELY … that’s how. No, I am not kidding. This is a war about our spiritual well-being and the wrong result means our feelings will interfere with our ability to hear the Holy Spirit. BTW forgiving is not the same as trusting the other person. Jesus knew what was in men’s hearts, and the bible says He didn’t entrust Himself to them. (John 2:24).You don’t have to trust those people who hurt you, just forgive them, and start renewing your mind. We have to be Kingdom of God thinkers, not just ‘immediate comfort’ ones.

Then, whenever what happened, pops into your mind, shove it straight out — don’t even entertain it for a minute— and whack at that thought with scripture. The Holy Spirit will give you something. Learning to yield to the Holy Spirit is so necessary as we go about our day. He is our Guide, and He’s the One Who leads us into good works that God Himself has prepared for each one of us. Everything is about making a choice. Drag your feelings and thoughts back to the centre … Jesus. When we treat people consistently differently, they act differently. His mercy is new to everyone every morning.

The Lord suffered so we could have the right to choose to ask for His help — not just be forced into doing it by rules, fear, or obligation. Over a period of time it transpired that yielding my will to His, had enormous benefits in my daily walk. I stopped listening to my feelings, which were kind of ‘over-developed’ and learnt to refer to what the Lord said in His word. My feelings needed to be tamed and replaced by grace, peace and love in what God says about me. Our feelings lie to us, they tell us we can’t, when we have Almighty God resident inside us! And His Son, Who came and died for everyone’s sins. Yours, mine, and theirs.

Once I made up my mind that I wanted to choose His Way over my way, because His way was far far better than mine!! I realised the Lord wanted to do something  deeper inside me. Back then, in my past, my trust had been betrayed as a child, so my idea of HIS goodness, kindness and unfailing love was all messed up.  That was healed as I decided to yield to Him, instead of trying to fix it by myself. I simply surrendered my perceived right to be angry with others, and the Lord proved Himself faithful! Bye. 👋

P 3301 Our love of God = love of others.

/ DVH

“This is how we can be sure that we love the children of God: by having a passionate love for God and by obedience to His commands. True love for God means obeying His commands, and His commands don’t weigh us down as heavy burdens. You see, every child of God overcomes the world, for our faith is the victorious power that triumphs over the world. So who are the world conquerors, defeating its power? Those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” 1 John 5:2-5 TPT.

Do you see that? We don’t obey because we must — we obey because we want His goodness, mercy and love to win! I love the bit that says we can overcome the world simply because we believe the gospel. Our belief in Jesus, as God’s Son, is our victory. Plus our chosen obedience is another outward illustration of how much we love our brothers and sisters. We are not just a clump of disconnected people who happen to worship together Sunday by Sunday. We are the living breathing Bride of Christ Himself. 

We are interconnected, as well as dependent upon each other – what happens to one, happens to all. Just try hitting your finger with a hammer and wait for the rest of your body to explain to you how it doesn’t like that very much!  Plus, this thought is also a good thing to remember, the next time the lady next to you is a bit pitchy in her singing, and her kid has the fidgets. 

“Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.”  Colossians 2:18,19. “He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” Ephesians 4:16. 

To be healthy as a Christian we need to be connected to Him and that leads to interconnection. When there are disruptions or difficulties – we need to realise that in the body of Christ, I could be an eyelash and you could be a toe, or even maybe something internal. So we will see this world from a very different POV! When I discovered this verse … I understood that JESUS makes the body fit together and my job is to support and help the other parts to do what they are here to do, with His help. 

I don’t have to make sense of other people’s rationale, I simply need to pray for them, and love them. I read another verse that says: “Above all, have fervent and unfailing love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins [it overlooks unkindness and unselfishly seeks the best for others].” 1 Peter 4:8. Simply put, that verse means the kind of love that is ‘a deep, and fervent love. Together with the kind of forgiveness that will overlook faults, reduce conflict, and promote healing in our relationships — rather than amplifying mistakes.’

What we lack most of the time, isn’t about exercising patience, restraint or perseverance, it is God’s love flourishing in us, expressed through us. That kind of unconditional, always patient and kind love, has the power to change someone else’s life, without even speaking a word. And if we do speak, because of His love whatever we say, will be one of those “apples of gold in settings of silver” I am always rattling on about. (Proverbs 25:11) Instead of out and out correction, let’s focus on what the other person does that is praiseworthy, full of grace, and positive and uplifting. And tackle the sin, not the person. Focussing on what’s wrong pulls anybody down into a defensive position. But God’s Word enables, it lifts up! People are happy to stand up in the light of His love, because His love won’t ever lead to despair. 

We can miss out on His wisdom and benefits, when we use the word of God like a hammer instead of a sword. A sword can cut people free of restraints. A hammer does damage. This is why our meetings together are always incredibly important, because then we have a chance to build up each other’s faith. We can exhort each other into the greatness of Who He is – rather than stare at ‘what a failure I think I am.’ Our commonality is in Jesus. If I love Him and you love Him, then we have that in common. But our primary goal is to love Him first. 

When we love each other, we are loving Him. Each person in front of us has been made in His image  “… Let us make man in Our image…” Genesis 1:26. I may need to pray and look carefully at the other person, yet even though His image is there, sin may cloud it. But when we choose to live our lives belonging to Him, His image is there. Living in Love is not just a theme, it becomes everything we do, simply because we want to stay close to Him and each other. I try to focus first on the Lord, on what He says, not just on the other person. When He is in the place that belongs to Him, everything else falls in behind that. 

We can sadly, quite easily forgo loving each other, staying with ‘like’ instead of ‘choice.’ But when we find the Lord in that other person, and focus on Him, then we can love them. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, …” Matthew 6:33. These other things will follow. Bye 👋