His way

P 3323 Follow the thread.  

/ DVH

Last night we stayed in a Motel room that was the worse for wear. The tiles were coming off the bathroom wall, and it looked like there had been a fire in the room at one time. It was however, immaculately clean. Yet, today we are staying at a resort-type place on the Murray River, right on the border of NSW and Victoria. Here’s the fun bit – the room with the tiles coming off the wall was only $AU9 cheaper than the resort. Go figure! 😂 

Life on the road is like that, and we have learnt not to concern ourselves about small things, because getting upset means we will most likely miss the blessing. Letting in anxiety also uses up heaps of energy, and we are running low on that at the moment. 1,250 kms in 5 days, 360 things given away! If we did a rocket imitation we could have driven the distance in 2 days. But then we would not have had time to stop for the people who turned up in front of us. We’ve had 6 or 7 close encounters of the God-kind, not to mention being blessed by these people just because we met them.

My poor hubby has to do absolutely everything. My contribution is to move things one at a time toward the door, then fold the dirty towels for the cleaner, and …. I do my best to stay out of his way. He’s kind of a skinny blue and grey blur that rushes in and out, packing the car. We’ve also given away 3 bags of blankets, 30 blankets in all, plus toiletries and bibles. But we have 7 bags and loads of extras to go, yet. 

One of the roads we traveled on is known as the worst highway in our state. We agree with that assessment BTW. Road trains of 3 trailers or more, were hurtling along swaying and bouncing all over the bumps. It ain’t boring!! But on one of those bad back roads – the Lord picked it – we met a Muslim man and his wife and shared Jesus with them.

In our very elderly motel, we met another Muslim couple, and hubby told these two young people about the Lord’s love for them too. They told us they were so lonely, because nobody in the country town talks to them. They even wrote us a thank-you-for-coming letter! Please pray, there are so many lonely people out here. A lot of the churches have closed, and there is limited support and a huge need.

Hubby sometimes has a hard time with me, not just because I am disabled, but because the Lord tells me stuff and he – poor sod – gets to do it for me. But there is a side blessing for him – he gets to talk to people, face to face. He loves that part. I honestly think he really was born to do this, it comes so naturally to him. I have to gird up my loins and pray like mad, or the words fall out of my brain. I can forget what I am saying in the middle of a sentence when I am tired!

We met one guy through a series of God-sent miracles, and  the Lord said to me: “Tell him he needs a compass.” We sometimes have compasses to give away, they often have a profound message for people. So, there he was, a youngish tough looking guy, and I blurted out: “God says you need a compass!” And as I handed it to him – he said, with tears in his eyes. “I’ll say!” What I’ve learnt from things like this is that the Lord Himself picks the people He wants you to interact with. This young man needed straight talk. Tee-hee, being older has its perks, old ladies can pretty much say whatever they like, so long as it is caring and sweet and fluffy. I like to take advantage of that.

We don’t have to individually be the whole ballgame. Jesus is the whole ballgame … He’s the ground, the sky, and in the players etc. Plus the Holy Spirit is the best Coach and our Father is the team’s owner! The Lord wants YOU to be YOU, but that doesn’t mean you are destined to sit in the bleachers watching on, while the game of life progresses. Too many precious saints are in the cheap seats thinking they don’t belong on the field because of this and that. The past is gone. It’s time to pick up a ball and bat and join the game – it will take all the members of our team to help us win, and you definitely have a part to play. The Lord has something planned for you that will knock that baseball out of the park and bless you at the same time.

When I was a teenager I wanted to be a journalist/reporter. Much later in my life, God gave me my dream. He kind of turned it upside down and tweaked it a bit, but now I ask questions and write things down. I listen and then obey. Now I write for Him. Like I’ve said before – it ain’t rocket science. America just sent 4 astronauts around the dark side of the moon, and they discovered something amazing – the earth is not just fragmented bits floating about in space. You might think it is, the way we all act! He made our earth with love, it was never His plan for people to chop it up in pieces. 

Today, together, we can each do our bit. Some of us trundle down dusty roads to meet the one person who needs to hear about Jesus, and some of us will have a conversation with a stranger in the supermarket. Some teach Religious Instruction in the schools, and some talk to people on the train. There’s an interesting bit of a verse in Genesis 24:27:  “I, being in the Way…” The no-name guy who said that ends up being an integral part of the story.

I think none of us need to continue to sit on the bench or in the bleachers. Let’s decide to live our whole lives in His WAY and get our head in His game. I hope to see you there, and you might see me. We’ll both be following His thread. Bye. 👋

P 3310 The power of Pausing.

/ DVH

There is a word in the bible that means … “stop and think on this.” It appears often in the Psalms — SELAH. We translate that word into ‘pause.’ So we need to do more than agree with what it says, we need to stop and think about it. Selah means ‘I will stop and think about how these words I have just read can impact my life, my concerns, my hopes.’  Pausing and waiting for Him allows us to breathe, instead of anxiously holding our breath.

Pausing is like hitting the refresh button on a computer. It means we’ve been captured by something and we want to stop long enough to go back over it and see what is really being said. Pausing adds clarity.  We can find His Presence far more easily when we stop ‘think-worrying,’ and choose to pause. Then pray. I call it pausing, but Father God calls it by many names. In James 1:12 it says it like this: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him.”  This is a person who stands still, when everything around him is whirling about. He is pausing to steady himself.  

Steadfastness is the ability to believe God is good even when every circumstance around you says differently. We deliberately choose to hold fast to Him. It means you stop trying to solve the unsolvable and simply look at the One Who is so much bigger than our problem or questions. It’s taking a big breath and taking the time to lay these things aside, then we choose to take hold of Him and His Word, and wait. We want to cultivate the ability to understand that despite how formidable something seems, God has it. Meanwhile we patiently wait to see what He will do next!

“I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope.”  Psalm 130:5. Waiting means I don’t react, so eventually I choose to act as He prescribes. I believe what He said in the bible and so I put my whole thought processes into meditating on that. And I stop ruminating on stuff.  My hope is always in Who He is, not just getting an answer. The secret to being blessed in waiting is not merely waiting til the trial is over — it’s waiting to hear what He says about it in the time you have chosen to pause. That is done deliberately. Pausing is letting go and letting Him do what He wants.

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Romans 12:12. These things are unattainable if we do not take the time to pause. Our un-renewed minds can easily run into panic without real, tangible, God-given reassurance. Our assurance is in the bible! Pausing helps us to learn His Ways. We learn first-hand how He handles things. How unhurried He is in a world that is often rushing here and there. Whatever is flattening our well-being slides away in the light of His Word. Standing still, waiting, pausing, remaining steadfast – all these things can help us to unravel the difficulties that land on us. Then we can see them without a whole lot of mind-busyness. Pausing releases and relieves stress. 

Moses literally paused.  He was going about his daily routine and then he saw the burning bush — and the bible says this: “And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”  Exodus 3:3. He stopped what he was doing long enough to do more than give the bush a cursory glance. He actually physically engaged his body by using his feet to find out what was happening. He immediately encountered Almighty God when he took the time to pause and wonder.  

Pausing shows the Lord we value Him and His input. It engages His attention. It says: “I am not going to rush past this moment, I will give it to You. I am curious to hear what you want to say to me Lord.” It has a parallel truth present in the Song of Songs. The singer says to His beloved: “You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.” The shepherd has been captivated, He stands still long enough to notice not just her, but her presence. He refuses to move past his beloved’s loveliness quickly. Pausing is about deliberately paying attention to something that captures our hearts.

It may not be about something unusual, it might just be we have seen whatever it is many times before, but this time it grabbed us and other things faded into the background. Then all we can see is Him, His wishes, His Way. Time stops pushing at us because, it becomes irrelevant. Like Moses we turn aside to ‘see.’ Pausing is about those moments, when the busyness of this world fades into the background and we are lost in what we’ve seen, or read, or experienced. Pausing, waiting on Him, adds depth where we might simply live in the shallows.

Pausing is about ceasing from any activity temporarily, whilst listening to and waiting for the Lord. Personally, I think if we practice learning to pause over Godly things, we will learn to live in His rest far more easily. Pausing is like drinking in the Lord’s peace, on purpose. There is such value in simply stopping and choosing to look at Him, to see what He wants to say. I recommend it. Bye. 👋

P 3297 How to humble yourself.

/ DVH

In years gone by — even before I was born(!!), there were carefully embroidered scriptural sayings on the walls of most homes. The amazing thing was, that previous generation valued and embroidered challenging scriptures to remind themselves of what the Lord has said. They put these sayings up for everyone to see. Things have changed somewhat eh? 

I think we can also get a pretty good idea about what the Lord thinks about people’s lives, when we read the Old Testament, and see how He responded to the Israelite’s disinterest, disobedience and disloyalty. However in the NEW, He says stuff like this through1 Peter 5:6. “So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time He will lift you up in honour.”  Today I want to talk about this particular verse and how it might apply in our daily lives. I propose to give a hypothetical scenario that will hopefully clarify what I’m getting at. So off we go …

“… A Christian is at work dashing about, their feet barely touching the floor, when the boss calls them into his office. They kind of hope that he is finally recognising how much effort they make every day — but unfortunately, … not! Their boss appears to be nit-picking about something that went wrong that doesn’t matter all that much, and what’s worse, they didn’t do it! Now this situation will not get this person fired, they will just get one of their boss’s interminable lectures on ‘blah blah blah blah’. So they stand there trying to keep an interested look on their face, because their boss is a bit of a control freak. 

But THEY know, that they know, that they didn’t make the mistake – yet the boss is going on and on about this error like the building is on fire because of it. What to do? Do they throw the person who actually did do it, under the bus? After all, the Christian happens to know that the person who did it seems to be a lazy sod, who does as little work as possible. Lately they are often at home throwing a fake sickie. It would serve them right to get a good ticking off, it might just motivate them into action! Meanwhile the boss keeps droning on and on, and  they are waiting for a pause, so they can clarify whose fault it really is, and then the Lord says: “Don’t do it.”And they totally know it is the Holy Spirit talking to them! 

On drones the boss, but suddenly he stops and looks right at them and says: “Is there anything you would like to contribute?” After they have bitten their tongue nearly in half — they mumble out an apology as sincerely as they can, and tell the boss they will make every effort not to make the same mistake twice, and stumble back to their desk. Then they look over at their often-absent, always lazy, work-mate and he’s looking at the races on his computer! It seems some people never learn. So — do they pass on the lecture with gusto, or just keep schtum? 

This is the way temptation works. This guy is being tempted to vindicate himself, and give the other person a serve. However, in those moments you have a perfect place to humble yourself, and ask the Lord Himself to vindicate you! Then perhaps you might start silently praying for this guy to pick up his game. This is where we ask ourselves: “what would love do?” And maybe Proverbs 10:12 drops into our mind: “Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers and overwhelms all transgressions [forgiving and overlooking another’s faults.” 

Now our mythical example has a choice. He can dob this guy in and save his ego, or perhaps pay out on the man privately, because it is actually his workmate’s fault. But this means they are adding to the pile of junk that seems to be squashing the life out of the other man. But after all that, what has this man’s situation got to do with them? This guy is not exactly their favourite person anyway.

So the Christian man wanders outside for lunch, and they want to pray.  But … here comes the offender and he wants to sit next to them! Suddenly this man is babbling on about how hard life is and how he has been thinking of ending it all, because his wife left him, and he misses his wife and kids. Instant relief falls on the Christian, because they didn’t say anything to the boss about him. Then the Lord says: “Help him.” The Holy Spirit gives this guy a road map to healing for the man who has caused him so much trouble.

Here’s what I have learnt. Closed spiritual doors swing open, when we choose to take His Way through our difficulties. If we put down our pride— and look at someone else and their situation — we will start walking in Jesus’ shoes. People said things about Him that were so far from the truth that they were obviously lies!  But He chose to love and help others, despite the agenda-ridden underlying rotten attitudes that came at Him. Jesus had no pride, because He always knew where His help came from. “Our help is from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:2 and Psalm 124:8.

Humbling yourself is not fun. It hurts us to the degree that we realise our own pride is still alive and kicking! In Christianity there is always a greater good, and the greater good is the Lord’s domain. He can steer us through anything. Humbling ourselves and letting go of our right to be defensive, is in our Father’s Kingdom territory. We let Him defend us. Bye. 👋.

P 3250 Stay poor in Spirit.

/ DVH

“Strong to overcome. From Prayers on Fire, written by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez.                                                     “Every trial is a divine opportunity for our character to grow. It’s a chance for us to discover how truly faithful Jesus is and how strong we are when we’re fastened to His love. When our faith is tested and fear looms in the shadows, we can reach for the Light and He will come.

Trials are a launching pad for our glorious transformation. Though the enemy creates them to take us out, Jesus shakes things up and turns things around. Ironically, trials become things we can be thankful for. If it weren’t for them, we’d never know how faithful He is. If our love was never tested, we’d never truly know how devoted to Jesus we are. To discover His power, there must first be a need for it. To relish the joy of laughing in the face of adversity, there must be an enemy to laugh at.”

“Jesus, teach me to fight my battles from the posture of confident trust and perfect peace. Help me to remember that the safest place to be is in the warmth of Your glory, where the flames of praise are ignited by Your nearness. Your love casts out every fear and fills me with confidence.” Amen.

My thoughts: some Christians have such beautiful insights it blows my mind. I don’t often read this particular site, but hubby receives regular input from “Encounter God” The Passion Translation. As you know, I’m not big on including things, but this particular piece really challenged and spoke to me personally. Boy there is nothing like the truth to sort out your motivation. In this case my trials can show me how faithful Jesus is. 

Sometimes difficult things continue for a while. Unfortunately, they don’t just disappear on command! Aligning our hearts is one thing, steadfastness under pressure is entirely another.  And we never know which way anything is going to go, so we must be prepared to hold fast under pressure. That takes practice. I must say, I am learning that the Lord is not only stretching our faith to grow our faith, He is also revealing His goodness to us through the tough times. He knows better than we do, how far we can go. That’s called trust. 

The following scripture tells me who Jesus is —it comforts me better than someone else’s words can … Isaiah 42:2-4a “He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow weak or discouraged before He has established His justice on the earth….”

Instant comfort! Our part is to believe what He says and hold onto it, by reminding ourselves that He’s good and He’s looking after us. Then we deliberately give the whole situation to Him, and only do whatever He tells us to do. The we leave it with Him. Don’t try to figure out an answer or oppress or berate yourself for being human and hurting, instead allow yourself to rest in Him. He already won that battle you are fighting! Learn to rest.

Matthew 11:28-30 says: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  We are bathed in His comfort, as we read and believe His book. The Old Testament or the New Testament – it doesn’t matter! If we actively listen to what the bible is saying, and act on it, treating the scripture as instructions, we will begin to learn His Ways.

So first step – we need His Rest. Our own rest can be kind of seasonal, it comes and goes with whatever is currently going on. Taking up HIS yoke means we are choosing to learn how to respond, from Him, our Personal Counsellor. We don’t ignore trials, we face them leaning on His understanding and we follow what Jesus said or did. We can do this without fear because of Who He is and What He has already done for us. I put what I think aside. This is not the time to figure out someone else’s POV, it is the time to let go. Our ways are complicated, His are EASY.  So, if it is complicated it is not His Way! If what is happening is heavy and it is burdening me, I haven’t entered into His rest yet.

I only do whatever He tells me to do – if He says fight, I fight. If He says rest, I rest. We are not fighting against other people! Our warfare is against principalities and powers and Jesus already beat them. He has a plan for you and I to get through things. So I pick up my frayed feelings and mentally walk away, and continue to thank Him for helping me. His desire is to reshape my thinking so I trust Him more. I love the line in the “Encounter God” inclusion that says: ‘To discover His power, there must first be a need for it.’  It’s OK to be needy! 

Our God always cares about the needy no matter what the need is! My best advice comes from the Beatitudes:“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3. I am learning to stay poor in Spirit!  And I refuse to be satisfied with the things I think I know — otherwise I know I will stop moving. I just keep going back and back to Him. There are people who fall over and can’t get up again, because their ‘system’ isn’t working anymore. I don’t have a system, I just rely on Him! 

Many of us have gone from trusting Him, into trusting what we’ve learnt about Him – we’ve stopped being poor in spirit and became satisfied. And yes, there IS actually a difference. Bye. 👋

P 3231 Stepping out in faith.

/ DVH

All of us meet people that are here in our lives one day, and gone the next. Living for Jesus means that we need to live this life prepared to spin around, and change our plans in a heartbeat. For some people we meet, we could be their only Christian contact, so let’s be alert to His leading. Sometimes strangers are more prepared to listen than friends.

Here’s one example of why it is good to talk about Jesus to people you barely know. Up until the age of 25, to my knowledge I had not met a Christian who had the life of God in them. According to Google, who apparently knows everything (!?!) this means I had met between 10,000 – 30,000 people. And not one of them impressed me with their own living faith. Faith that showed. Nobody talked about Jesus personally. He seemed to be an out-of-reach deity that we had to answer to, one day. A woman I barely knew, told me Jesus was alive and He wanted to know me.

Since then, in all the years of loving and serving Him, I’ve met heaps of religious folk – and let’s be clear about it – they were all lovely people. People with principles. People who went to church weekly… but hardly any of them stood out as someone filled with the life of Christ! What I noticed was this, those people who did stand out, did what He told them to do. They lived the kind of life He would. Jesus wasn’t only their Saviour – He was their Lord! Sometimes we skip that ‘Lord” part when we invite people to come forward to the altar. We forget to tell them they are giving their lives away. Making that kind of choice clear takes this huge decision out of head knowledge, into heart knowledge. 

Anyway, I attended the lady’s church, and I did so with happy anticipation. From my perspective, these were the people who knew Him. They had known Him much longer than I had, and I couldn’t wait to hear their stories. Sigh. They looked at me like I was from Mars whenever I talked about how meeting Jesus had changed  my life. It seems to me that this kind of sleepiness, has slowly been overcoming many of us who are attending  church. We’ve ended up as passengers. People who got onto the train with the destination of heaven in mind, but they know nothing about running the train.

Fortunately, our Lord wants to take us all on a journey, moving what we learn from our heads, into our hearts. Otherwise we end up leaving things like witnessing to evangelists, or we settle for asking people to come with us to church. Jesus never once asked anyone to come to the synagogue with Him! He simply proclaimed God’s love was Good News. Sadly we often leave proclaiming the good news to the pastor… because that’s what he’s paid to do! …And yes, I have heard that said, and similar comments.. 

However, if no-one dares to sound the alarm, or we don’t care to listen, we will keep on doing the same old, same old, until we leave this world. Consistently expecting that someone else will do what we’ve all been asked to do. Signing up is one thing, going out watching and listening to Him, is entirely another.

The way to totally transform our lives is to live our lives His Way! That’s in the book. This one decision — the action of complete and utter surrendered obedience — plunges us into a place where we need to rely upon His strength, goodness, wisdom, and loving kindness, because we’ve learnt our own resources aren’t working. The Lord is kind, the Holy Spirit will take us gently through His learning processes. He has never asked me to do anything He did not prepare me to do beforehand. Let’s be clear, I don’t always like His lessons, but I have definitely come to appreciate what they do for me, inside! 

These situations don’t appear in my life with big signs on them that mark them as ‘lessons.’  Instead I’ve found that the action starts by deliberately making a choice to do something He asked me to do. Today, I thought I’d give some ideas from my own life. —  I’ve found I am so much more willing to do a hard thing, after the Lord has taught my heart to be obedient in the little things… Like not telling someone what I think of them, when I am annoyed to the point of anger. Or perhaps I feel I am to give away funds I could personally use. Or I read the scriptures – and one word, one phrase or one verse jumps out at me, then I pray and ask Him to show me how to put it into action. 

At the same time we need Him to help us to be alert to every contact we make – some people are only in our lives momentarily. Hubby and I have had countless opportunities to speak openly and honestly to people who were never going to be a permanent or even a temporary part of our lives. Ships passing in the night, some people would call it. We were once driving a long distance, delivering bibles, and we stopped, randomly – so we thought – at a service station, to break up our journey. We decided to have a hot drink and sat at a table outside. 

An older couple asked if they could join us. After a brief conversation, during which we explained we’ve delivered bibles all over Australia, they asked if it was possible for them to buy one from us. They had no idea about where or how to buy a bible. We happily gave them one, and some simple things to help them to read it themselves. After that… they went north and we continued going south. We arrived as they were leaving! But I believe that when we choose to yield to Him, God personally arranges our steps. 

The bible says… “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord …” Psalm 37:23. When we live like the verses we read are true – He makes them true in our lives. My own life is proof that incidental encounters can change lives! However, not everyone we meet is our God-appointed assignment. That’s why faith is required. Stepping out, even when it is not anticipated, can open all kinds of interesting doors. Bye. 👋

P 3208 Does this stuff sound easy to you?

/ DVH

“For athletic training only benefits you for a short season, but righteousness brings lasting benefit in everything; for righteousness contains the promise of life, for time and eternity. Faithful is the Word, and everyone should accept Him! For the sake of this ministry, we toil tirelessly and are criticised continually, simply because our hope is in the living God. He is the wonderful life-giver of all the children of men, and even more so to those who believe. Instruct and teach the people all that I’ve taught you.” 1 Timothy 4:8-11 TPT.

Christianity is for the brave, for the persevering, for those who know the way to win is to keep on going. We know it is a life-style, not just a collection of nice thoughts. This is the kind of lifestyle that has been trained, and formed by His righteousness. Because of what Jesus has already done, we know that we can keep going, with Him helping us, in the face of difficulty, danger and fear. This is what it takes — so this is what we do. We have been given His ability, so we can get up one more time and go again. It is never a matter of can I keep on doing this – it is about – can I do this one more time?

Our God knows that within ourselves, we are weak creatures addicted to comfort. That’s why He has gone to great lengths to give us Christ’s strength in place of our weaknesses. This transfer of power takes place as we put our feelings aside and believe what the bible says using our faith in His goodness and walk like He did. We face things, including our own inadequacies, we don’t hide from them. When we enter into His righteousness, we enter into training. We volunteer to allow what He has given us to teach us His Way to live and love.

It is good to regularly review the way that Jesus faced life among us. He was human!  He got tired, hungry, thirsty. But what kept Him going was His knowledge of His Heavenly Father’s will. He endured everything like an elite athlete does, so He could complete His own race. He is our living illustration of what devotion to God looks like.The bible explains to us that what we have been given – and what we do with that gift – is like the kind of training that athletes do. 

An athlete who wants to win in the Olympic games, for instance — won’t have many days off. They get up at some ridiculous hour and train, practice and hone their skills, doing the same old, same old, repetitive exercises over and over again. Pushing their bodies and stretching their muscles, in order to increase their endurance. Some of them have to work for a living at the same time as they are training, because even elite athletes do not always have sponsors!

Living for Jesus is like that. Not every day is filled with raising the dead, or healing the sick, or witnessing. Paul had some places he went where people wouldn’t listen to him preach the Gospel. He nearly lost his life many times. Our desire to live for Jesus is going to take this kind of ongoing devotion, the kind that has nothing to do with feelings. It’s so much easier to jump in when the Spirit is flowing and the Lord is actively among us – but who are we when our lives are flat as a tack, and look like they are going nowhere? Who are we when no-one is looking? That’s often what decides the depth of our faith.

What the Lord is saying here through Paul to Timothy, is that religion will wear you out. Even athletes go past their prime or get injured. However, dedicatedly, doggedly, daily following Jesus will give us eternal life right here right now. This is a constant stream that has no end. No matter what our circumstances are, no matter how difficult this life becomes, we have instant access to the One Who made us and paid an incredible price to have us for His own. He’s always with us and He is the source of total reliability in this world. The bible says that God is so reliable He brings the sun up every day. Imagine that! 

We reach into the eternal, when we choose to live out this new life we have been given, using our faith that God will not lie to us. This kind of faith teaches us His ways. Unlike ordinary athletes being trained in righteousness it does not have a shelf-life. Our new life has been given to us freely, in a never-ending stream because of what Jesus did. That’s why the knowledge of what we have been given empowers us to continue. 

Because of this gift we can count on the Lord always being the same toward us, no matter what we did or didn’t do. This righteousness empowers us to be lovers of Jesus, followers of Him, and loyal to our death. Because of Jesus and His power in me, I have said and done things I would never even consider doing if I was left to my own devices. This means I have seen the miraculous on many occasions. I’ve been all over the globe and all around my own country. Praise God because of Jesus, every day is a brand new day. 

However, to live in His righteousness I must give up my own. I can no longer rely upon sounding right, or looking right – I have to cast everything about my life upon the cross and tell myself –  He died for that too. This means I cannot afford to think about entering into presumption. All that I will ever need is mine, but it is always a gift. Meanwhile, I am way too busy being grateful to presume upon His Grace.. 

My fav verse says: “I know in Whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is able…”(That’s in 2 Timothy 1:12)  I know, from experience, that living this kind of life will not be easy, it costs my Lord everything, so it will cost me too, because I am following Him. I’ve been persuaded by what the book says. Jesus gave us everything He had –He left it all out on the field. Plus He overpaid! None of life’s stuff seems easy to me … but like you, I am learning to value the treasure I have been given. Bye. 👋

P 3204 The Star Chasers!

/ DVH

Three very powerful, rich intellectual guys set out once, in their day’s version of a BMW, to investigate a brand new star. These astrologers had noticed that star in the evening sky. Nowadays we would probably just turn the James West Space Telescope onto it. Sigh… I know the Hubble was old, and the JWST can see much further, but I really wish that they had found a much more fun name for itI I liked the name Hubble better than that mouthful! Any-way … these guys had come a very long way because they knew enough to know that the star meant something incredible was about to happen. 

The thing is, this journey for the Wise men took much longer than it takes for us to find a local McDonalds! They had to travel through other countries to get to the great King the star foretold. A lot of time had passed between the star appearing and the Magi travelling to get to Bethlehem. Imagine only being able to travel at night, because you are following a star! I mean, you can’t see stars until it is night! Not to mention those normal obstructive atmospheric things like – snow, rain, fog or cloud-cover!!  This is what I call a long-term devotion to the task ahead of them. These are patient men. 

Do you know what I like about this nativity story? The poor people got to the stable on the night. They were the first to be invited to worship Jesus. However, God did not leave the rich and powerful intellectuals out – He led them there too. They just had to make a bigger effort. Let’s look at something Jesus said when He was teaching His disciples, in Matthew 19:22-24. “When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 

It is ‘not easy’ Jesus tells us, for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God – it seems their view is blocked by dollar signs. EG: money and comfort. The shepherds were used to sitting on the ground, the wise men were used to a swisho ride!  I sometimes wonder why the Western world is breaking its neck to get more and more money and things, and why they put all their security in that stuff! Um… money is just bits of printed paper and metal, we are the ones who put a value on it. Meanwhile, there is no U-haul on the back of a hearse. What matters, and will last, is what HE DID FOR US.

Back to the Magi! By the time they arrived, months or years later. They had to do a search for Jesus, and they didn’t have Google Maps or whatever either! So they went to the most logical place to find a new King – Herod’s palace.  And here is what is fascinating … King Herod didn’t have clue what was going on until these men rocked up. He’s the duly appointed King and he doesn’t know what is going on in his own kingdom – he’s out of touch with the people He is ruling. 

The shepherds knew and they probably told everyone what they had seen and heard, but Herod didn’t travel in those circles. He was above that. Securely closeted in his palace with armed guards around him. Herod responds the way many rich people would respond to the news that another big man in town is on the scene. He wants to protect what he has. So he plots to get rid of the opposition and then carries it out with appallingly murderous consequences.  Anybody want to be Herod – when Jesus asks him to ‘please explain,’ in front of the big white throne?

Herod shows me that we think we know about someone, is not all there is. The more you have, the more you have to lose. What we read in the newspapers, or podcasts, or news broadcasts isn’t always truth. It is often doctored, and distorted because the people producing these things have an agenda. There may be elements of truth in what is said, but it is mainly coloured by what I call the rich powerful man’s doctrine.

A rich powerful person always wants more money than yesterday, and they perceive things through the kind of filter that says – what was enough last year, won’t be enough this year. I think that the line for ‘having enough’ always moves away from us. What we sometimes hear on the news is the hyped-up panicky report of people who are scared to lose their income. Moving on …

We all know the conclusion of this story about the Wise men, Jesus is eventually located in a house in Bethleham, and He is given expensive prophetic gifts. Those gifts may well have funded all the moving this little family had to do to get away from a jealous King who didn’t bother to understand what was actually going on! Jesus didn’t ever threaten Rome, He didn’t come to threaten anyone! He came to explain there is a far bigger reality than anyone understands. Our God is not a God Who is far away – He is THE GOD who came near, and lived like we do.

Jesus came to give, not take. He came to include everyone, rich, poor. Whoever they are, wherever they were born – God is not partisan! He loves us all. That baby born in a cowshed was His Way of communicating with the world mankind lives in. This time He didn’t send a messenger – He came Himself, to tell everyone there are no barriers anymore. Just like those shepherds came from the fields and those foreign astronomers came from afar — we too can come to Him just as we are. 

There is room for everyone in the stable. It’s like the proverbial Tardis, it has lots more room inside, than it looks like on the outside. Bye. 👋

P 3159 He will inhabit our lives.

/ DVH

“My beloved ones, just like you’ve always listened to everything I’ve taught you in the past, I’m asking you now to keep following My instructions as though I were right there with you. Now you must continue to make this new life fully manifested as you live in the holy awe of God—which brings you trembling into His Presence. God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:12-13 TPT.

We cannot afford to postpone following His instructions, they are life and health to our bones! (Proverbs 3:7-8.) This is not just about our bones, BTW, it is about us living daily in His standing-up-in-the-middle-of-difficulties strength! It is our responsibility to allow His life to be fully manifested in us. Jesus did not save us so we could hide away in religious activities and tell ourselves: “that will do.” He saved us to be His ambassadors to this world. To start with, we need to redefine what real love looks like, the people around us think love looks like getting my own way!

God Himself knows the best way for any of us to live our lives. We can think we know, but we cannot foresee the future –  it is outside our control. Even Christians rumble along, listening to this instruction the Lord has given us, and ignoring that one because it’s ‘too hard and God won’t mind.’ We cannot afford to cherry-pick the verses we want to obey and the ones we don’t. Jesus died for us, and we died with Him, and this new life we have now is His.

Jesus Himself knew the secret of being ‘in’ the world, but not ‘of’ the world. His FOCUS was always on His Father’s kingdom. He did not treat a KING any differently than a peasant! He simply spent His time ministering to  people, displaying His Father’s love to them, meeting their needs. The Lord Jesus lived to love others, and obey His Father in all things. He didn’t save His life – He spent it!

Jesus’ life and death shows us that living like He did can be done. But it is painfully obvious we will need help — our love is not as hot as it should be. When God is an add-on, or merely SomeOne we run to, to fix things, passion will not be a part of our love for Him. However, the Holy Spirit knows both passion and devotion. That’s why Jesus sent back Him back to us. The Spirit of God helps us see and live in God’s perspective about the things happening in our lives. Jesus does not have to prove He loves us by answering our prayers – His life, death and resurrection are all the proof we need.

And what’s more the Lord’s life shows us that there is a better life than we can ever imagine when we learn to walk with Him in His Ways!  We have been blessed, we can bring heaven here, right here, right now — when we live His Way for His purposes. Whether we can see or hear Him or not – we can live in joy, loving others the way He loved us. Obedience opens doors. Day after day I hear people talking about fulfilment in this life. Maybe they don’t feel fulfilled because they were made for a purpose, and believe it or not that purpose wasn’t just to live in comfort, or annoy the living daylights out of someone else! 

The Lord may be temporarily absent from us, but He is oh so close and present, in the bible. We can always find Him in His book. Jesus Himself is called the LIVING WORD! And I need a living word every single day. I am daily learning to put my feelings to one side. Now the only thing I care about is His peace in me. When I have His peace, I can do anything. Believe it or not I am as scared of other people as you are!  But …the Holy Spirit is so faithful. He can’t help Himself – it’s His nature.

“Let’s not get weary in the well doing…”  Galatians 6:9. Pressing in and on, can seem daunting. As you get older, like I have, you just want to sit down somewhere comfy, with a cup of tea, and watch the world go by. I like life in the slow-lane. But I love to see the faces of the people who have no idea how much they are loved by God Himself so much MORE than my own comfort. This life is a series of choices. It is not so much about making good or bad choices, as it is about making ‘A’ choice, any choice. It is very hard to move a stationary vehicle. 

My advice is to do something… anything. Be generous, share with others, mow someone’s lawn, talk to some elderly shut-in. And watch the Lord turn up and love on people just because you reached out to them. They will be attracted to Jesus-in-you. It’s not us – it’s never us! It’s because HE is altogether lovely!! We don’t have to market Him, advertise Him, or explain Him — we just turn up with Him … with the King in residence here → ❤️ in our hearts. He promised to never leave us or forsake us or give us up – so He’s with us, whether we feel Him or not. Why not just believe Him? 

The way to fill up your heart is in Matthew 7:7-8, and Jeremiah 29:13 – look it up. Choose to believe what He says and not your feelings.“Here’s what Yahweh says to you: “I know all about the marvellous destiny I have in store for you, a future planned out in detail. My intention is not to harm you but to surround you with peace and prosperity and to give you a beautiful future, glistening with hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 TPT. Jesus will inhabit our lives as we step out and use our faith that what He said, He meant. Bye. 👋

PS. Don’t wait for a sign! Do it anyway… faith ACTS.

P 3140 The Way through is to live IN HIM.

/ DVH

“I have told you these things, so that IN ME you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”John 16:33. Jesus Himself warned us in this world there WILL be trouble. But when trouble rises up against us, we can easily feel victimised and picked on by the circumstances. We all hate difficulties – yet here Jesus is telling us that trouble will come, it’s unavoidable. Trouble doesn’t mean you got it wrong, it’s a part of this life. Our great quest is to live our lives remaining inside His Will, His Way. When we ‘remain in Him – He remains in us.’ John 15:4.

The Lord makes it extremely clear that the peace He is talking about is IN HIM. Our circumstances may not change, but we will live in a safe place inside His will. Jesus wants us to live the same way He did, He lived for His Father’s will to be done!  We are witnesses to His glory as we live our lives His way. Think of a baby kangaroo. A joey is hidden away in its mother’s pouch. It goes wherever the mother wants to go, it is protected from the outside world by being in a safe unseen place. It can see anything that goes on around it, yet it remains in that place of protection. The baby kangaroo can go in and out of that pouch, but it totally relies upon the mother’s instincts to protect it from danger.

We rely upon the Lord to lead us through the battlefields of this life. Now we are living in another kingdom where we have a choice about our responses. We’ve decided to let Him choose what He knows we can face. Human beings have a tendency to think that if our circumstances change, then we will be at peace and we will … feel better. But Jesus clearly tells us that there is a difference between being affected by this world, and living our lives the way He has designed for us to live them. It all depends on where we choose to live. If we can’t find peace …maybe we are looking in the wrong place for it! 

Peace is not a cessation of trouble, instead it is the most incredibly powerful Person Who personally protects us! At the same time, trouble means different things to different people. So our lives, although they may be very different, are lived daily using our faith that He is in charge, despite any adverse circumstances. He knows the way through everything. Think of this kind of peace as living our lives inside everything Jesus died to give us. The same way we might think of staying INSIDE the eye of a hurricane.

Everything destructive ceases in the centre of those terrible storms, it’s actually quite peaceful in there! The destruction is all around – but there are blue skies and fluffy clouds in the centre. This is a bit like staying in the centre of His will. We simply need to follow His instructions, move with Him, and stay within that hypothetical eye. Our focus needs to remain on Him. He is our shelter, we are to live in the safety of His Presence, by following His instructions regarding this life.

Whatever He says we need to say and do, then we do and say it, and then we hand everything back over to Him.Then we ask the Holy Spirit to guide our steps through the chaos, and help us to keep our eyes on Jesus, because He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. As we go, we relinquish everything extraneous that comes up and we hold nothing back. It’s all about trusting Him no matter how things look.

Jesus taught us these things so that the situations that cause us to have doubts and despair may not influence our lives. We don’t have to respond like the world does when good or bad stuff happens, because we’ve given our lives to Jesus! Now we’ve  moved kingdoms – out from the kingdom of darkness and its influences — into the kingdom of His marvellous light. Our new home is IN HIM. In Psalm 91:1-4 the Psalmist says: “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will REST in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”  Surely He will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”

Christianity is about a Person, Jesus Christ. We no longer have to live buried under the troubles of this world, because we are the beneficiaries and recipients of the things Jesus told us He would give us. This means we can love others, we can have peace and joy etc. even in the middle of times of hardship and sadness. This world no longer influences us – HE DOES. We are daily learning how to live IN HIM, under His government – by reading the bible. Jesus is our model, He always did everything the Father asked Him to do, despite the ever-present risks and dangers around Him.

We must learn for ourselves — God good, devil bad – and take a stand against the bad every day. The only war we continually participate in now, is the one in our minds –  which tells us to doubt that whatever God is doing is for our good. At the same time, we are being carried by Jesus’ faith in us – yet we will still have to fight for our own faith. We are a peculiar army – we fight on our knees, for others, ourselves, and the Lord’s will to prosper in this world. 

Jesus won’t EVER leave us! He is deeply committed to each one of us. So we read His book because He shows us the Way through to overcoming and victory. It is not about winning and bashing up the other side, instead, now we are here to proclaim His goodness to the other side! We can have peace, joy and love in the middle of chaos – it is our right as citizens of heaven. Bless you, bye.👋

P 3137 We all like the ‘nice’ verses.

/ DVH

I have been reading in Acts 5:1-11, and it seems to me that nobody much likes this particular story… they certainly don’t let you teach the whole ‘you-will-drop-dead-if-you-lie-to-God’ story at Sunday School, or even from the pulpit. The thing is, that story is in the bible for a reason, so we need to take it seriously. Let’s just pause and think a minute …I mean, what kind of Christian does stuff like this? Can I just squeeze in a thought here – the one that says: “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom?” That kind of fear sounds like a good kind of fear. Off we go … to a funeral — well … two actually!

“Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.”

I think it was the lack of Godly reverence that ended this man — not just the fact that he lied, or even the money he hid. It was the fact that Ananias thought he could fudge the truth when he was facing God Himself. Let’s be clear. This man knew exactly what He was doing. He wasn’t someone who just happened by, he was part of the group that had seen the Holy Spirit at work in incredible ways. In the bible, right after this particular incident, a whole lotta people suddenly became very respectful, and responded to the Lord, and each other, with much greater reverence. As it should be! Here’s- V’s 7-11. This is called a conspiracy, by the way!

“About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.” Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.” At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.”

Everybody loves the ‘nice’ God pictures. Sweet pictures in our minds about Jesus loving people, healing them, redeeming their lives – but nobody likes this picture very much. Yet having respect for Who He is, and all the blessings we don’t deserve, bestowed upon us,  is essential. We don’t actually deserve anything He has given us. It is all grace! We all deserve hell! And I really don’t care how nice or saved you think you are!  I believe that at this moment in time, Almighty God is dealing with His people, He is calling us to come home and start behaving like HIS kids.“Why do you call me Lord, Lord and you don’t do the things I say?” Luke 6:46.

The fact that He is so loving and generous toward us all, does not mean we can presume upon Him or His Grace. Meanwhile, every word that comes out of God’s mouth is worthy of far more than just our attention —those words require our willing obedience! Not just the ones that say the things we think we want to hear. Acts 5:1-11 shows us why we need to be honest with Him and ourselves. Disobeying what God has told us is a minefield, if we are unsure, then we need to check up on what we’ve heard in the bible. 

These two people, Ananias and Sapphira, were Christians! So we can’t hide behind the idea that this story is under the Old Covenant. Meanwhile, it seems to me that they were also serious Christians because they were willing, to a degree, to participate in the whole sharing everything idea that had overtaken the entire body at that time. My point is – there was no need to lie!  There was room for the truth. And “I can’t do this, my faith isn’t big enough” must be said. Almighty God knows we are dust, we don’t have to pretend to be somebody we are not!

Let’s also take note of how protective Peter was of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in their midst. Man, this thought is so important – His Will, His Way!  The Holy Spirit is the gentle, loving, generous, beating Heart of God Himself. Lying to Him for our own benefit, hurts Him. Don’t hurt Him! That’s dumb! He will leave and He’s our Helper! That’s like sending away the fire department, the ambulance, and the police when your house is under siege and on fire, and you can’t get out. This passage is one of the best examples of lying to God and the consequences of doing it, in the whole bible. And the Lord’s response to this situation was to cut it all out, like a surgeon cuts out a cancer…thoroughly. 

Please don’t succumb to the pressure of pretending you are something that you are not. We cannot afford to leave the King of all Glory standing there waiting for us to decide if it is worth our reputation to be truthful with Him and others – or not! I urge everyone reading this to value the Holy Spirit, and His input with everything you have, and everything you do. He wants to be made welcome in our lives, not just by what we say or sing – but by the honourable way we choose to live. Bye. 👋