Holy

P 3050 Let’s say what He tells us to say.

/ DVH

Acts 8:34&35. “And the eunuch said to Philip, I beg of you, tell me about whom does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this portion of Scripture he announced to him the glad tidings.”  

My point today is this: when it comes to sharing with people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet — the bible is not one-size fits all. For a very long time we have presented people with John 3:16, or Revelation 3:20, and now those verses have become a tried and true method of presenting the gospel. They are great verses! But we have so many illustrations in the bible we can simply ask the Holy Spirit: “How would You like me to talk about Jesus to this person Lord?” 

Philip preached the gospel to a eunuch, and the man was saved on the spot because of the book of Isaiah. Stephen started with Abraham! Peter once preached something Joel had said. In another instance, multiple salvations started with a couple who decided that lying to the Holy Spirit was a good idea … and they both dropped dead. Anybody want an outreach that starts with people falling over DEAD?? This is an example of  what the fear of the Lord looks like. It starts with recognising that we are dealing with Almighty God, not the local council representative. Our Heavenly Father can’t be deceived.

Moving on … Jonah impacted the lives of a boat-load of sailors when he was walking in disobedience. A terrible storm ceased instantly as they threw him overboard, and that sight cut the sailors to the heart. The Apostles walked in signs and wonders which impacted the whole of Jerusalem. God knocked Paul off his horse and rendered him blind. I like that one … because the irony does not escape me! That man was already blind …he was continually persecuting the Church!

Who and what turns a human being around? The Holy Spirit does – HE’S THE WIND. It’s quite windy outside my house today. I can go outside and shout and scream fit to beat the band, but I cannot make the wind do anything. The wind goes where it wants to go. Jesus said this:“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”John 3:8. 

We need to learn, now more than ever, to listen to the precious Holy Spirit and trust Him and the Way He does things. Repentance and humility are always a help with that. We are blessed. All God-inspired ideas come from Him. But if we are not careful we can end up using them and reusing them like we are reading from a text book. THE HOLY SPIRIT NEVER RUNS OUT OF NEW WAYS TO GLORIFY GOD! 

Here’s a big thought from the book of Revelation … chapter 4, verse 8: ”…Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:“‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, Who was, and is, and is to come.”I asked the Holy Spirit about these creatures and this was His reply: “These beings need that many eyes to take the Almighty Father in. And every time they fly past the throne, they see something new, something glorious that they have never seen before, about Him, about Who He is.Their praise will never run out.”

Sin doesn’t exist in heaven, because sin would not be comfortable there. It’s a Holy Place. The Father and His love fill everything, because He IS everything! Heaven is filled with truth, light, love, peace, joy etc. Sinful people react to those things one of in two ways, probably because these options are polarising. They either reject it and Him, immediately – or they are awe-struck and move toward His light. 

There are many people who admire their own way of thinking, and they do not want to surrender to love. It isn’t fear that stops them. Instead, it is a lack of interest, hatred and many times it’s plain old rebellion.The message of the cross seems simplistic and foolish to some people. They find the things of God beneath their attention, they would rather cling to their sin than change their ways. But billions of others have simply been hurt by this life, or they have never known what real love looks like. Whatever the response is – we choose not to differentiate between people. Instead, we present what He tells us, how He tells us, to the people He sent us to.

Our job on this earth is to proclaim Him and fulfil His mission for our lives. We are to present the solution to sin and death – Jesus Christ. The bible is our tool, and now we use it to share Jesus with others. We are here to proclaim and demonstrate the good news.. But people won’t be able to choose if we do not follow the Holy Spirit’s leading and say whatever He tells us to say.

“For the Anointed One has sent me on a mission, not to see how many I could baptise, but to proclaim the good news. And I declare this message stripped of all philosophical arguments that empty the cross of its true power. For I trust in the all-sufficient cross of Christ alone.”1 Corinthians 1:17. Bye 👋

P 3036 Upside down thinking.

/ DVH

Christians can have some upside-down thinking when it comes to the Lord. We inadvertently blame God for the bad things that happen to us. Or at other times we take the higher path and accept that we are being disciplined —without understanding what it really means. Our God will never leave us. Because He is holy, He wants us to share in His holiness. He tells us in Hebrews to look at Jesus, Who never doubted His Father for a second.

Hebrews 12:3-10: “Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart…… In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son?  My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son.”

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness.”

We know that God loves us, because He disciplines us, and His discipline will always be for our good. He is encouraging us into His Way of Holiness. In other words – if we want to be holy like HE is, this is how you get it! We need to trust Him and learn to endure in the hard bits. That is not the same as gritting your teeth and waiting for the hard time to be over. Trusting Him and learning endurance happens, when we hold fast to His goodness, and His astonishing ability to work even terrible things together for our good. He is not mad with us, just because our little bit of this world has gone upside down. The reality is, we are birthing something of His kingdom into our lives that we cannot get any other way. When we respond in faith to difficulties and trials. Christians often gravitate far more toward things that inspire us, instead of things that challenge us.

We listen and observe through ears that filter things by whether it affects my life or not! Those things are anchored into the world of ME! My comfort, life, and my salvation. It all gets filtered through my perception of how spiritual things are meant to work. If I happen to like a certain biblical teacher, then that teacher also provides me with a part of that filter. When writers and speakers say things we like, we assimilate them into our theology. I absorb their revelations often without praying about it or searching out the matter for myself! It’s kind of a short-cut approach to growth. But we must also learn from the Holy Spirit, who speaks “ME” intimately.

Almighty God has an Eternal Language called Love. When He disciplines us, the bible says: He disciplines us because He loves us! That can seem like upside-down thinking!  In our way of thinking, when people love us, it means they are for us, and they wouldn’t dream of hurting us. It seems that our ideas of discipline today mean punishment, and they must not to be tolerated. That’s not true in the bible. Sometimes we don’t get the depth behind the Lord’s words. “God disciplines those HE LOVES.” In other words — His discipline in our lives, is one of the ways we know we are loved by Him! 

Now if you are like me that thought automatically leads to: “I wish you wouldn’t discipline me quite so much, thank you, Lord!”…B-u-t … I probably wouldn’t say that out loud. That’s because I am misreading the word discipline. The Lord wants to correct us with His eye on us. Our wonderful Father God is not just randomly walloping us when things get difficult or we do something we know we shouldn’t – He is showing us He loves us. We simply don’t understand His language. We need to move into maturity. Our Father’s aim is holiness, not just our comfort. His Love values intimacy with us above our idea of a happy life.

Father God has promised He will never leave us, even when things are terrible. He loves us so much He is leading us on into deeper things – so the next time something bad happens, we will have something concrete to stand on —  assurance of HIS LOVE!  God does not send the trouble but He will use it for our good. Jesus took all of our punishment on Himself, but we still need transformation. Embracing His holiness in our lives will totally change our perspective. Jesus was absolutely holy – but He didn’t float about with shiny gear on and a halo!  He showed us His holiness by only doing good from a pure heart – then He took the punishment that belongs to us. Yielding to God’s ways under fire, means we will not be burned, we will be spectators.

We must make it our aim to accept, and be blessed by God’s discipline, He is saying to each one of us:“You are Mine. I love you. Come up higher.” By all means, ask for trouble to be taken away! But if it remains, then God is doing something else. He is saying to you — “come closer, let’s talk.” That is not upside-down thinking, it’s thinking that has turned the right way up. Bye 👋

P 2990 The great wall of blankets … as seen from space!

/ DVH

“If we are out of our mind [just unstable fanatics as some critics say], it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for your benefit. For the love of Christ controls and compels us, because we have concluded this, that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that all those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for their sake. 

But all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ [making us acceptable to Him] and gave us the ministry of reconciliation [so that by our example we might bring others to Him], that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them [but canceling them]. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation [that is, restoration to favour with God].” 2 Corinthians 5:13-15,18-19 AMP.

Well you could easily think that hubby and I have lost the plot…until you read 2 Corinthians 5. Then, hopefully, maybe not! It seems the Apostle Paul also suffered from the same idiosyncrasies as we do, only his case was wa-ay worse than ours! He went on the road and stayed on it, permanently. He preached in jail as well. Gee I hope we never have to check that jail one out!! And what Paul is saying in Corinthians above in a nutshell is this – if I’m nuts, then I’m nuts for God, and if I’m sane then it is for your benefit.

He knew what was important, and he did more than ask people to church next Sunday – as if!!  Or hand out flyers and pass-it-on cards, he totally left comfort behind and travelled all over the Mediterranean preaching and starting churches. He was not just saying “I have A message” — he is saying “I have THE message.”  The message of the ages…  and … you in your small corner and I in mine ... we two are off on the road again! 

If I told you everything that is in our way you would think we have totally lost the plot! The thing is, we probably have. But Jesus is our Redeemer and He can take our spirit of stupid and do something amazing with it. All we need to do is be obedient. We are going because we too know we have been given the message of the ages and we want to give it away to everyone we meet. Our wonderful God is incredible, He turns up even when we have nothing to give. Actually, I should say – especially when we have nothing to give! He truly loves poverty- stricken people. Sometimes I wonder why we try so hard to look like we are coping, when God promises to be our strength. Moving on… 🙄

The above picture is just some of what we need to fit in our wonderfully elastic car. We have heaps of medical aids for me as well – not to mention some little things … like food and clothes! Every single time we go, hubby throws his hands in the air and says: “It is just not going to all fit in the car, I can’t fit it in.” This whole thing is becoming like a well-known play – the stuff always goes in. And afterwards we say things like:“I dunno how it went in, but it did. Just don’t sneeze OK?” Meanwhile the relief we feel when we off-load blankets, food, and bibles along the way is huge. Suddenly there is oodles more room… 

We once took our only slightly crazy dog on a trip with us … just once mind you … once was enough! Her presence added a degree of difficulty we were not equipped to handle. We are never doing that again. Instead we are giving her a holiday somewhere else safe. Anyway, hubby went around a particularly steep corner and a packet of chips and the lid of a container fell on her head.  She sat there for ages until we noticed she had a new hat, and then we figured out how far back that corner was! What a patient creature she is… I know I could definitely use some of her doggie patience.

As you already know hubby and I are big fans of love in action. Love in action facilitated me hearing the gospel. I was 27 years old. Years ago a dear older lady at a previous church used to come to my front door and give me the local parish newsletter every week. She didn’t have a car, and she walked all the way from her house to mine. I imagine I was one of many people she kept up with. 

I was highly suspicious of her kindness, and barely spoke to her when she appeared at my door, because I had 3 little kids who needed my attention. However, that lady just kept on coming … and when a crisis in my life occurred she was the person I phoned. I gave my life to Jesus on that day, all because she just kept on coming, week after week after week. We don’t always know what key will unlock someone else’s heart. But God’s love through her did not give up on me. She too was constrained by the love of God.

It is good to understand that loving God and others, starts with our obedience to what He has told us to do.“Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship.” Romans 12:1. 

I have absolutely no idea what God could possibly want with my busted elderly body, not to mention dear hubby’s bad back! My theory is this – let’s all just live our lives presenting whatever we have to Him, following Him. Visiting our neighbours, or people in hospital or old people’s homes, shut-in mothers, plus genuinely caring for those people who work alongside us. We may never reach multitudes, but anybody can talk to one person! Let’s live this life, stuffing our cars full of blankets. ‘Cos love looks like something. Bye. 👋

P 2977 Every promise in the book IS mine!

/ DVH

Here’s a great clue, if we sit about waiting for this promise or that to fall on us, maybe it won’t … or …maybe it will, but it probably won’t always happen the way we think it will!  The promise was never meant to be our focus – HE IS. Every interaction with Almighty God needs to strengthen and stretch our knowledge of Him.

Our God doesn’t like systems. Tell me one time He did the same thing twice! He does, however, repeat what He has said. Someone checked it out and the phrase “fear not” is in the book 365 times! How cool is that? One for every day. Everybody loves God’s promises! Me too. But I’ve also noticed that some of His promises are conditional. Isaiah 26:3:“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in You.” Obviously cultivating a trusting, steadfast mind will reap a more a fruitful situation…  As you can see, it is good to do more than just read the words!

Over to Nahum 1:7: “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.”  He’s always the place to go when things go upside down, that’s when we deliberately choose to trust in Him, and hold on! Psalm 84:11: “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.”

OK. First things first. Because of what Christ has already done for us, we are now regarded by our God as blameless. So this promise is for us. If you lack something you’ve asked for —instead of thinking about God as withholding things from you — or questioning whether you are blameless or not — turn it around. If I haven’t received the thing I prayed for then it is probably not good for me. Let it go!! We are not the best judge of what is good for us – He is.

Isaiah 40:31 “But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”The first place to check when you feel like fainting is where or what have you put your hope IN. Sometimes we accidentally hope in people, or circumstances and those things definitely can’t deliver what God just said.

Some of His promises are applicable because we are engaged with His Kingdom – but all of His promises are activated by faith. Our faith in His goodness is the first place our enemy attacks. Faith gives the Lord’s promises substance …even if we can’t see it yet. However, if the Lord were to put out a guarantee brochure … it would say that He reserves the right to stretch our faith whenever He can see it is the right time to do it.

Accepting His will, His Way, makes complete sense to me. It means I am engaged in building His Kingdom. Trying to build the kingdoms of this world appalls me. Those kingdoms are all about money or power. It’s not that I don’t care about these things, it is more about the fact that money etc. is always coming and going – there is nothing permanent about these things. God’s Kingdom is permanent – eternal … like … forever. Now there’s a plus! So whatever we do in faith for His kingdom, as He leads us, lasts forever.

The bible tells us in Isaiah 43:2: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” When things get outrageously difficult – HE WILL BE THERE, even if it feels terrible – HE WILL BE THERE.  That’s the promise. Our focus needs to come away from the water, river, fire and flames, and instead we choose to focus on HIM. If we keep on checking to see how that threat is going… we are moving away from our faith in Him, and our fear of being burned or drowned can overtake us instead.

Focus is everything. He wants to be the centre of our focus, our reason to live. Why? Because it is the safest place for us to live. Jesus showed us that. The Jews tried to kill Him before the time for His crucifixion came around and they couldn’t do it. They talked about it … which gave that spirit of murder, power. But they could not kill Him … until it was the fullness of God’s timing … Almighty God has a time for every purpose under heaven, but it won’t always make sense to us. That’s why we need faith.

It is also why we must read His book diligently for ourselves.  Nobody else’s words should take priority over what He says. Chase Him! People have no idea how much fun our God is. Often we simply try to use Him for our own deficits, ambitions and comfort … instead of simply enjoying Him.  Believing in His goodness and mercy IS worship when you are in pain or trouble. God’s love is pure, holy and not self-centred. Everything that happens to us is under His loving gaze. If He allows it, then He will see us through it.

Sometimes the hardest thing to learn is to be real with Him. Remember, Father God listens to our hearts, not just our words. By all means ‘ask and keep on asking…’ And remember HELP is a prayer!! Every promise in His book is mine … because they are HIS promises … and He keeps His promises. He’s the best Father ever. Bye. 👋

P 2973 My Strength and Song.

/ DVH

Isaiah 12:1-6: “And you will say in that day, “I thank You, God. You were angry but Your anger wasn’t forever. You withdrew Your anger and moved in and comforted me. “Yes, indeed—God is my salvation. I trust, I won’t be afraid. God—yes God!—is my strength and song, best of all, my salvation!” Joyfully you’ll pull up buckets of water from the wells of salvation. And as you do it, you’ll say, “Give thanks to God. Call out His Name. Ask Him anything! Shout to the nations, tell them what He’s done, spread the news of His great reputation! “Sing praise-songs to God. He’s done it all! Let the whole earth know what He’s done! Raise the roof! Sing your hearts out, O Zion! The Greatest lives among you: The Holy of Israel.”

This scripture is a wonderful example of someone enjoying Almighty God and all He has done for each one of us. This is our true destiny – to enjoy God Himself. And that’s not just worshipping Him with songs etc. Sunday by Sunday either. Daily being grateful, and noticing whatever He does lifts our hearts like nothing else. I love that Isaiah is realistic, he does not pretend he is perfect. Instead, he features what God does about his imperfections.This guy’s whole perspective has changed, he is so soaked in joy for all God has done for us, he’s dripping all over the carpet!

I love it in the Old Testament when people say stuff they cannot know, purely because they are under the influence of the precious Holy Spirit! Jesus Christ is all over these verses. He’s the reason we, the Gentiles, can stand and sing our hearts out – because He came and changed the whole game-plan. Just stop reading for a minute and ask the Lord to help you to pull up a couple of buckets full of the joy of your salvation. That will help you more than reading what I am waffling on about. You know, sometimes I think we don’t have a song because we have our lives so organised there is nothing to be delivered from!

These verses in Isaiah remind me of Moses’ and Miriam’s song. I can’t put it here in full because it was a huge spontaneous song that just flowed out of everyone, as they gave thanks for Who He is and what He did … in front of their very eyes!  Exodus 15. They broke out the tambourines and just let it rip! After all they had seen the sea standing still and they walked on the bottom of the ocean! Water standing still is in the bible a few times, its in Exodus 14;  Joshua 3:16;  Psalm 89:9 … the thing is: God had already pushed aside the water away from the land underneath, all the way back in Genesis 1:6-7. And people wonder where fossils found on land come from. Duh! Read the book!

I think I’m going to be stuck all day singing Miriam’s song in my head… there’s so much joy in it. (Pity I haven’t got a tambourine at hand!) I don’t think we know anything about rejoicing in the Western world and I’m not sure we’ve met JOY yet either…We need joy! He’s always doing things for us. That’s the kind of wonderful God we serve!! Always caring, ever-present. Isaiah understands the idea that God’s plans are long-range and he acts accordingly, expectantly. His faith level is off the charts as the man says: … “ask Him anything.”!!

Isaiah has been to heaven, before the Throne, and his perspective is now clear, it is not clouded by this world’s troubles. But, because of what Christ did for us, the bible makes these things clear to US in Ephesians 2:6 MSG:“It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose His temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, He embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on His own, with no help from us! Then He picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.”

Right about now we should all be searching for a tambourine! Father God has done so much for all of us it blows my mind, over and over again. I can’t believe His intentional devotion to someone like me. I know I deserved hell, yet in His great mercy He provided — A WAY.  A way for me to know Him and live with my heart already in heaven, even if my feet can sometimes be still stuck in the mud and muck of this life. When pain haunts me – and it does sometimes – I can look toward Him and be radiant.

This is what being seated in heavenly places is all about. Isaiah experienced it and he was not the same afterward. You and I may not have his experience, but we know the same God he knows and …  ‘our God never changes.’ He’s not mad at you and he’s not mad at me, even though we fall over and fail Him. This is why Paul said: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”Philippians 1:21. This man was in prison in Rome when he wrote those lines. But he knew the Beautiful One in Isaiah 12:1-6, and this is why I think he said: “… nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:31.

🎼“I will sing unto the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously the horse and rider thrown into the sea. The Lord my God, my strength my song, has now become my victory!…”🎶 Bye. 👋

P 2962 What ARE you wearing?

/ DVH

When my kids were little I can remember uttering the above words to them many times. One of them insisted on going out with a jumper inside out and backwards. 🙄

We’ve all heard these words from Colossians 3:12, but applying them has become a priority. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” I think it is appropriate for us to ask ourselves daily — what does compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience look like? Personally I do that with prayer and a whole lot of help from the Holy Spirit, with great truckloads of His Grace. Unfortunately, I have an awful feeling that these things that we are meant to wear, every single day, are the absolute antithesis of what the world all around us says we should wear daily to survive.

So let’s remember first of all, that survival by this world’s standard, is no longer our aim. Our Saviour set the example for us. Jesus led the way. He had so little personal stuff that the soldiers played ‘two up’ underneath His cross to own it!  At the same time, no matter what kind of a fancy slant we put on the way we live, we cannot disguise a lack of compassion, or kindness, humility etc. This means we will go out into this world naked unless we choose to wear the clothes that Jesus Christ bought for us. Ya might want to pause and think on that one. 🤔

Romans 13:14 talks about the origin of our brand new faith clothes. “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” The secret to wearing His clothes is stop worrying about what we wear, or how our life will go – or even what we can do to cheer ourselves up, because we’ve had a bad day. We just leave everything with Him.“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? … Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”Matthew 6:25-27… well, sort of … I left bits out OK?

Worry steals our God-given clothing. So does anxiety, or anything else you care to call that stuff we all do at 3.00am — when we can’t sleep and we are trying to figure out what to do about something that seems insurmountable! We are exhorted by Paul to put on Christ. Put on His attitude to this life. That’s the answer! After all, Jesus never worried about anything. By the way, let’s remember that the Lord Himself had a great deal on His shoulders – He only came to save the world! Plus there’s Isaiah 9:6 … Talk about expectations!! 

You can check what He did out for yourself in the Gospels. Jesus knew the value in trusting God in all things. He walked on the same dirt you and I walk on, probably a great deal further every single day than we do! He needed to eat etc, just like us, but He did not worry about those things – not even about where His next meal was coming from – He quite simply gave thanks for the meal in front of Him!

“… put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbour, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,…”Ephesians 4:22-26. There are a whole lot of clues about our new clothing in these verses, and nodding our heads and agreeing with it will not make it happen! Restraint is invaluable. These things aren’t suggestions, they’ve been given to us to help us become an overcomer. Please note the big clue that we can be corrupted by our own lusts.

The thing is, we can’t fit into our new clothes, if we feel we must lie to protect ourselves, or make ourselves look good. Plus there are no good reasons why we should be angry with others. God turned His anger away from us and now it is our turn to do that for those people who live around us! Instead we are to live our lives grateful for the gifts of His righteousness and holiness  – these are the clothes Jesus personally paid for us to have. And we use our faith in what He said, to choose to live like that.

At the same time we must deliberately choose to stop revising and reviewing someone else’s faults and ask for the Holy Spirit’s help. We don’t give up until it comes. It’s called perseverance, and it’s in the book! When somebody or something annoys us — we choose to see that as an opportunity to cultivate the spirit of self-control by remaining silent in the face of provocation.That takes practice. In the meantime we can be grateful to God that the perpetrator has given us an opportunity to practice a skill we don’t have… yet. 

Maybe we think it is too hard to change. Here’s a verse: “You have not yet struggled to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;..” Hebrews 12:4. So … I look around me and at my clothes and say to myself —If the answer is negative then I conclude that someone has hurt my feelings but … I’ll live! Ask yourself, what are YOU wearing? Bye 👋

P 2960 Are you ‘sanctified and enriched?’

/ DVH

“To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified (set apart, made holy) in Christ Jesus, who are selected and called as saints (God’s people), together with all those who in every place call on and honour the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace [inner calm and spiritual well-being] from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, so that in everything you were [exceedingly] enriched in Him, in all speech [empowered by the spiritual gifts] and in all knowledge [with insight into the faith].” 1 Corinthians 1:2-6.

You know, the first night someone eats great spaghetti bolognese it is yummy, everybody enjoys it. But if you leave some for another night, the left-overs will be enriched by time, and the melding together of the various flavours into something new and even more fabulous. Tickling our taste buds into a deeper experience. After we are saved, we learn to love like He did so that the flavour of our life is sweet, rich and good to those around us.

Christians are destined to do more than give mental assent to the truths in the bible – we are destined, right here, and right now, today, to mirror the love and life of Christ to everyone we meet and know. God’s sanctification and richness are meant to flow through us, so He can touch the lives of everyone around us. These holy things, the qualities that are in Christ Jesus, need to soak into our lives and join together to produce a brand  new sanctified, greatly enriched SELF! 

God didn’t just re-vamp us when Jesus saved us, or even update us with some sort of fantastic, whizz-bang upgrade. He totally transformed our lives with His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control as we practice yielding and co-operating with Him. We are permanently changed and … wait for it … ENRICHED and made HOLY.  We are destined to become what He planned for us from the very beginning of time.  Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can be bigger and sweeter, and more loving than we can comprehend.

Sadly it is too easy to be the product of this fallen world all around us. We’ve been influenced, battered and blasted by other imperfect people, who are just like us. Living within relationships and situations beyond our control. Those things have shaped us into the kind of people who live to hide to protect ourselves against the ugly things of this world. There is healing in the blood of Jesus. God planned for His kids, to volunteer to exhibit the same qualities that Jesus Himself had from the beginning of time. And this process is not about what we can do by ourselves. Just like the spaghetti gets better from soaking in its own flavours, we get better and richer by soaking in His love for us and spreading that flavour around.

Christ opened something that can never be closed again when He died in our place. He tore open in this world the forces that imprisoned all of mankind to sin, death and destruction. He flung opened the door to the possibility of change! We have been given the power to choose to be transformed under the Holy Spirit’s influence. Now, if you are happy with who you are right now, then perhaps that is not going to seem like such a wonderful gift. BUT! If being like He was, in this world, seems like a dream to you, cheer up! It’s now a reality.

How do we get there? We go through the same door of death Jesus went through, and we choose to die to what we want, like He did, minute by minute. By the way, I don’t mean you literally kill yourself!  We are to die to self, by giving up our right to live this life the way we want to, the way we planned for ourselves. And instead we deliberately choose to lay our lives down for His sake, just like the Lord did for us – using our faith to do it.

Then you and I will come out the other side of those everyday, deliberately made choices transformed. Selfishness, spite, anger, lying, murder – all those things that have held us captive to our own personal circumstances – even the choices we have made so far –  melt away under the power of what Christ did for us. The way to be transformed, is to choose to yield our will to His will. 

And that is not a part-time job, it is a life-time of day-by-day specifically chosen decisions to live this life Christ’s way. Jim Elliot, the modern martyr, said this better than I can: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.” And the bible itself says that like this: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25.

We will all die eventually, but it is how we choose to live from day to day that matters. We can live this life grabbing at all we can, to meet whatever needs we’ve picked up along the way. Constantly angry with others because they are trapped as much as we are … or we can choose to live His Way. Having a servant’s heart and loving those people around us this world pronounces unloveable. BTW, we are ALL unloveable!! And we all have our own nifty little devices to hide that fact from the world around us.

To live like Christ did, we learn from the Holy Spirit Himself, to be the change we want to see. We too can be sanctified and enriched and be like the Lord in every circumstance, as we choose to die to our old way of thinking and start to embrace and act on His ways. He died to give us the power to change and live a brand new life. What are we doing with that power? Bye. 👋

P 2957 Be fruitful not just productive.

/ DVH

After all, Jesus Christ Himself answered to SomeOne else – His Father! John 9:1-4: “While He was passing by, He noticed a man [who had been] blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi (Teacher), who   sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed and illustrated in him. We must work the works of Him Who sent Me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”

Sin is common to man, the bible tells us that, but isn’t it astonishing how quickly human beings go into blame, even right in front of Jesus? They say things like: ‘Whose fault is this, Jesus – him or his parents?’ Religion always wants a reason to blame, and sometimes it wants to excuse itself. ‘It’s not my fault my parents beat me, neglected me, spoiled me as a child I can’t help it.’ Right. So it seems to me that you are having trouble putting childish things away?? Read I Corinthians 13:11. How about you study the power of CHOICE?

I love 💕the way that Jesus sorts these things out… because this stuff really IS a waste of time! His disciples noticed that blind man and they wanted a religious reason for his ailment, but …  but… Jesus just healed him!  I mean I’m on the Lord’s team about that … just do something about whatever is wrong!  Love on the guy, restore his life, and throw blame out of the window. Don’t analyse it. Deal with it. Pray over it. After all we’ve been given His authority!

Not only that, then the Lord says something here we don’t even dare to discuss ……this incredible Being, Almighty God, Who ‘wraps Himself in unapproachable light and has no darkness in Him at all’ ALLOWED that blind man to be born blind so He could illustrate His glory! Ya might want to think about that for 3 months or so, ‘cos it kind of stomps all over all kinds of theology … like right … there. Our God is not the ‘when you wish upon a star, pretty blue fairy.’  When He came down upon the mountain in front of the Israelites they shoved Moses up the front and said “We are too scared of Him, YOU GO!” Let’s always remember that He’s the Mighty God Who rules heaven and earth, and — you’d better believe it buddy!

When Jesus took off His earthly human form, and He was revealed as God’s Son before 3 of His disciples – nobody had anything to say except Peter  — and that poor guy made an ass of himself… again. I always feel sorry for Peter, he says dumb stuff right out loud. Those things we might kind of whisper in corners to each other but we wouldn’t dare say any of it out loud at church. People might stop thinking we are holy if we did that. 

John 9:39: “Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment [to separate those who believe in Me from those who reject Me—to declare judgment on those who choose to be separated from God], so that the sightless would see, and those who see would become blind.”That sounds pretty clear and ‘user friendly’ to me. When the Lord was confronted with a blind man — He healed him. He didn’t form a committee to discuss what they should do next  didn’t care about the guy’s theology – or anyone else’s theology for that matter! He was simply fulfilling His God-given mandate. Is this a good time to mention that we have that mandate too?? Too soon??? Not ready??? Hmmm… I seem to recall the Lord said: “Live ready.” Matthew 24:42-51.

Moving on … Jesus knew that there was going to be a time when He couldn’t work anymore, so He did not waste a minute of the time He had at His disposal. That needs to be our blueprint for this life too. It is also worth noting that praying for the sick is a work that God has told all of us to do. Whether we feel spiritual or not, it’s our job now. I’ve prayed for the sick and they got worse and died, and I’ve prayed for the sick and they got better. And I can’t tell you why either one turned out either way! I simply know He said pray for the sick, so I did.

Whatever Jesus did, praying for the sick, deliverance, personal instruction – He totally did everything He did for the glory of God. He never justified big meetings by saying He had a ministry or some special gift … and yet He had ALL the gifts … better than we ever could. Instead He preached whatever He heard His Father saying to those who came. Whether it was two people or five thousand. He left everything to God and did what His Father told Him, and whatever He saw His Father doing. John 5:19. 

That verse in John 5 has always fascinated me. Jesus was not proud, He was humble, submitted to His Father.  The words “I do nothing by Myself” are pure gold to me. The Lord Jesus had no other agenda. I pray God will remove every one of my agendas and give me HIS! Amen. Now there’s a heart worth asking for! I wanna be with the people who only do what He’s doing and only say what He’s saying. The church has done enough advertising, talking and big mouthing, we need to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit and do what He says. It seems to me that sometimes we talk to cover up our lack. Did I say that out loud? Yikes… yes I did!! 

My current theory, (yeah, I freely admit it is a theory,) is that we need the Word of God to work on us, within us. Transformation will follow as we admit our lack and go after the Answer. Then we will freely flow in love, compassion and kindness. Jesus Himself never lacked those qualities, and we need to go after them, not just the gifts. We are meant to be fruit bearing vines, not libraries, or fun fairs. We desperately need the love and devotion that never fails. Sadly, in my personal experience, my human love can fail all over the place! I am especially convicted when I read I Corinthians 13:7. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 

We will gain compassion and kindness by simply walking with the Lord, and seeing others through His eyes. Plus steadfastly walking through difficulties, sorrow and suffering, without losing any of our LOVE for Him, and others. I pray for everyone reading this blog today that they too would aim at Love over everything else because Love is the best glue known to mankind. As we too work the works of Him Who sent US, we must remember that unless we have Love, HIS love, we can end up clanging away like a fire bell.

We need to get our minds renewed to think like His, and “get our head in the game!” Fruitfulness is life-changing, not just productive. Bye 👋

P 2956 A little tiny glimpse into history.

/ DVH

Today I want to briefly talk about what life was like for me as a child. Mainly because there have been huge changes to the world since I was born. As a small child, in an inner city suburb, bread came in a van, and the iceman came in his horse-drawn waggon. NO! Not the one in that awful movie —the actual iceman who brought very real ice for our very real icebox! Milk, by the way, also arrived on our doorstep, every morning, from a little car that chugged up and down the street. 

At my house there were things that were expected from me. I could cook by the time I was 7 or 8, it was my job to get the dinner veggies on. They were always peeled and boiled veggies – even the memory of those still makes me shudder! Plus I had to set and clear the table, make my bed and tidy my own room – I was a total DUD at that last one. For fun I was allowed to listen to the radio, but only if my behaviour was acceptable! My very favourite things were reading, drawing, or knitting. I knitted my mother a whole jumper around the age of 12 or 13. TV eventually arrived on the scene, but we couldn’t afford one.

I walked about a kilometre to school and back home again, by myself, every day from Grade 2. It was obviously much safer for children back then! Kids were very strongly governed, they were to be seen and not heard!  Adults were respected or you got a clip ‘round the ear-hole or the strap. When I listen to kids today having an opinion on everything under the sun, interrupting adults when they are speaking, I feel like Alice walking through the Looking Glass. I can’t help it – it’s culture shock! 

Back in the ark, everybody in my blended family worked, so it was tough luck for me … I had to get myself to school, make my own lunch, and come home to an empty house, the door key was hidden carefully outside the house. I was alone every week day for at least two hours – I had no help with homework that was my responsibility. Note to our dear friends in Canada … I had Vegemite sandwiches for lunch every day, whether I liked it or not – I did not … but Vegemite on a bit of buttered toast is pretty good! There was no cling wrap or foil so it was pretty festy by lunchtime!

I had no morning tea or play-lunch, instead we had a free small bottle of milk. And there wasn’t the incredible variety of food, fruit, vegetable choices that we have today — only people from other countries ate that stuff! The average Aussie worked hard, and drank him or herself under the table for leisure – their kids watched and pinched beer when the adults weren’t looking. I wasn’t one of them by the way.

You were’t anybody if you didn’t barrack for a footie team and follow the cricket. The news came in a newspaper. The only fast food was fish and chips and they were wrapped up in … yesterday’s newspaper. We weren’t very multi-cultural back then. Our home phone was black and it sat on a little shelf in the hallway. I still remember the number. 😆 The changes over those 70 years are totally huge … 

Now I have a phone that I carry on me, and I can use it wherever I am, even in a lift or the loo … ‘nice polite’ girls would never do that in the past. I can find out what is happening all over the world at the press of a button. I can also tell my house what to do! Today, I don’t even have to vacuum. In the ark, we had a carpet sweeper, until electrolux cleaners came on the market. Rich people had those.

Now we have a little bot that trundles out of its hidey-hole and does all the vacuuming. Plus all our washing, and dishes, go into machines. The refrigerator talks to its owner and tells them what they will run out of in the near future. My bible is on my phone! If I want to take a walk I have a walking machine. If I want to go rowing, I have a rowing machine … I don’t, by the way, have a rowing machine, or one of those groovy bots and my refrigerator is quite silent, I must have I offended it!

Back then, Almighty God was SomeOne Who would not be bothered with the likes of me. I was expected to be a good girl and do what I was told or the wrath of somebody or other, would fall on my head — and probably on my backside as well! God was a silent ever-present threat Who was always watching me, waiting for me to make a mistake, then someone else would punish me on His behalf. I was terrified of Him.

He was good and holy and I knew I was not. I’d heard about Jesus but it seemed He didn’t like little girls much either. My religious life was filled with bells and smells and fear of hell and very little love. If God loved me He sure had a funny way of showing it. Being whacked with something hard and nasty was punctuated with: “This is for your own good.” 

Despite today’s theories about giving our kids a wonderful childhood — most people have a wonky past! Many of them have been treated badly one way or another, and, sadly, they have no idea of Who God is and how much He loves each one of us. That’s why we’ve been called to be witnesses. Today we can go wherever we want to go, to tell others what we have seen, heard and learnt, personally. To let them know that human love may let you down … but God will not.

There is no perfection in this life, because they are no perfect people! Can we please … as the Body of Christ … get over ourselves and get on with fulfilling our very real mission? Nobody needs to go to hell unless they choose to – that’s the message. Bye. 👋

P 2923 Let’s NEVER forget.

/ DVH

Isaiah 6:1-8: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on a throne—high, exalted!—and the train of His robes filled the Temple. Angel-seraphs hovered above Him, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew. And they called back and forth one to the other, “Holy, Holy, Holy is God-of-the-Angel-Armies. His bright glory fills the whole earth. “ The foundations trembled at the sound of the angel voices, and then the whole house filled with smoke. I said, 

“Doom! It’s Doomsday! I’m as good as dead! Every word I’ve ever spoken is tainted blasphemous even! And the people I live with talk the same way, using words that corrupt and desecrate. And here I’ve looked God in the face! The King! God-of-the-Angel-Armies!” Then one of the angel-seraphs flew to me. He held a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with the coal and said, “Look. This coal has touched your lips. Gone your guilt, your sins wiped out.” And thenI heard the voice of the Master: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?”I spoke up, …
    

… “I’ll go.” Send me!”

It kind of seems rude to comment on such a beautiful piece of prose, so I will try to keep it brief. However, I think that this scripture from Isaiah needs to be meditated upon, over and over again, because  it is just such an incredible, beautiful, scene. 

I don’t care much about angels with 6 wings etc. and what they look like. Some people are kind of obsessed with them – beats me!!  I’ve just never understood why people make such a fuss about angels. I guess they must be spectacular to our human eyes, but, over the years, I have known many people who have done so many searches, as well as research about angels … so I’m kind of over it. Some people seem to see angels everywhere. Me? I see nothing. I am aware however, of times when the Lord has sovereignly intervened in our lives and sent angels to help us. But personally, I’d rather be like Isaiah and see HIM!

When I read something like this from the bible, the very first thing that grabs me is that these angels Isaiah saw were calling out to each other … “Holy, Holy Holy, is God of the Angel-Armies. His bright glory fills the whole earth.” God’s glory is just so magnificent that these two angels can’t help calling out about it! Just pause for a minute and imagine what church would be like if we said things like this to each other… !!! … Yeah, I know it seems kind of old-fashioned, but wow!! Let’s not leave behind the things that are beautiful for the sake of being modern. After all, nobody can look at our wonderful Heavenly Father and not be affected by what they see!  Now there’s a nice little Selah point right there.

Secondly, when Isaiah sees the glory and holiness of the Lord, he becomes painfully aware of his own shortcomings. And he doesn’t mince words either. “I have said so many blasphemous things, and so have the people all around me.” Now that’s conviction! Maybe we need a lot more of that right now, because our society today says anything it wants to. And before either of us draws up our skirts/trousers and says, a bit religiously: “I don’t do that, I don’t talk like that.”  Well here’s a really nasty thought, what do you do when someone else talks like that around you?

The other day when the maintenance man was unpleasant and asked us for a pornography DVD to test out the DVD player, this happened. When I said:“HE wouldn’t like it,” ☝️… the dear man shut up instantly. It was quite funny. Then as the two men were leaving, hubby said that the other fellow working with the maintenance man stuck out his hand, shook it, and looked him right in the eye, said: “Nice to meet you.” My point is you don’t have to come across holier-than-thou to make yourself heard, you can be true to your calling and still be sweet.

Let’s go back to the text… Isn’t it just overwhelmingly glorious that the Lord did not leave Isaiah in that state, where he was utterly bereft before a Holy God. Instead an angel was sent by God to help him. Such love! Did you notice the coal was for his mouth? I did! He’d sinned with his mouth so that needed to be cleansed. Isaiah was a prophet and he spoke a lot for the Lord – people who speak for Him, need to be aware that what they say can be tainted by this world. Just saying is all …

And now we come to today’s punchline … … well you knew we would! …🤣 “I heard the voice of the Master: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” I spoke up, “I’ll go.” Send me!” —That verse is the reason I write this blog. Almighty God is continually asking that question of each one of us. Wouldn’t it be lovely if everyone who prayed; “I’ll go. Send me…” – actually went! I pray that we are not like the people in that parable Jesus told about a wedding feast … “I can’t come, I just got married, I bought a new house, I have so many commitments I simply cannot come.”  That’s one feast none of us has to miss out on – Jesus made sure of that, personally!

It makes me so sad when people work so hard day after day, for the things they can’t keep. They miss out on the joy and wonder of interacting with the Lord, all the time.The more we live this world’s way, immersed in our daily lives, the further away the Lord becomes. Let’s never forget, we have a Saviour Who cleansed us from all our sins, and that includes the less obvious sins of omission. We have no reason to keep silent anymore…

👋 Bye.