Hope

P 3489 Our own personal purity of purpose.

/ DVH

Romans 7:6 says: “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” As you can see, we still serve – but now we do this service on a personal level. It is no longer one rule fits all, instead the Holy Spirit guides us, speaking to us individually, as well as corporately. We are here to benefit others. This does not mean we will become careless about our actions … instead our actions are to demonstrate His power in a broken world. Those actions are hallmarked by love, the way Jesus Himself defined it. His disciples are a wonderful example of love guided by purpose. 

So much of our lives can be lived upon the surface, of ‘gotta be’ ‘gotta do,’ ‘gotta go’ — but human beings need much more than that. They need love, hope and … a purpose. Christians experience heaven’s ways while we are still on earth as we choose to obey our Master, Brother and Friend, Jesus. This means our priority is not about strictly obeying the law, but about walking in the abundant Grace Jesus Christ released when He died in our place. And we live giving that Grace away to others.

The Lord never presumed upon the Father’s great grace toward Him, instead He lived His whole life, from beginning to end, to God’s glory, giving away grace. Through His teaching He taught us we are to live the same way He did. The stuff He said often blows my mind. He once said to a rich young man. “Why do you call Me good? Only God is good!” Mark 10:18.

Let’s just pause and think on that. When you think of good, don’t you think of Jesus? I know I do!  What do you think He meant by that? … How about you take the time to ask Him. Our relationship with Him is built upon the kind of freedom that asks questions. The disciples in the Gospels asked all kinds of questions. Usually when I ask the Lord questions He answers with scripture, and I learn something about Him, about His purposes. I also learn about myself … something that I didn’t know before.

This rich young man had an incredible opportunity to see what was really uppermost in his heart, it was handed to him by Jesus. It wasn’t about the Ten Commandments, this man had all of them down pat, however the Lord diagnosed his main impediment with one question. He didn’t condemn the young man’s passion, but Jesus totally revealed what was really uppermost in this person’s heart, to show him something that was in the way of what he said he wanted. 

Jesus can ask us a question that will cut through all the white noise, and our nice image of ourselves, and it will show us we are not who we think we are. God’s way of being and doing is not superficial, and it is not satisfied with the right answers, it wants the heart answers. This young man thought he’d get a big tick, and a ‘well done you,’ from Jesus. It says that Jesus loved him, virtually on sight – and asked the young man to follow Him! Sadly the man was challenged by what was in his own heart. He found out that he could follow rules more easily than He could follow personal instructions.  God will not slide neatly into our man-made, rule based, categories – He has His own plans.

And this is my point today. We have no idea what is going on in our hearts. We are much better at diagnosing what’s wrong with someone else and how it can be fixed! Jesus didn’t tell the young man an easy thing, instead — He told this man to sell everything he had and give the money to the poor. We can read this and think —‘right, I’d better be more generous, and pray that the Lord will help me give more.’ PS It’s not about money – He wants YOU not your money! He wants us to give up what dominates our hearts instead of hiding it from Him, or ourselves. We can ask the Lord to show us what is in the way of us being fully yielded to Him and if it IS money, then give it! We are not asking Him because He doesn’t know – we are asking the Lord because the reality is, WE don’t have a clue!

You know, when we don’t get the answer to our prayers that we were hoping for, instead of being disappointed with the Lord, why don’t we ask Him? ‘Lord, what is standing in my way?” We have the Holy Spirit nearer than our heartbeat He wants to help us. He will help us – but He won’t make us ask. Here’s something I have noticed over the years … I can remember past difficult situations quite well, but I often remember the bad things someone else did far more clearly than my own contribution. I think that’s called … “selective memory.” Sigh. In order to cultivate my own personal purity of purpose I will need to choose to put aside my need to be right, in favour of the truth. Most of the time those two things are not the same!

I love to read the Old Testament because it is filled with so many people who have no idea what they can do, until God gets ahold of them, and reveals His purposes in their lives. We can see ordinary people who were just going about their daily routines, some of them compromised their faith, while others were tried to doing their best to be obedient. But there were times when none of them had any clue what God can do through a man or woman … or even a little girl. Her story is in Kings – more on that tomorrow.

We’ve become so used to the whole idea of independence. The idea of relying upon SomeOne else, doesn’t even occur to us, and this is the very attitude that holds us back from living in fellowship with Him. Let’s live our lives sold out for Jesus. Not just in word, but in deeds. May the Lord bless you to find your own purity of purpose. Bye. 👋  

P 3483 Cling to Him. 

/ DVH

“ … God doesn’t miss anything. He knows perfectly well all the love you’ve shown Him by helping needy Christians, and that you keep at it. And now I want each of you to extend that same intensity toward a full-bodied hope, and keep at it till the finish. Don’t drag your feet. Be like those who stay the course with committed faith and then get everything promised to them.”  Hebrews 6:10.

“We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up His permanent post as high priest for us, …” Verses 18-20.

Sometimes I find the scriptures are so extraordinarily clear, it’s almost like following a recipe! We are told to hang onto our hope with the same passion we show for the needy. Now there’s another great motivation to help others, it will give us a clear picture of what kind of effort we will need to hang onto our hope.. Meanwhile, truthfully speaking, I have found that when stuff happens, hope can be the first thing to go out of the window.

I get a bit like a headless chicken, aimlessly running on the autonomic nervous system instead of His word, which is hidden in my heart. This is when I know I need someone else praying for me, because I seem to have dropped the ball in some sort of overwhelming panic. At the same time, I don’t want to miss what God has for me in this new situation, so I cling to Him. I remind myself to hang on tightly to hope, because I know that hoping in Jesus, will not disappoint me! (Romans 5:5.)

My point being that hope and other spiritual things are absolutely, definitely, OURS – but they do not always come naturally to us. When we are in panic mode, we are more likely to remember the times things didn’t go the way we needed them to, especially when the ceiling has fallen in again and we are under pressure. Our faith muscles stretches when we deliberately choose to believe Him instead of our circumstances. Will it get better? Won’t it get better? Who cares! Jesus has got this and He always has a plan.

Let’s remember that without hope in His loving faithfulness we’ve accidentally thrown away the anchor, and it’s no wonder we are being tossed about like a tiny ship in a typhoon.  We need a solid anchor in a storm, and Jesus Christ is our anchor. Throwing hope away means you are a couple of steps away from going under. He will save you but your emotional well-being will take a beating. Speak to your soul! I have to yell at mine sometimes … “Soul! Hope thou in God.” My soul understands King James English, even when my head doesn’t!

Verses 18-20 explain why we must hang on to our hope. Our hope goes right into the Throne room. It is our lifeline between us and Almighty God Himself. We trusted Jesus to save us, now we trust Him to keep us … no matter what kind of stuff is going on everywhere else … even in our own households! He made the world, He knows what to do about whatever is going on.

Bad times are never convenient … I know that seems obvious, but sometimes the obvious needs to be said. It’s usually when your pay is short that God will ask you to help out someone else, and suddenly your gas bill turns up and it is overinflated … (pun intended) … the rent suddenly super-sizes in front of your eyes … and then your car starts making those weird noises that you have heard before, but now it is making them in earnest! 

The thing is, our difficult circumstances can distract us from the reality of His hope. Unfortunately, these circumstances are what caused us to go under in the first place! This means we will have to deliberately look away from them back to Jesus, because He is our hope. He can’t fail because He already won. I often ask Him to help me to see what’s at the root of my over-the-top emotional reactions.

I had to do that earlier today. And the answer came like an explosion in my heart. “Despair,” He said. “You are in despair.” Then I ask for a verse to fight with, and if I can’t find one, I type in a word or phrase that currently fits the situation and I go looking. Mostly I hold on tight to WHO HE IS! Jesus doesn’t break bruised reeds and He knows we are all glorified dust.

Psalm 34:18 says: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Well that’s gotta be good! Jesus is close, He saves … those are great words! Skip over the crushed bit, or you will find yourself circling the drain, trying to figure out why you are feeling crushed or whatever …Just take those words ‘Jesus is close’ and ‘He saves’ and deliberately wrap them into your thinking. Cling to Him. Pull your thoughts away from the trouble, back to that phrase … ‘He will save you from this!’

I love this next one! Psalm 43:5: “Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? HOPE IN GOD, because I will praise Him once again, since His Presence saves me and He is my God.” Let’s remember, we are not relying upon our own faithfulness —our faithfulness can vary, depending on the circumstances. We are relying upon HIS, and His faithfulness reaches to the sky!! Which neatly takes care of flying on an aeroplane, if you don’t happen to like them. Bonus buy.

Last one – 2 Corinthians 4:8-9: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” If we hit despair, like I did, then we’ve gone too far. Back up and turn around. The Lord can redeem any situation for good. Just watch Him do it! Jesus made a way for you to get through those things that seem impenetrable.

Now continue to look at Him, not the problems. Do what He says and keep your eyes on Him, not the storm. Earthly things fade away in His Presence as we cling to Him. Remember the cross. Have confidence in Him – speak it out loud, talk to your soul and start thanking Him for helping you through whatever is going on. Sometimes I pray blessings over every single person I can remember, including my enemies. Talking to Him reminds us that He is our hope, our ever-present help in time of need. Bye for today 👋.

P3476 Speaking His language.

/ DVH

The bible is full of what the Lord thinks, what He wants, and what happens when men and women listen to Him. We can see first-hand the result of someone else’s obedience, or – disobedience. We can also note that obedience leads to miraculous events, big and small. It’s in the book!

Eons ago, back in the ark -when I was a very young, not-quite-so-spiritually-focussed-Christian – there was a lady at our church that I did not particularly love. She drove me bananas. This Christian sister would turn up at my house with her little one at around 8.00am unannounced. I had three children under five, so my mornings were chaos. She did not call to say she was coming, they simply randomly turned up. Then they stayed, and stayed, and stayed. Often until lunchtime. Of course her child wanted to play with my kids the instant she arrived, just as I was trying to get my day started. There was no time to spend with Jesus, this lady was sitting in my lounge, drinking countless cups of tea.

OK, it is confession time. In those days I rarely cleaned the toilet until after everyone else in the house was finished with it. So my toilet was not in great shape first thing in the morning. Back in the ark those things were important – people critiqued each other’s housekeeping. An-y-wa-y … I was wandering about one morning, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, whilst encouraging my kids to eat up their breakfast etc. as I fed the baby, and the Lord spoke to me. He said: “Quickly go and clean your toilet now!” So I did. Two seconds after doing it, the door bell rang. It was my not-so-welcome-Sister again. She wanted to use my toilet. In case you don’t know, Father God cares about our difficulties.

I became very irritated over time. During this time, I began to try to hide from this semi-regular visitor. One time I climbed back into the shower. I had already taken a shower but I jumped back in again. I did it just to avoid her. I didn’t know how to tell this lady that appointments need to be made and agreed upon, and that 8.00am was way too early at my house! Inexperience had me by the throat, and religion wouldn’t let me speak up! So now I will come to the point of my sorry little tale. I was praying and talking to Jesus, reading the Word and as I was talking about my dilemma, He said this: “You have aught against any.” (KJV)

In my immaturity, I argued with the Holy Spirit. That didn’t last long… He showed me that I had so many ‘aughts’ they were now my anchor, holding me in place because of someone else’s sin. To be clear, this meant that Jesus Himself was no longer my anchor. My hope had gone out of the window, with one push of a doorbell. Instead, life was planned around avoiding this lady, plus trying not to shout at her. I wanted to be a ‘good’ Christian – OK?

I try not to wait to fix the stuff the Lord points out – over the years I’ve learnt that the enemy is right at my elbow explaining away any conviction when it comes. The answer to this kind of sticky problem is never condemnation, it is confession. It was clear to me what I had to do. So I bundled up the kids and I just went – actually, I practically ran, to her house, because I knew otherwise I would talk myself out of it. She answered the door and I blurted out what I had done and apologised. Then in fear and trembling, I asked for her forgiveness. The most amazing thing happened …she laughed and laughed and laughed and then wiped the laughter tears out of her eyes. I was not expecting that response! She was not laughing AT me, she was laughing at the dumb situation. We sorted it out.

After that morning this nice lady didn’t bother me anymore. To be fair, she stopped banging on my door so early, and we made appointments instead. However I learnt something extremely valuable … God cares about the things we don’t cope with. He has answers, and we simply need to ask Him to show us what we should do about these things. Sometimes obedience to His Word will open our eyes to things that we can’t see, yet. The bible is full of fabulous stories, but they can seem irrelevant to our life, today. Plus there are times when our automatic response is the wrong one, but we don’t know what to do about it.

First of all, I think we have to stop treating the bible as information and start finding ourselves in it. The Lord wants to help us, that’s why Jesus taught so many lessons. He wants us to know that instructions and the law – when they are misused – can deaden the life of God in us. We only have to look at the men and women in His book  – they had to ask God how to carry out what He told them to do. The bible is not just a book that tells us stories about God and His people, nor is it simply a list of dos and don’ts — the bible is His language – His way of thinking … written down. 

It shows us what is important to Him. When we reduce it to a list of dos and don’ts, we are totally missing the point. It is a love story, carefully laying out the tender interactions between God Himself and mankind — it shows us the Way He does things, and how His relationship with mankind is always uppermost in His mind. It is not the stories per se, although we can learn so much about our own humanity and His goodness when we read them — it is about Father God taking the time to explain Himself. His ways! 

When we read it from that POV we will begin to learn to speak His language too. It is a language of love and redemption that reveals His heart toward all of us. Bye. 👋. PS He will not only “be with us in trouble” – He will bail us out too!

P 3475 Pause, remember … and reset.

/ DVH

“God, You’re such a safe and powerful place to find refuge! You’re a proven help in time of trouble— more than enough and always available whenever I need You. So we will never fear even if every structure of support were to crumble away. We will not fear even when the earth quakes and shakes, moving mountains and casting them into the sea. For the raging roar of stormy winds and crashing waves cannot erode our faith in You. Pause in His Presence” Psalms 46:1-3 TPT.

When I read this today I realised that the last 4 words are the key to the first 79 ones! “Pause in His Presence.” What does that mean to you? To me it means when ‘the stuff’ is flying about so rapidly I can hardly breathe, my very best first response is to stop … and stand in His Presence. Why? Because those first 79 words remind me of Who He is and how much He loves and cares about us all – every single minute of every single day!  Those last four words show us how blessed we are. We can be in His Presence anywhere. Doing this will remind our spirits to defer to His ways.

Wherever you are reading this blog today, now is a good time to stop … and just stand or sit, in His Presence. Remember, it says pause, it doesn’t say ‘you must spend three hours.’  Anyone of us can pause for a few minutes, just long enough to slow your breathing and look into Jesus’ dear face. This is one of the best habits we can cultivate. We will momentarily block out the immediate, and focus on the eternal.

Our world may be groaning and griping all around us, but Jesus is not fazed by it. He knows what comes next. “He knows the plans He has for us – the ones that give us a hope and a future.” What we focus on gets bigger. When we focus on Him, He gets bigger than the problems, especially when we take a moment to renew our trust in Him.

Everything seems to be spinning around so fast sometimes, it is hard to keep up with what is going on. However, when we go and stand with Jesus and look up at Him, the noise, the fear, the challenges and the heartache come into perspective. These things come, and they go … Jesus always stays the same. His loving face toward us will not change.

The Lord Jesus’ love does not change, that’s why we can trust it. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases …” Our ineptitude in spiritual matters will not change His response. His love continually comes toward us. You are taking a moment to be with SomeOne Who truly understands humanity. And as you pause, please remember, despite what is going on around you, He’s the same Jesus Who loved you so much He died for you. Just let that soak in … then go back to your day. 

He is praying for you right now, right where you are. He prays perfect prayers. Pause and remember… ‘His goodness in the land of the living.’ ‘He is with us to give us His abundant life.” Those promises are not only about earthly things, they are about forever things. Like love, joy, peace. We can have peace with God because Jesus came here and made peace for us in His own Body, with His own blood. He will not take it back … “He demonstrated His love while we were still sinners….”

Troubles come and go, but our God’s Word remains the same. Your version of the bible may be a little different than mine, but it is still His Word to you today, right where you are. Pause, remember how much you are loved. He loves us when we first wake up and we haven’t even done anything yet! This love is not the kind of love that keeps score, because Jesus is not interested in Himself, He came here for mankind. We are His joy. The Lord looked through the pain He suffered and saw US. It is His greatest joy to facilitate our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Let go of all those bad, unhappy feelings, because they will cause you to stumble. Just cling to His truth and remember … the God Who made the Universe loves you. As we take a moment to pause in His Presence, we will begin to realise that these afflictions we are going through are momentary. They simply seem endless while we are in the middle of them. Remember, disappointment and despair do not come from our Heavenly Father, God. That’s the other guy. Resist him and bring all those busy thoughts captive, and just take the time to breathe. 

These moments belong to you and the Lord, whether you are on the train, in your car, on a bus. Wherever YOU are HE is there. You and I both know that the Lord has asked us to keep no record of wrongs, because Jesus Himself doesn’t remember our wrongs! In your pausing, remember to let go of any hurtful or bad things — just like you would let go of a balloon and watch it float away. Those things can’t hurt anybody when we let them go! Jesus understands … let that be enough.

We pause, remember, and reset, even if it is just for a few moments on our way to somewhere else. Stand in His Presence and watch the worries, cares, and seismic shifts jostling you, simply melt away. God’s got you, your family, and this world. Like Jesus said to the wind and the waves: “Peace, be still.” So let’s take any opportunity to quiet our hearts in the middle of life’s bustle and strife… and pause in His Presence, remember and reset. Bye. 👋. Thank you Jesus!

“So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23 TPT. 

P 3472 Don’t leave Him out – He wants in!

/ DVH

Lately it seems to me that we have become so busy creating things ourselves and making money, that we have forgotten the simple pleasure of enjoying everything the Lord has made. Ambition is often applauded in today’s world, but I think contentment is far more valuable than that or money. You have to learn how to be content – Paul tells us that. And at the bottom of a lot of sin today is the sad state of … deliberately leaving God out. Even Christians. We relegate the Lord to Sunday, and a ‘quiet’ time, but true contentment comes from knowing Who is in charge here – every moment, every single day. 

It is important to give the Lord His place, and if we don’t, then repentance is the best way back. Sometimes the pride of life overtakes us, and the idea that our best is not ‘good’ enough, can be difficult to swallow. But the truth is, unless we totally lean our lives, unreservedly, unashamedly and wholly on what Jesus Christ did for us — we are wasting all our energy and passion. It becomes incredibly easy to repent when you realise you haven’t just done wrong – you ARE wrong!  As Christians we do our best to avoid visible sins, and that can fool us into thinking we are getting things right – those thoughts start us on a downward spiral into works and pride. Gratitude is the best attitude. And genuine repentance, keeps us under the blood of Jesus.

In this life, we need the Lord … every single second of every single day. I am not intimidated by that thought, it blesses me. God knows the way I should go, I can trust Him. We are so fortunate to know Him. Blessings are not a sign of His approval, they occur simply because He is a generous Father and He loves to give.

The bible says so “ … so that you may [show yourselves to] be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on those who are evil and on those who are good, and makes the rain fall on the righteous [those who are morally upright] and the unrighteous [the unrepentant, those who oppose Him].” Matthew 5:45. 

God is good to everyone! We are His ONLY because of what Jesus did. If you are far from Him, and still breathing, then it is never too late to turn around and go home to your Heavenly Father. Jesus is a Saviour – He saved us from ourselves and our idea of what is right and wrong. It is time for every single one of His children to come home. It doesn’t matter how much dirt you’ve accumulated along the way – Jesus’ blood washes all of us clean.

Repent. Fix whatever you can, but come home. Your Father is waiting at the gate, looking down that road you ran off on. He has prepared a celebratory garment for you to wear and He wants to throw a huge party —- simply because you are irreplaceable to Him. Ask Jesus and the Holy Spirit to help you leave behind the pigpens of this world, and go home. The Lord wants to help you, you just need to ask … and then start taking faith steps.

We don’t have the power within us, without His help, to overcome our passions, proclivities and preferences. Like Adam and Eve we can easily be deceived by satan, and self-deceived into thinking that the Lord approves of what we are doing, or have done. Repentance means turning around and going the other way. That’s hard. It takes a huge effort to shake off the dirt of this world, because it thinks self-promotion and self-importance are the pinnacle of this life. People’s idea of right and wrong changes with political climates and popularity.

The church has made a god in her own image when she moved away from what the bible says, into popular opinion. Human beings have fooled themselves, believing that what we know today, and have experienced, goes far beyond what God planned when He wrote the bible. We think we are bigger than God Himself … until something goes wrong and we can’t fix it!  What we are saying is this: Almighty God is old-fashioned, we are now smarter than He is, and we know more than He does. That is blatantly untrue …when we are dead and gone we will be forgotten — but His Word remains forever.

We’ve all been saved by the Grace Jesus Christ extended to each one of us, when we didn’t even know, or care that He did it! All WE could do, was acknowledge what He had already done. My prayer for all of us is that every single day is filled to overflowing with the knowledge that:  you have never been more loved than you are right here right now.. 

Never ever doubt that you will be joyfully received by God. However the past needs to become the past. We are now living in a time of Grace, and Almighty God has postponed judgment in the hope that all of us who need to do it, will turn around and come back home. Those who have known Him and those who have not, yet. Grace does not smile on our faults, it has covered them with the most expensive substance known to mankind… Jesus Christ’s BLOOD! Please don’t leave the Lord out of your life, He wants to be IN everything. Bye.👋.

“Beware that no one distracts you or intimidates you in their attempt to lead you away from Christ’s fullness by pretending to be full of wisdom when they’re filled with endless arguments of human logic. For they operate with humanistic and clouded judgments based on the mindset of this world system, and not the anointed truths of the Anointed One. For He is the complete fullness of deity living in human form. And our own completeness is now found in Him. We are completely filled with God as Christ’s fullness overflows within us. He is the Head of every kingdom and authority in the universe!” Colossians 2:8-10 TPT.

P 3467 Our Joy needs to break out.

/ DVH

“Celebrate with praises the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has shown us His extravagant mercy. For His fountain of mercy has given us a new life—we are reborn to experience a living, energetic hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We are reborn into a perfect inheritance that can never perish, never be defiled, and never diminish. It is promised and preserved forever in the heavenly realm for you! 

Through our faith, the mighty power of God constantly guards us until our full salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time. May the thought of this cause you to jump for joy, even though lately you’ve had to put up with the grief of many trials. But these only reveal the sterling core of your faith, which is far more valuable than gold that perishes, for even gold is refined by fire. Your authentic faith will result in even more praise, glory, and honour when Jesus the Anointed One is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:3-7 TPT.

Did you see the bit at the beginning that says ‘celebrate?’ when I read that, I do it. Why? Am I pushed along by some sort obligation? NO! It’s an opportunity, not an obligation. I have just been reminded of how wonderful our Heavenly Father is, and how much He has done, and He will do, and is doing, right now in my life … and yours! That’s a really big reason to cheer wouldn’t you think? When I am in public I cheer inside. My “Yaaaaaaay Jesus,” can get a bit loud and I would probably scare other people. People find it hard to feel loved when they are scared. 

Did you get the bit where it says that His mercy is a fountain? That’s not a trickle, or a few squirts here and there, a fountain shoots water high up into the sky, and all over itself. It splashes anybody walking near it. Fountains remind me of freedom. There is nothing like running, leaping, flowing and bubbling water to illustrate that point. At the same time our hope isn’t just laying around, lethargically. No, our hope has energy it, moves  and gathers momentum. It is ALIVE. Well, of course it’s alive! JESUS CHRIST IS ALIVE forevermore and He is our living hope. Hallelujah!

The Holy Spirit says that… “We are reborn into a perfect inheritance that can never perish, never be defiled, and never diminish. It is promised and preserved forever in the heavenly realm for you!” If you ain’t smiling by now you are officially DEAD. Peter is telling us that our God is our constant guardian, so nothing can get into my life, that He and I can’t deal with. I hold fast to that. OK. Are you ready now? We just got to the jumping bit. Gird up your girdle Gertie … the Bride of Christ is going to get happy.

The whole world around us has been waiting for this … “For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God’s sons to be made known [waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship].” Romans 8:19. The people around you are waiting for you to stand up and be His kid! We can sit about feeling sad because we don’t have this or that, or choose to get bogged down in the things that we haven’t done that we ought to have done … etc. Repent and repair stuff! And then we can go back to cheering and jumping, because Jesus took all our sins on Himself, voluntarily.

I like the way the bible acknowledges that trials do happen, that tells us they are normal, and we can be temporarily held by them. But there is a plus, the bible also reminds us that these times reveal how our faith is currently doing in spite of the strains and stresses. Our faith is subject to the difficulties of this world, just like everyone else on the planet — whether they-know-Jesus-or-not!

The idea that we are supposed to never have difficulties, or, if we have them, then somehow God is mad at us … is unscriptural. Jesus said:  “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. Trouble is normal. It’s not the yardstick – but it is normal. The point of trials is to have PEACE in the middle of them … not just avoid them, escape from them, or pretend they don’t exist. It is always helpful to know the point!

These trials expose how our faith is doing, because our faith  is incredibly valuable to Almighty God. When we have faith we are choosing to reveal Him in a faithless world. Even more importantly our faith gives our Heavenly Father, God, the glory He deserves. Our faith guards and progressively reveals our full salvation, which is now, and … also … not yet. Our living faith, the faith that has been revealed by troubles and trials, gives the Lord glory, honour and praise, and we have to celebrate what we have been given. And look at that … we have arrived back where we started. We started with celebration and expanded into eternal glory and honour for the Trinity.

One day we will totally understand what we have been freely given and what a party we will have! Some people think about heaven as a quiet peaceful place, but maybe that is simply because they need a lot of peace and quiet down here… However these verses in Peter indicate that there might be also be a whole lot of jumping and shouting going on as well. The good news is, we won’t get tired of doing it, because every time the Spirit of God turns and moves, there will be a fresh revelation of the Father’s love and grace toward us all. “Divine revelation is dynamic not static.”  

All of this and far more, is ours. I think it’s time for joy to break out in our hearts and lives, simply because … while we were all sinners … He saved us.  We can have joy because He has us and we have Him, forever. Bye.👋. 

P3455 Help! I’ve misplaced my hope!

/ DVH

It was here a minute ago, now where did I put it? … I seem to have lost my hope. Has that ever happened to you? You are walking along, minding your own business, enjoying the day so far, and suddenly your thoughts plummet to the ground and you can’t see anything good, anywhere. Guess what? You didn’t do anything, that’s a big sign the enemy just threw a destructive distraction bomb at you. he doesn’t need a person to do it, he scrolls his ill-informed rubbish across the screen of our minds.

If the devil cannot get us to stop talking about Jesus with other people then his back-up plan seems to be … ‘let’s mess with their minds.’ That’s when you start remembering perfectly, every mean thing someone else has ever done to you. It is like you have a bucket of cold water thrown in your face. The day started out OK, but now you can’t see one good thing about it. We need to be wise when we deal with our enemy — he hates us. If he can’t throw us off our game, then he will put someone else who can be provocative, across our path to irritate us.

Perhaps you have to meet with Sister ‘boy-do-I-get-up-people’s-noses,’ that day. She’s a dear old duck but she drones on forever about her grandkids, and how Jesus healed her from this and that, and she never ever asks how you are doing! You were looking forward to meeting her, a minute ago, because she is a sweet old saint — then grumpy thoughts hit you from behind. If you like reading detective stories, that is a clue as to what is really going on. 

One of the best things I’ve ever learnt is that not every thought in my dear little head belongs to me. satan loves to throw random thoughts into our minds…  he can even make them sound sympathetic. he says junk like: “I thought this was going to be a good day. But I just conveniently remembered the time this Sister was mean about blah blah blah.” satan loves to use personal pronouns. That is, he speaks as if those thoughts are yours. And we are off down the wrong road before we’ve even seen her, and we don’t need that nasty little demon of comparison whispering to us anymore because it seems we can fill in the blanks all by ourselves. We’ve lost our hope and he’s turned our head.

First things first. Resist the devil. Why? Because he will keep on at you, that’s why. If he can’t get you going round in circles about that particular Sister, then he will remind you of someone who looked at you funny, or someone who walked away as you were speaking to them. And rejection, suspicion, and insult just entered the contended area – the contended area is our brain OK?  It’s called the battlefield of the mind.

Our response appears in 2 Corinthians 2:11, we always need to know what God says: “To keep satan from getting the advantage over us; for we are not ignorant of his wiles and intentions.” Don’t be ignorant, nothing happens to us by accident. We are in a war, LOVE MUST BE OUR AIM or we are sunk.

After the enemy goes after our hope of sweet fellowship, then he tries to steal our peace. and we start having imaginary conversations in our head. With us playing both parties involved. “She’ll say this, and I’ll say that, and that will fix them!” That’s not good, because it borders on witchcraft. We can’t know how the other person will respond or react to us. We don’t even know half the time what will come out of our own mouth, until we are in the middle of it! 

Sometimes, when my dear hubby and I have the occasional argument – shock horror! I have found my previous negative experiences with other people can influence my current situation with him. It is like we have these key words and someone shouts “bingo!” He sounds like someone else I knew, that was not loving, patient or kind to me. (Meanwhile, it’s worth noting how many times the word I came up in those thoughts.) So now I am no longer disagreeing with my husband, I am still trying to win that battle I lost years ago.

Secondly, find your sense of humour. Be prepared to see the funny side of all this posturing. I try to remind myself that this is a person I love, and yet I’m currently working very hard to hurt them! Half the time, I lose track of what we are saying to each other in the middle of ‘the discussion’ – which is funny all by itself.

The third one is to apologise. Yes, even if they are wrong! I have quoted this scripture so many times to myself they ought to write it on my tombstone — “a soft answer turns away wrath.” (Proverbs 15:1.) It works! Tell the other person you love them more than you need to make your point. Here’s my translation of that. Be sweet to the other person who is currently shouting back at you, think of something good about them and say it out loud instead! Jesus gave us His hope, and He can help us find it again.

Here’s the last one: “Agree with your adversary quickly …”  (Matthew 5:25.) Nothing shoots an argument down more quickly than when we start saying things like: “You are right. I was wrong, I am so sorry for causing all this angst.” Here is the reason why … we are looking to win our brother, NOT the war. If we win the argument we will lose something – our hope for a different outcome. Hardening our hearts against others is hardening our hearts against Him!

We are not at war with our brother or sister, instead we are both fighting a common enemy. We need to humble ourselves, and take the lower seat. Jesus is well acquainted with humility. He didn’t do what others accused Him of doing. Plus, He said not a word. Man, I gotta get me some of that!! When we misplace our hope, we need to stop and go looking for the Lord. He is our anchor. He will teach us how to overflow with hope, instead of foundering in the depths of despair and angst. Bye for today. 👋.

P3452 Oh Hallelujah!

/ DVH

“Yahweh’s tender mercies have no end, and the kindness of His endless love is never exhausted. New, fresh mercies greet me with every sunrise. So wonderfully great is Your faithfulness! I tell my soul, “Yahweh is my abundant portion. I need nothing more. So, I will put all my hope in Him.”” Lamentations 3:22-24.

Before I met Jesus personally, if I did meet a Christian during my early years, it did not register with me. The church I eventually ended up spending most of my time in, said stuff that scared me to death. Jesus was coming for me and I was going to get what I deserved and it wasn’t ever going to be good, because everything about me was wrong. The saying –  ‘God loves people,’ was always accompanied by a “but!”

So for all of my childhood, and even until I was a young adult with 2 little kids, the huge human dilemma of sin and what to do with it, held me tightly in its grasp. I knew I was wrong, after all people queued up to tell me so! But I couldn’t seem to do anything about who I was – I had no power to change. I wanted to, but I didn’t know how, and any efforts I made, seemed to make things worse.

Then one day, staring at my clothes line — I met Jesus.  Actually, the truth is, He met me. I was found by the One Who makes my soul sing, and He isn’t scary, not even a teeny weeny bit. He is exactly like Lamentations says — gracious, faithful beyond our imaginings, inexhaustible in His love for us, and His mercy just keeps on rolling over us like those endless waves that relentlessly crash upon the sand. His grace and mercy never ever stops. Hallelujah! 

If someone has taught you to follow a version of Jesus Christ Who is angry with you, hates you, and is never ever going to approve of you, then….Throw. It. Out. He hates sin, because He’s holy and we are not. Our sin prevents  Him from being with us… but He truly loves people. So He chose to become our sin, for our sake. Hell was not made for people, it was made for the devil and his cohorts. Our Saviour deliberately stayed upon that cross until the whole work of buying us back was FINISHED. He gave His life to save all of us, by allowing this world’s filth to fall on Him, so we could freely come to God unafraid of what we’d meet.  

Almighty God doesn’t hate people either – He wants us to live inside His never-ending love, starting now. Nurturing anything God Himself calls sin will eventually drag us away from Him. And telling ourselves “He will understand. I can’t help it” is deception. I’ve heard some people say, ‘I was born this way.’ Me too! We were all born sinners. We all need to turn away from the very things that will choke the life of God out of us. The book tells us what He does and doesn’t like. It’s our choice, but it isn’t an informed choice if nobody tells you the truth.

This is how much Almighty God loves people! He sent His Precious Son to save all of us. God became a Man and paid our debt Himself. He silently stood there and took those awful beatings and allowed them to inflict that excruciating crucifixion of His body, for our sake — without one word of self-defence. Jesus literally pushed you and I out of the way as our enemy, eternal death was coming for us, and said to it: Take Me. Beat Me. Kill Me – instead! And He stayed there in that hard place of denying Himself an escape – until it killed Him. 

Hallelujah! He didn’t stay dead. He came out of the grave they put Him in, and proved He is God. He also proved there is life after death. Read the bible. Start with the Gospels and see how He treats ordinary people like you and I. Especially when we’ve messed up our lives and can’t find a way out. And run far, far away from the people who use Christ and His Words as a stick to beat you up. Jesus Christ proved that real LOVE, the God-kind of LOVE, delivered  people from their sin by being punished for us. He will help us ALL to change, if we let Him.

When I met Jesus, I learnt what faithfulness really means. There is no ‘but,’ or ‘if,’ or any other kind of ‘opt out clauses’ in Who Jesus is. There is no uncertainty about Him being called faithful. “The true meaning of faithful is being steadfast, loyal and completely true to a person, promise or standard.” The Jesus other people told me about before I met Him, was not like that. Now I know that religion, even when it is well-meaning, seeks to control people …TO PREVENT SIN. The truth, the way Jesus Christ taught it, sets us free … we don’t have to sin anymore. God provided us with a way out … and it’s free … 

… but it will cost us everything we think we can’t live without, here and now. Father God gave us everything He had that was precious and incredibly dear to His heart. And now, He asks us to choose to step away from the things we think we can’t live without, and start living our lives the way He taught us to live them, in His book. Sin is like a spider’s web, once you are trapped in it, it is incredibly difficult to get out – but Jesus knows the way out. One of our enemy’s most dastardly ploys is to convince us that we can’t help doing what we do, we were born this way. That is a twisted version of the truth. 

Jesus knows how hard it is to be human and He is compassion personified. I still can’t overcome sin on my own. I need His help daily, minute by minute. The Lord Jesus came here to help us. Can anyone say “Amen and Hallelujah” to that? Me too. Bye for now. 👋.

“For the perfect Light of Truth was coming into the world and shine upon everyone. He entered into the world He created, yet the world was unaware. He came to the people He created — to those who should have received Him, but they did not recognize Him. But those who embraced Him and took hold of His name He gave authority to become the children of God!” John 1:9-12. 

P3446 Let’s talk about Psalm 23.

/ DVH

“Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need! He lets me rest in the meadow grass and leads me beside the quiet streams. He gives me new strength. He helps me do what honours Him the most. Even when walking through the dark valley of death I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me, guarding, guiding all the way. You provide delicious food for me in the presence of my enemies. You have welcomed me as Your guest; blessings overflow! Your goodness and unfailing kindness shall be with me all of my life, and afterwards I will live with You forever in Your home.”

This Psalm was written by David, who was a shepherd – so he knew what he was talking about! I sometimes wonder how a plumber or a taxi driver would write it? Moo-ving on … I enjoy watching a Scottish shepherd and his dogs at work on Youtube. The thing that hits me every single time I watch it, is that those dogs never take their eyes off their Master, and he never takes his eyes off the sheep, or the dogs.

David knew all about sheep, that was his job. His part in his large family was pretty minor compared to his big deal brothers who were allowed to join the army and help their Dad run the family property. The blessing of doing unnoticed things well, is a huge asset. It helps form character in us, when we are prepared to leave acknowledgement from others, behind us. It teaches me regularly how needy I am regarding praise!

David did what he did well. He knew how to care for his sheep, protecting them from harm, and when they needed a rest, he took them to a green, well-watered safe place. Jesus makes sure we are rested and ready for hard parts of our journey. Some tasks may look very small and insignificant but they teach us to rest. The Lord knows what comes next, and He will provide us with a safe place, right near Him. Jesus Himself taught us about faithfulness – it matters! “He who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little thing is also dishonest in much.” Luke 16:10.

Psalm 23 tells us we can learn about fear, whether real or imagined, WHILE we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death! Our Heavenly Father often ‘trains our hands for war and our fingers to fight,’ in difficult, dark places, where we want to curl up into a ball and hope we die. Why would He do that? Theory in the Body of Christ doesn’t benefit anyone … but using our faith changes our view of things. The bigger the resistance, the stronger the muscles. Faith is a spiritual muscle – it needs to be resilient, because bad things happen unexpectedly.

We can theorise all we want, but the truth is – when the stuff is going down, and all hell breaks loose, that is THE very best time to practice what we believe. When we feel paralysed by our circumstances, then we can choose to lean on Him. HE becomes our  hope – not our changed circumstances. Our God is training warriors, not Tinkerbell! Later on, David himself became a mighty warrior, but when he was a youth caring for sheep, he had already learnt to fight with God on his side. That’s why he ran at Goliath.

The Holy Spirit, daily walks with us, guiding us, teaching us … He does not leave us. Instead He says: ‘put your foot here, put your hand there … stand on this scripture … do that other thing now.’ Our Shepherd doesn’t only lead us, the goodness of God in Jesus and His Word, glows right in front of us, lighting up the way ahead of us. Today’s Word, from the bible is our light for this day. “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105.

The Lord releases His word to show us HIS pathway through our trials. When this happens, He is not punishing us, nor has He forgotten us. He took our punishment, once and for all. We can’t ever be forgotten because He carved us on the palms of His hands! This Psalm also tells us that the Lord prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies.

So let’s look at 1 Corinthians 11:24,25 it says: “… and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”” This is the Lord’s table! His broken body and His blood willingly poured out for our sake, made a way for us to survive everything that comes at us. In Jesus’ mind what we need is already done, and we have been given His mind. 1 Corinthians 2:16.

Christ’s death and resurrection on our behalf made a way for us to be certain that no matter how things look – God will not fail us. And then the Holy Spirit assures us that God’s goodness and mercy runs after us. He follows up our times of difficulties, to the point where we are so blessed we run out of words to thank Him! We won’t always feel it, instead we choose to believe what Jesus said, and live our lives depending on it. We are His people, and He knows when we need to lie down. Plus He knows the way through anything that comes against us to make us afraid and He will lead us through it.

Psalm 23 is an example of the Lord’s purposes in our lives, it is not just for funerals. It teaches us that He leads, guides, and travels with us every step of the way, every single day. He feeds us with Himself, and blesses us. His all-consuming desire is to walk with us, forever. Bye 👋.

P 3439 “To be or not to be…”

/ DVH

“[It is that purpose and grace] which He now has made known and has fully disclosed and made real [to us] through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, Who annulled death and made it of no effect and brought life and immortality (immunity from eternal death) to light through the Gospel.” 2 Timothy 1:10.

When you get older, death pops up in your thinking wa-ay more than you’d like it to! Seriously. Hey, I read the bible lots of times, I know what comes next … Yet sometimes I am like Elsa in Frozen 2 – digging in my heels because what I see and know here, can be realer than what I know about that other place! When I see Elsa struggling against her destiny, I think that her struggle resembles the calling of the Holy Spirit, in the song  … ”Into the unknown...” Moo-ving on …

Paul tells us in this verse from 2 Timothy, that Jesus has annulled death. Here’s the meaning of the word annulled, I put it in because it offers great insight, plus, I am a big fan of the dictionary. Here’s the meaning of — “Annulled” …it is the past tense and past participle of the verb annul which means to officially declare something legally void, invalid, or as though it never existed.”

Did you get that? Death doesn’t exist anymore, it is officially invalid. Jesus wiped it out forever with what He did for mankind at Calvary. He told the man dying beside Him on the cross that he would be with the Lord in PARADISE that day. Human beings were created to be eternal, as well as being created in His image, that’s in Genesis. You or I might have some weird family trait that means we can roll your tongue over so it is upside down … I can by the way, its my one claim to fame 🤪 …

But that weird trait that found its way genetically through all the previous generations, to me – was a gift from my forebears. Money would have been better, thank you! However, despite our personal inherited genetics, we are made in His image. The point is – we need to practice looking for Jesus in each other – instead of looking for faults.

Here is a quick recap … spiritually speaking …we both look like the Lord, and we can’t die, forever. About now, you may be wondering if I have lost my mind? Probably. But both things are true, and… they are in the book. The bible is our plumb line when it comes to spiritual things. FYI, a plumb line is used for making buildings straight, vertically. They’ve found those doohickeys in Egyptian tombs in 1250 BC. And they still work today. The guys who built the pyramids weren’t stupid, they simply were no match for God’s incredible wisdom. Remember … their chariot wheels fell off and got bogged??? Revenge is never a good plan.

Yet even the Egyptians who chased the Israelites are not dead! They are just not here anymore … unless some museum preserved their dusty bones. However, the inner person is not gone. Your great great great Grandpa is not dead, he is either asleep until the judgment, or with Jesus already. Which is why Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:13: “Now we do not want you to be uninformed, believers, about those who are asleep [in death], so that you will not grieve [for them] as the others do who have no hope [beyond this present life].” 

We can’t NOT ‘be.’  We are forever people, and I ain’t talking about the undead! Jesus didn’t just remove death, He introduced into this life, a brand new eternal way to live – right here, right now. That new indestructible life in Him burst out into this world when Jesus left that grave behind Him. 

When we pray “thy kingdom come” we are not just speaking about the truth of a new rule and reign in heaven one day. We are also talking about US – TODAY. We bring His new Kingdom with us wherever we go. Look in the mirror. The kingdom of God is within you. Are you planning on letting that kingdom OUT any time soon? We all know what it looks like, the book tells us – it is empowered by LOVE. 

Eons ago, when I taught Sunday School about this subject I made sure I wore a cardigan. I said this to the kids: “I am alive here and now, right? Pretend this cardigan is part of my body … whoops! There it goes” – then I let the cardigan fall to the floor behind me. “When I die, I will leave my earthly body behind, it will die, but the real me is still alive. My body/cardigan will get old and start to fall apart, but the inside me lives forever.” We can start living forever, now … it is our choice where we spend it afterwards.

When Jesus took the keys of death and hell away from satan, He said this: “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” Revelation 1:18. Jesus Christ NOW has those keys. He bought them with His own blood – to let us OUT, not keep us IN. We have a choice, TO BE all we can be! Bye. 👋