Hope

P 2219 Hope is a wonderful thing!

/ DVH

To continue with what I wrote yesterday, I wanted to mention the importance of hope today. “There once was a shepherd with a hundred lambs, but one of his lambs wandered away and was lost. So the shepherd left the ninety-nine lambs out in the open field and searched in the wilderness for that one lost lamb. He didn’t stop until he finally found it. With exuberant joy, he raised it up, placed it on his shoulders, and carried it back with cheerful delight!” Luke 15:4-5. TPT.

In my immediate family, we have “lost sheep” – people who no longer follow Christ. Some ran away grumpy, on purpose. They got cheesed off because the Christian life did not turn out the way they thought it should.  And some just kind of meandered off not looking where they were going. Sheep are dumb – they don’t know what is good for them, they can be so busy eating and meeting their own needs, that they forget about the Shepherd and how much He loves them … until they get into trouble.

As you already know, I rarely include someone else’s thoughts in my blog, but I read this prophetic exhortation, and I thought it was worth including today. Many of us have one or more individuals in our families that have gone away from their faith in Christ. This excerpt was such an encouragement to me, I hope it encourages you too. 

I Hear His Whisper … THE PRODIGALS WILL RETURN. “I am calling home the sons and daughters who have forgotten Me. You will see a waterfall of love and mercy bring My children from afar. I have walled them in. They haven’t roamed as far as you expected. They are never outside of the boundaries of My love, and I have never left their sides. I know how to woo the hearts I created. They cannot find what they need outside of Me. In My mercy, they will be restored with fresh passion to seek Me and to know Me.

Dry your eyes, and with a hope-filled heart, look with eyes of faith. The lost ones are coming home. Your delight must be in finding them and loving them back into wholeness and dignity. You will remove loneliness from their hearts. You will see them restored. Even within your family, there will be healing and grace as I recapture hearts and ignite their longings for Me. Love well. Forgive completely. You will see the restoration you’ve prayed for. My will shall be done in their lives.” by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez.

I loved this prophetic word, because it is all about what God is going to do for us, but it includes an exhortation for US to prepare our hurt, disappointed hearts, to receive the ones who broke our hearts back again. Those who have been lost to us have been lost for many reasons. Right now is the time to deal with our side of everything that happened. “Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.”(Ephesians 4:31) 

It has taken me a long time to absorb the fact that I can add to my own struggle with others, by what I say.  If I choose to continually rehearse someone else’s sin over and over again, it may seem like a form of self-protection. Plus it seems like you are reminding yourself of what happened so you don’t fall for the same guff again! But the reality is, my self-talk can also cement someone else back into a place that no longer exists for them. That attitude, that action, only exists in my own memory. Personally, I am not who I was even last week – or last month – or last year! God is changing me, daily and boy do I need it! Let’s not colour in tomorrow’s miracles with yesterday’s half-dead felt-tipped markers. He’s doing something new. Hold on, it’s coming…

The Lord is going to do what He has planned to do so quickly, that we will be astonished. So we need to prepare take the time to search our own hearts and minds now, with His help. Let’s start thanking Him for what comes next, and remember – you and I could have easily been the sheep that wandered off. None of us are exempt from the seduction of the spirit of stupid, in this funny old world of ours. Cultivating hope is a wonderful thing. 👋🏻

P 2202 The safest place in the world…

/ DVH

…is NOT under the bed or an island all by yourself! So please don’t give up on yourself, or other people … too soon. We all have learning curves. However, there is good news. “In Christ Jesus” is the only incredible place of safety and shelter for those who are learning to live in love! “Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up.” 1 Corinthians 13:7 TPT.

But to get to that safe place we will have to give up many things we have become attached to.: like doing what we want when we want, or the power of arbitrarily telling other people what to do. Or always being right and never admitting you are wrong. Or making my world a safe place for me so I don’t have to care about what that does to you! Safety is a strange issue, but the real point is without Jesus a safe world doesn’t actually exist. He is our only safe place, and living in safety in this world is left behind, because the people who live for Him:  “… love(d) not their lives unto death …”  Revelation 12:11

The only way in is the only way out and it’s YOU.

“Came a time in my life I had to be free

From all of the lies that used to be me

And the only way out is the only way in and it’s YOU.

I’ve been waisting my time but not anymore

I’ve been through the maze and it led to Your door

And the only way out is the only way in and it’s YOU.

I spent a lot of time at the crossroads

Getting that lonely feeling inside

Suddenly You stopped the rain, You changed the view

Now every way’s leading to You

Let’s get this thing going, let’s move it along

Let me do all the things I’ve been missing so long

’cause the only way out is the only way in and it’s YOU.”

Ray Martinez.

Jesus is our only hope – He’s the only way out of the trials, sin and suffering of this world, and He is the only way into a new life. We can’t afford to waste our time anymore. It says that verse in Revelation like this, in the Message bible: “They defeated him  (satan) through the blood of the Lamb and the bold word of their witness. They weren’t in love with themselves; they were willing to die for Christ.” I think that we have fallen far far away from that place of being prepared to die for Him. Unless we live somewhere where they love to kill and torture Christians. The people who live under life or death threats have to make incredibly hard choices – every single day. However where I live, we get to choose to die to self – daily, minute by minute.

But nothing in this world we are living in today, is actually truly safe. Talk to the people in countries where war has broken out. One day they were at the supermarket shopping, and now the supermarket is gone and so is their house! Now, it no longer matters if the man of the house keeps putting the tomato sauce bottle, or his dirty socks in the wrong place – there isn’t anywhere to put anything, anymore! 😢 Sigh. When did we become such petty people? This life has serious issues – and safety is an illusion. 

Sadly I feel, humanly speaking, we often make it through the trials in this life, breathing a sigh of relief that whatever was happening to us is now over. And then we go on to waiting and willing our lives to be easy again. I know I do! I hate being stretched. There is a saying from a movie: The Princess Bride – “Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”  Amen! Preach it brother. Expecting this life to be easy is a childish view of this world. “The rain falls on the just and the unjust.” Everybody has hard times. 

I have been prayerfully reading Psalm 73 for days, and it is the best example of self-centred humanity… like ever! The Psalmist has his crank on because bad people are winning everywhere. When I read it I realised that he is grumpy because other people can do what they like, it seems – and get away with it. He’s mad because these people do not have to face the consequences of their actions. Eventually, he realises that even wicked people die in the end, and they face eternity unprepared. It is one thing to trick a human judge and jury, and plead innocent, and totally another to plead innocence in the face of true purity and truth.

The biggest problems we face today, are the seemingly insignificant everyday decisions we make about the way we act and react toward others. The decision to tell somebody where to go and how to get there, drags us away from our main focus. These are the days of deliverance from evil. Giving yourself permission to have a bad day can be deadly. The only safe place is living in Christ, living a life of laid-down love, for His sake … and dying to self.👋🏻

P 2196 The danger of judgment.

/ DVH

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:1-5.

Other people’s flaws are not anyone else’s playground for entertainment. However, in today’s current society, other people’s actions are spread around like peanut butter and jelly! You can’t watch the news without being informed of this or that person’s dreadful behaviour – their condemnation is often the headline! I have noticed that when things are retracted, because they were wrong – the retraction is always teeny tiny and glossed over. 

Lately I’ve noticed that judging our pastors and leaders has also become almost a national sport. Plus we criticise other denominations like somehow our truth is better than, or more right than – what they believe. I noticed recently that one very prominent church has hit the headlines again – and my first thought was: “Oh you poor things. Dear Jesus bring your truth into this mess. Amen.” I have to be honest, my next thought was: “I am so glad I’m not anyone noteworthy, sadly I have plenty of things I’ve done and I would hate to have those things paraded around in front of the world!” 

These things are hardly ever put into context. Jesus did not condemn the woman caught in adultery – He gave her protection from her accusers and a new way to live. We must never forget that the power of life and death is in the tongue. Christians have the power to speak life and hope into despair and devastation.We don’t need deliverance – we just need to stop doing it! Let’s treat any knowledge we have as a point of prayer. I think people judge others because they feel powerless. However, …“To whom much is given, much is required.”  I love an old OLD song by Stormie Omartian – “I’m believing for the best in you …” 

What I hear the Lord saying in Matthew 7, is that if we can see it, then we can definitely pray for it. And maybe we even have IT ourselves. Before you prepare a rope to lynch me for saying that, I just want to mention that sawdust comes from wooden planks! Our eyes can get gritty because we have done the same thing, though perhaps not on such a grand scale. Or … maybe nobody found out? Therefore we can recognise the other person’s plank because we know what it feels like personally. Again, another good reason to pray! That knowledge should promote kindness, forgiveness and empathy – not judgment. What’s wrong with them is also wrong with us.

The fact that the Lord says we will be judged the way we judge others, ought to scare the living daylights out of us! Yet we nod our heads and agree with the bible, and then toddle off to dismember this person or that relative – usually behind their backs. It is as if we lack the spiritual ability to see other people the way the Lord does. Yet we ARE the light of this world. We don’t lack light – sight should never be a problem for us! Jesus is saying don’t use the light we have to hurt people –use it to help others. Nothing will separate us faster from the precious Holy Spirit than judgment. “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” Proverbs 16:24.

Personally, I want and need mercy, loads of it, every single day. Judgment is the most dangerous thing a Christian can participate in … Always remember, human beings judged Christ – anybody can be wrong. 👋🏻

P 2195 No time for a Nanna-nap!

/ DVH

“But you, beloved brothers and sisters, are not living in the dark, allowing that day to creep up on you like a thief coming to steal.For you are all children of the light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night nor to darkness. This is why we must not fall asleep, as the rest do, but keep wide awake and clearheaded.But since we belong to the day, we must stay alert and clearheaded by placing the breastplate of faith and love over our hearts, and a helmet of the hope of salvation over our thoughts. He gave His life for us so that we may share in resurrection life in union with Him—whether we’re awake or asleep.” 1 Thessalonians 5:4-6, 8, 10 TPT.

The bible says His word is ‘a lamp to our feet and a light unto our path.’ And the Message bible says this: “By your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path.” Christians do not lack light – we actually can’t! Jesus is the light of this world and we are in Christ – it’s not EVER dark where He is. You will always have plenty of light when you hang around with Jesus.

Sadly, sometimes what we do lack is the will to go and sit in the light and learn from Him! We need the Holy Spirit’s help to stay awake and alert in these overwhelming times. Ignoring why we are here is sleeping. Unfortunately human beings are not inherently good, despite popular opinion  – they are often uncaring, self-centred, independent creatures who want what they want when they want it. And if you don’t believe me read a newspaper or look at social media. Those things will quickly convince you that without Christ we are all helpless and at the mercy of our own appetites!

But because we live in the light – living there means His light will convince us that darkness cannot oppose us. Turn a light switch on when it is pitch black – darkness doesn’t leave grumbling and complaining – it is simply gone. Part of the way we shine His light out there into the darkness is to actively engage in learning His ways from the Holy Spirit. How to love others – our family, the people at work or school, our neighbours, so it is incredibly important that we see other people through His eyes. We get our Father’s eyes through living in obedience. His eyes are full of compassion. Otherwise our eyes are full of our own needs and our problems. Living in the light means we are learning to unconditionally accept the person in front of us. We can’t ever do that without the Lord’s help.

As we go about in this world, it is easy to see that many people have become so used to the darkness – that the light in us, and coming from us, hurts their eyes or they are afraid of it so they hide from it. But there are others who are drawn toward the light because it resonates deep within them. In today’s careless self-centred world, we cannot afford to be asleep on the job because who we are is always on display. People watch us  simply because we are standing in His light. 

Alert people keep their faith going even when it is opposed on all sides. If they have to hang on by their fingernails, they hang on! They tell themselves, “God has got this. These circumstances did not surprise Him. He has a plan, His plans are for my good and my future. I cannot afford to see my circumstances through the white noise this world produces, even though it is all around me – I must look at this life through the Lord’s eyes not my own.” These people stop holding onto what they think they must have or need, and let everything go – other people’s sin, the absence of real love everywhere etc. simply because walking with Him is more important than anything else.

Our personal faith is far more incredibly valuable than we realise, and we access and use our faith when we choose to love others, no matter what is going on in us and around us. Faith is a belief that our God can and will only do all of us good whether we know it or not – because He is good. We need the kind of strong faith that protects our hearts. The kind of faith that covers our heart with the belief that He loves and cares for every single person individually – no matter how things look, or how we feel.

Our faith hides in, and depends upon His goodness. It hides us from the deadly attacks of the enemy. It creates an atmosphere that is alert and notices whatever the Lord is doing. Our faith looks for good even within the bad. Our faith believes in Him, His Character, His never-ending kindness, goodness and love. And it shields our hearts by reminding us of everything He said in the bible. Our faith is not in circumstances or people, it understands other people fall victim to their own lack of faith in His reliability.

Lastly, His hope comes directly from our belief system –  it understands that HOPE is a Person. Christ. Our hope relies upon what He did. We cannot afford to gain hope from works, or even experiences – our hope is in Him. Sleeping in the light is wasting the time God gave us all. Just because things have become darker outside, that does not mean we can afford Nanna naps! The light shines brighter in the darkness. 👋🏻

P 2188 Living by faith, hope and love.

/ DVH

1 Thessalonians 1:3: “We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” In many of our minds those things mentioned in this verse in 1 Thessalonians, are merely concepts. However they don’t easily translate into real life. These concepts need to be part of how we live otherwise we will nod our heads in agreement and then forget all about living from this new place.

This verse is an extremely valuable diagnostic tool, when we are doing whatever it is, without stretching and engaging our faith. If it doesn’t stretch us then it isn’t FAITH! Sometimes we do stuff out of obligation or pressure, or to give a good impression. Repent. Even making dinner, going to work, or making a cup of tea can be faith. We do whatever we do, for the Lord Jesus. If we aren’t living that way, then we need to go back and ask for His help and have another go! BTW, this verse is not some sort of escape clause or an excuse – we can’t just go to the pastor and tell him that the Lord didn’t tell us to do whatever it is – so we ain’t doing it!  We are now subject to His instructions, in the bible.

We need to be inspired by the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is gentle, lowly in heart, He is obedient and kind. He has a heart of service toward mankind. As we walk with Him that will be the way we think too. He inspires us into these greater works because He loves us all. Any reservations we have about these things provides personal insight into whatever is motivating us. They diagnose our inner human resistance. 

Faith has works, James made that clear.  But those works aren’t simply done to produce or facilitate some sort of end result. Rather, we use our faith to serve Him and others, and that faith is meant to promote His kingdom mentality in us. We use our faith to obey the bible, and Holy Spirit’s inspired leading. When we do things because we’ve been asked to do them by the Lord, the faith we use to carry out the task produces MORE faith. The difficulty is, most of the time, we can actually do whatever it is and not use any faith at all, and that kind of response is more out of convenience, appearances, or duty, or habit. But our faith will produce works that have been prompted by obedience to the word, or the Holy Spirit. 

Perhaps our pastor asks us to go and see and help Sister Mary who is ill. So we carry out this seemingly ordinary task using our faith that the pastor is the leader, and we are serving him, as well as serving our sister, by doing whatever it is. We do what we do as though we were doing it for the Lord Jesus. This is what using our faith to obey, prompted by love for the Lord and others, looks like.

What if we can’t stand Sister Mary and we don’t want to do what the pastor asked us to do? Now we have an opportunity to grow. That’s when we need to go to the Lord and tell Him that we have a wrong attitude, could He please help us? I can’t tell you the result of that scenario, because I don’t know – I just know if my aim is to grow my faith using love – I will have to choose to be transformed in this area. It is no sin to acknowledge that we lack the right motivation, we are all spiritually poor without Christ. We need His riches. It is not a sin to be poor, we just need to admit that we need help. Maybe the pastor can pray for us? 

In my personal experience if I refuse to do something or make excuses, I am probably going to bump into Sister Mary every single time I turn around. Why? God is giving me an opportunity to change my POV. However, please don’t tell Sister Mary you don’t like her … she’s got enough going on already! Go to the Lord and talk to Him about how you feel. Let Him minister His love to you … we can only give away what we have. Now go and do whatever it is anyway and put your feelings aside. This is what living by faith looks like. Avoidance simply postpones the lesson, and trust me, next time it will be harder – because we just hardened our heart!

In order to use our faith we need to line up with the bible – not our feelings. Feelings deceive us – they can be affected by the weather, pizza, or our own personal preferences. They tell us we can’t, when we clearly can, but we just don’t want to! Feelings come and go – the word of our God stands forever. We need to choose to participate in the eternal. Christians do whatever they do, using their faith and hope in His love and power to motivate us through the difficult bits. The Holy Spirit will always help us to persevere despite any personal difficulties. 👋🏻

P 2184 If not now, then when?

/ DVH

The bible says that His hope does not disappoint. So if we are disappointed, then whatever it was that we thought we had, was not His hope! That sentence sent me off on a quest to find out what God thinks hope is. It will probably turn up on one of these pages soon… or maybe you should write it instead? 😊 Our God will not just hand things to us, because that would be no fun. He wants us to press in to get to know Him better. Ask questions, seek answers.

If you want more revelation then personally get to know the Revealer of His Word – the Holy Spirit. The more we press in, the more we start to understand His Ways. Actually I’ve learnt some things simple by observation. For instance, He never does the same thing twice, so I’ve learnt to expect the unexpected! At the same time, many people do not understand the co-operative nature of God. He says, over and over in His book … ‘if you will do this, then I will do that.’ (EG: Psalm 37:4, Matthew 10:32-33, James 1:5)  Meanwhile, if He just handed things to us all the time, then we’d see Him as a benevolent Santa Clause – not as Almighty God, the Ruler of heaven and earth!  

We need to learn to respect and honour Who He is, and that journey to know Him will result in awe … if we don’t faint and give up! He loves to give His people puzzles. Think Gideon – who defeated the Midianites with pots and trumpets. Moses … a burning bush? Abraham .. billions of kids? Jonah … whale mail? Ruth …the greatx10 grandmother of Jesus? It is up to each of us to puzzle these things out personally with the Holy Spirit’s help – it’s the interaction with us He wants. Think of Him as the best friend you always wanted, because He is!

Don’t just leave receiving revelations to your pastor … get your own. Ask questions and wait for the answers. The Holy Spirit wants to help us to find new ways to understand and appreciate our God, but we cannot expect His holiness and glory to be just laying around on the ground like dead leaves!  He will help us – but we need to press in to find His answers. Don’t give up, keep going, and then cherish what you learnt about His nature.

Personally, I think the Lord loves to play hide and seek. The bible says our God: “… rewards those who diligently SEEK Him.” What I am talking about is about fostering our hope that God will meet with us IRL anywhere, everywhere, all the time. However! If we only meet with Him to present our prayer lists so He can answer our fervent prayers – no matter how important we think they are – we’ve missed it! To start with, if He doesn’t answer our prayers right away, we can easily pick up disappointment and frustration. Then our prayers start to be crying and pleading, instead of the confident expectation that He will always do us good – no matter what His answer is. We don’t love people because of what they DO for us, we love people because of who they are!

Our confidence in Him grows as we let Him lead us. Our God is not a cafeteria where we get to pick and choose what we want to know and get from Him. He wants to MEET with us. That can take time, but it primarily takes attitude. Like Jacob said: “I will not let you go until you bless me!” Learn to insist – set aside time to seek Him. Our God loves passionate people. David danced about in his undies in public, because he was so excited the ark was finally going to be in Jerusalem. This man could have permanently stopped his quest when Uzzah died – that event would have put most people off! But David went away and got on his face, and found another way to achieve the goal. That’s in 2 Samuel 6:1-7 and 1 Chronicles 13:9-12. 

These people in the bible are there ‘for an example.’ They are illustrations of how God interacted with mankind before and after Christ. When you read these things looking for Him, you will get plenty of revelations – trust me! We will never become the strong warriors He wants, if we are wishy washy and quit at the first hurdle. The bible tells us ..” …to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.” What does that mean? It means the battle is won by standing on His side and doing what He says, and not moving ’til it’s done. It’s called STEADFASTNESS. Perhaps we have heard too many airy-fairy sermons, which sounded great and inspirational, but the reality was that they didn’t inspire us into changing our ways … they just tickled our ears. 

We need to see change as a life-style, not an optional extra that only serious Christians have. Otherwise we are making our God too small, and we are leaving all the work to a few people. No wonder our pastors are worn out – they have to do everything! Every single Christian needs to rise up and make a difference where they live. Because the bible is the Holy Word of God, not just a book of suggestions that probably won’t work for me. If not now, then when? 👋🏻 “Let this hope burst forth within you, releasing a continual joy. Don’t give up in a time of trouble, but commune with God at all times.” Romans 12:12 TPT 🙌

P 2182 On the matter of active faith.

/ DVH

Over the years I’ve learnt that if I want to love others the way Jesus loved them – then I’m going to need a whole lot more faith than I currently have! 😶 “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God…” Romans 10:17. If I don’t actually live my life listening to, and acting on what He says – it is no wonder when my faith is wobbly and weak. Our faith is extremely valuable to the Lord, everything Jesus talked about required us to use our faith. Galatians 5:6b “… all that matters now is living in the faith that works and expresses itself through love.”

It seems to me that we need to stop thinking that – talking about faith, writing about faith, and singing about faith is the same as living by faith. We must start living out our faith every day, so we can do those great exploits Jesus talked about. I agree with James: “faith without works is dead.” If we say we have faith and we have nothing more to show for it than the fact that we read the bible today, and we prayed, or we fasted, plus we went to church last Sunday – our faith is mostly inactive. Yeah I know, that’s not a great thought eh?

For years I thought doing the above stuff every day was enough. I literally had two lives. One was for Jesus – and I did my duty to Him as best I could, but I felt guilty if I forgot … Then I did what I wanted to and hoped He would bless it. In effect I expected God to join in with my life –  I had no clue that I was supposed to join in WITH HIS! Of course I prayed every day and told the Lord I was happy to do what He wanted me to do … but when I had no leading to do much of anything – I had to remain satisfied with doing whatever came up. 

After all, I had kids and a home that kept me busy. Friendships to maintain, family to care for. You know things like reading the bible, praying etc. are great, but truly using our faith is an active thing – not just a good habit! It is supposed to change our daily lives. This new life we lead is meant to touch other people, as well as reveal our hearts to us. And we will need to use our faith to do both. So we will have to face our fears. Using my faith is the very best way I know to find out what I’m afraid of and I learn about who I really am – inside. And it all comes from doing that thing I don’t really want to do! 

Of course we need faith to even read the bible, but we can come away from that reading as empty as we went into it! Jesus said: “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” To get that kind of feed-your-spirit-bread/word every single morning takes faith … as well as commitment. But ‘hearing without doing’ means a few minutes later we can forget what we just read! Reading the bible is an active thing – we read looking to change our behaviour with His help and use our faith to do things differently.

Look at these two verses as an example: “wives respect, revere, honour your husbands …” or … “husbands, live with your wife the way you know is right. Respect her because she is a woman…In this way, you will not stop God from doing what you ask Him to do. “ 1 Peter 3:7. Unless each married person applies this scripture personally, spouses can end up fighting. BTW did you see that fighting with your spouse hinders your prayers??

There are times when I do not agree with my hubby and he does not agree with me – but I listen to the Holy Spirit, and do whatever I can to end the disagreement. “Whatever you do work at it with all your heart as though you are doing it for the Lord.” Colossians 3:23. I surrender for Jesus’ sake and I let the Lord fight for me. The bible is meant to be the substance of who we are, not just knowledge we agree with. This means I sincerely make up with my husband because I love Jesus – not because I particularly like the process of humbling myself. Especially if I happen to know hubby is wrong. 😂 I definitely will die daily because I won’t want to do it! And it gives me the pip that hubby is often the first one to apologise!!

Our God reveals His word fresh every single day to release His hope into our hearts, even if we already know what it says. His mercy is new every morning because HE is faithful. Me? Not so much!  If we don’t eat food regularly, we will fall down. If we don’t EAT in the spirit we will have no power. No power or faith to fight the enemy when he sends a neighbour to complain at us, or the school rings and says little Johnnie is failing at maths. We need His power daily to overcome the ordinary irritating things that niggle at our lives. This life in Him, is not a little dab will do ya thing. It is a way of life. 

There is a list of people in Hebrews 11 who used their faith: Verse 13 “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.” Did you get that? They didn’t ever SEE the answers to the things they prayed for in this life? Those things that God promised them! Now that’s what faith really looks like.

This the way Christ lived. He died knowing that only the Holy Spirit could bring Him out of that grave. Jesus had to leave this life so the promised Holy Spirit would come to all of us. That would have been so hard for the Lord. Faith shapes us into His likeness. Without it ‘we cannot please God.’ (Hebrews 11) “We must wear faith and love as a breastplate, and our hope of salvation as a helmet.” 1 Thessalonians 5:8b. Because faith protects our hearts. 👋🏻

P 2180 Time for some reality.

/ DVH

Good morning. It is 4.00am at my house and the one great thing about this time, is that it is incredibly quiet. Unfortunately I am awake at this hour because of my concern for my family. Worry and despair jumped all over me at 3.00am and I’ve spent the last hour working on practicing what I preach!  Plus I also prayed for you guys. I don’t know your name and you don’t know mine, but I know that things in your part of the world aren’t always great. Some of you are facing incredibly hard times and my prayer for you today is that ‘the Lord would be with you in trouble … because you know His Name.’ Psalm 91:14-15

One of the things I am still learning about the Lord is that He is much too kind to leave us in the kind of misery that can grab us by the throat and cause us untold pain. However, at this dumb hour, I can also tell you that it gets much harder to roll your cares off onto Him! 🙄 I had to insist, then insist some more! So I climbed out of bed, trying not to disturb my lovely hubby – who has just had nasty surgery on his hand, and he needs his sleep – and I came upstairs to talk to you about the things in our lives that don’t seem to prayerfully resolve themselves easily. And some of those things include other people’s choices.

There are countless books that tell us how to pray, where to pray, how to cope, or how to overcome, but the truth is – when you look at everything carefully – WE will have to use our own faith. No-one else can roll my cares off my heart except ME. And I will probably have to kill off my flesh, yet again, to do it. This means that some days I can try to sit in the dirt and pout, and complain, and hope that Almighty God will be impressed by my sadness enough to change my circumstances!

And praise Him and His generosity, He does – many times. But the Lord doesn’t always help me by instantly changing things – most of the time He helps me by changing my attitude! 😶 Which means that somewhere in my thinking I will have to stop feeling entitled to a better, happier life and thank Him for the life I already have! However, I always need to start with the fact that He died for me, otherwise I can get stuck in the whole entitlement thing.

Years ago, my generation was taught that the answers to prayer relied upon US. If we had enough faith, and a right attitude, bingo bongo all would be well. But prayer is by nature, the acknowledgement that I cannot fix something. Instead I am reaching out to SomeOne bigger, wiser and more loving than I am. Which means I will have to take a risk – and a step of faith … and trust that this incredible Person hopefully wants the same answer I do! I’ve been a Christian for a long time. So I have learnt that Jesus doesn’t always want the same answer we do – HE WANTS MORE than I ever hoped or dreamed and that can take a whole lifetime and more to fulfil. But sometimes those answers won’t look like the answer to my passionate emotion- filled prayers. I will need His eyes to understand what He is doing. Read the book.

In many of our churches we have tried so hard to present a positive image. We want to look happy, fulfilled and successful in our marriages, fellowships, friendships, homes, work places, and schools. We want to show the world that Jesus is the Answer to everything. So much so, we have forgotten that we are are fallible human beings who can still make mistakes. Awful ones. I’ve made my share – and some!  Many of us have worn plastic fake smiles for so long we are almost fully automated. That fake is killing us. Christianity is not a fairy tale, and following Jesus does not always mean we will have a happy ending in this life. Just look at the apostles and what happened to them. 

So today I am writing this to say to you that if your prayer life, or bible study, or Christian faith is NOT ALL THAT – be of good cheer. Our God is bigger than our failures. Jesus is the One Who is real, and sadly you and I are sometimes very poor reflections of His reality. But thank God, He does not rely upon our efforts. Our God did all the work for us – He knows we are not capable of fixing ourselves. We will always need a Saviour, and a Redeemer in this life. And if Jesus is not Who He says He is, then we are all sunk, and we should be pitied. 

Paul said something like that once in I Corinthians 15:19 & 20a.  “If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world. But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death,…”  Bye. 👋🏻

P 2158 Hope.

/ DVH

The Holy Spirit is our guarantee of things to come, as well as our treasure – right here, right now. We need to treat His favour as our greatest prize. The Holy Spirit’s continual Presence with us, is Father God’s gift to us. He is guiding us, teaching us, and assuring us, that we belong to the Lord Jesus, over and over again  That is a far greater treasure than all the wealth in this world. 

One day we will leave our mortal bodies behind and go to be with Jesus forever. So right now, even if our bodies, emotions, or minds betray us, we can rest in the fact that we are not alone, without hope or help. Our help is in the Name of the Lord Who made heaven and earth! Our hope is in Jesus our Saviour, our Redeemer, our Friend. Our hope is in the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us to help us manage this life, from one minute to the next. Our hope is that THEY ARE ALWAYS FAITHFUL… It’s in the book!

2 Corinthians 5:5:  “And this is no empty hope, for God Himself is the One who has prepared us for this wonderful destiny. And to confirm this promise, He has given us the Holy Spirit, like an engagement ring, as a guarantee.” Our hope is not empty, because it is not about feelings, it is about an utterly reliable Person! He is our constant companion. God gave us the Holy Spirit so we could have His hope in the midst of difficulties. Just call out for His help at any time.

The Holy Spirit is SomeOne we can rely on, because He put the sun, moon and stars in the sky. Plus He made you and I inside our mother’s wombs. While we are here on this earth, we are continually assured and surrounded by His Love and involvement – whether we feel like it or not! His Presence in our lives is our guarantee that God is in charge, He’s got you and me firmly in His hands. Like the infant in my picture today.

Things around us can change in a heartbeat but He will never change. There are moments when we desperately need to escape from difficult circumstances, because our flesh can grow tired. However, we can escape despair by remembering WHO GAVE US THOSE PROMISES.  Let’s look at this life through the eyes of faith – the Holy Spirit gave them to us. There is no room for fear in His kind of love, even though we have been attacked on every side, and we feel like all is lost, our feelings are not facts. But the bible is a book full of facts about our God.

The Love of God, and the Presence of His Holy Spirit is so all encompassing, He is all over us, IN us, and around us. So when we use our eyes of faith we can see Him at work. I put the picture above today to illustrate what enfolded means. It means wrapped around, surrounded so carefully you can barely see that little child’s feet – because the parent’s strong hands are enfolding them. The Holy Spirit wraps Himself around us like a cocoon wraps itself around a butterfly. We are safe inside His care. His Presence within us reassures us, over and over again, that we belong to Him now. Always. We are held so completely, so tightly by His Love, that love fills our vision. Remember, what you focus on grows bigger – focus on the One Who has come to be with us here and now and He will never leave us. 

Let His love enfold you, this very second. Then continually practice hiding in that love. Especially when the world misunderstands you, ignores you, or abuses you. We are NOW enfolded into Christ. When Father God looks at us He sees Jesus. V14: “For it is Christ’s love that fuels our passion and holds us tightly, because we are convinced that He has given His life for all of us…” V17-19 “… Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new. And God has made all things new, and reconciled us to Himself, and given us the ministry of reconciling others to God.”

This is our message of hope – God is not mad at people. The Holy Spirit has come here personally to help human beings every single day to discover more about the God of heaven and earth Who saved them. Our HOPE lies in Christ and everything He has already done for us. 👋🏻  

P 2147 We trust in God Who raises the dead!

/ DVH

2 Corinthians 1:8-11 “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.”

As you will see below, I have split these four scriptures into three smaller sections to make my point.The first section, from verses 8 to 9a, is about what happened to Paul and Timothy. Things in Asia went pear-shaped in their travels while they were spreading the gospel. So much so, that they thought they would not get through the experience. Paul actually says that he thought it was time for them to die. It was not simply that they had missed their train or the washing machine repair man failed to turn up. No, Paul would never treat normal opposition so seriously. Plus despair is a pretty grim word!

Personally I think he means exactly what he says. The truth is something that is incredibly valuable to Paul,  he lives that way. He talks like this in these verses, because in his heart and mind, this whole scene was played out before the Lord Himself, not men. Meanwhile, I don’t think he is exaggerating to illustrate his point! A scholar could tell you about whatever it was that happened to both of these men, all I know is that whatever it was, it was so fierce it literally took these two committed brave men’s hope of continuing to serve Jesus in this life – AWAY.

I’m want to move on to verses 9b – 10a.“But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.  He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us again. On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us,…” 

The intensity of Paul’s passion to see the Lord get what He wants jumps off the page. I want to illustrate the fact that even in the midst of such extreme, severe trouble, Paul’s faith is still in GOD, not in the resolution of their circumstances. What I mean is that this man is not put off by suffering, or even fear for his life. The problem we have today, when we read the bible is that this kind of language is foreign to us. It was normal back then, but today we would call what Paul wrote: “the introduction.” Which means we can skim over these things not realising the intensity of the situation both of those men faced. In other words our attitude to what it says, and where it is, can remove any meaning unless we are looking for meaning!

What he is saying here is that even if God had to raise them both from the dead, he knew that Almighty God will deliver them. Can you see the power and strength of this man’s faith?  He is speaking about something that is happening to them as a place for learning. Paul understood that God was stretching them for a purpose, and that fact didn’t flatten his faith. But when we first read this scripture it fades into the incidental background, it seems to us, today, that the real teaching comes later.  Everything Paul writes has A POINT. We’ve become very used to preaching over the years and I don’t think that’s a good thing – it can mean we tune important stuff out.

However, Paul’s mind is so renewed that he can’t imagine, even for a second, that the Lord will let them down! When I saw this today, it totally blew me away. My faith wobbles badly when ordinary every day stuff doesn’t turn out the way I hope it will, and yet Paul and Timothy are in total fear of their lives but they figure if the opposition kills them then the Lord will resurrect them if that is His purpose! 

You see when we read stuff like this, it is easy to think: ‘oh that’s just an exaggeration he’s just laying it on a bit thick to make his point.’ Except that he isn’t. When this man speaks, or when he writes one of his many letters, he is doing that from the Presence of the Holy Spirit – God Himself. You don’t fiddle about with exaggeration there. Almighty God is not an add-on in this man’s life – living for Jesus IS his life! So much so, that Timothy is living that way as well. This young man has been so influenced by God Himself – he risks his own life alongside Paul.

When I look at this kind of faith and then I look at mine … there is a big gap. Sigh. However, one of the things I can remember from when I was a much younger Christian was people of all ages telling me: “You don’t have to be that serious about it all!” Apparently no-one ever told Paul that! This book has been written for our correction and reproof – which probably means we are going to bump our heads on what it says, often!  And we also may find a glass ceiling over us when we want to press in and know the Lord better. But that can provide us with fresh insight into ourselves and God’s Ways. It becomes a new beginning place, not a place to give up.  

Moving on … finally in verses 10b to 11 “as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favour granted us in answer to the prayers of many.” Suddenly when people tell us that they are praying for us, life can take on a whole new dimension. Prayer is powerful. I know we all know this, but most of our lives today are fraught with overwhelming difficulties – like Paul and Timothy were. You and I may or may not die because we love Jesus – but our faith can easily perish when it does not become passion and devotion – like Paul’s faith was.

We cannot afford to read the bible like a book of suggestions, or discard bits when they don’t seem relevant or  they seem to be setting the scene for what comes next. Everything written in this book has the power to change our lives and the way we relate to God. We do not want to water down the power of God to save us from ourselves. In today’s world, where anything goes, we need this kind of passionate commitment more than anything else. Bye. 👋🏻