Hope

P 3240 Come up higher.

/ DVH

Sometimes we can become so earthly-minded we are no longer of any heavenly use. It seems to me that the church has become distracted by the cares and worries of this world. At the same time, it kind of looks like we expect Almighty God to enter our world and meet our needs here and now — He already did that. The thing is, He has higher priorities and I don’t think that it is His priority to make sure His kids have a cushy life.

Let’s take what the bible says seriously, and start making investments and withdrawals, using that book as our guideline. Then we can begin to bring His kingdom down here where the truly needy live. Truly needy people are the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet! Personally, I think telling people Jesus died to make them rich and prosper, is an abomination! 

None of Jesus’ disciples settled down into living in a grand house, in the ‘burbs, with everything they needed on tap. Instead they hit the road, and trusted Jesus to meet their needs. BTW, I am not saying, sell your house, go and sit on the curb and wait for Jesus to come back, but I am saying  – He is our priority. His agenda is now our agenda. We have given our lives to Him, so we can’t afford to let this life dictate what happens to us, through us and around us. 

As kingdom people, our destiny is to bring light and hope into the darkness. We may have to punch a hole in the darkness sometimes. The author of the book of Daniel punched a hole, and it took a while for the answer to come. Yet this man kept waiting for the Lord to do what He loves to do for all of us. Redeem the situation. Jesus loves to redeem situations, as well as relationships. It’s faith that gives us the impetus we need to pray, and keep on praying as we wait for Him to answer.  

Sometimes a believer’s problems can be a wrong attitude. Especially when we want to use God to make this life, our own earthly life, better. This world is a sewer. You can’t see the kingdom of God in a sewer, unless God Himself called you in there! This means we can’t afford to steep ourselves in the gunk that goes on around us – we need to soak in the Word of God to stay clean! We are called to be IN this world and not OF it. That means this world is not alive in us.

We can use our spiritual energy up by trying to praying our way out of this and that. But the bible says we are already more than conquerors, because of what Jesus has done. Let’s focus on that instead, and deliberately make sure all our relationships are based on the kind of love Jesus gave us. And when things are difficult, and “stuff” happens – while we are in the middle of it – let’s look for someone we are there to help, to witness to, to care for.

We seem to have given up on fulfilling the Great Commission. Sadly, we’ve become so involved in human affairs, we’ve forgotten our mandate. My advice is this – tell the Lord your needs, and choose to walk with the Spirit of God. Our faith is not designed to be like a credit card that is whipped out for use when we need it. Our faith is like an atmosphere that surrounds us. We live there, in good or bad seasons, we choose to focus on our glorious God being in charge. We comfort ourselves that He is doing what He set out to do … we just can’t see it yet. So we pray for steadfastness in trials and the ability to rest while He’s doing whatever He is doing. It is going to be for our good, we just can’t see it yet.

The Body of Christ is here to be salt and light — to lift everyone around us up higher, by the way we regard others. It is not lying to speak to the good in someone else who has been anything but good to you! It takes faith. We have the power to speak things into being – ask the Lord to show you what He sees in those people. Let’s stop rehearsing other people’s sins, and start looking for why they are here, and speak into that… … encouraging them into those things. 

In the last century, my age group made a mistake, we started exalting ourselves. Telling ourselves that we were  this or that and quoting verses from the bible to prove it to ourselves and others. It was a lot of hot air. Forget being the head instead of the tail – Jesus is our Head! I do not care if I am a toenail in the Body of Christ, I’m just glad to be included! Jesus is the only One Who is all this, AND that. We are here to encourage and bless and uphold others. We don’t need to big note ourselves spiritually. 

What stands us out in this world needs to be His GRACE and LOVE operating in us and through us. Let’s  decide what kingdom we want to live in, here and now – HIS kingdom is the Higher Place, living like He lived. We dare not call ourselves successful unless we are living to help others, because loving one another has become our priority. Let’s put our prayer, faith and energy into that. Bye 👋.

P 3229 YOU are His House.

/ DVH

“Here’s the one thing I crave from Yahweh, the one thing I seek above all else: I want to live with Him every moment in His house, beholding the marvellous beauty of Yahweh, filled with awe, delighting in His glory and grace. I want to contemplate in His temple.” Psalm 27:4 TPT.

It is so easy to read lovely scriptures like this one and think of God’s house as being somewhere else. Like in  heaven, or at church, or bible study, or in our worship times. Let’s look carefully at this next scripture, which I’m sure we all know very well, however, I’m not positive we are actually applying ourselves to live it out. “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, Who is IN you, Whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.” I Corinthians 6:20.

Yeah! Sobering thought. We, you and I … are now HIS house! If we want Jesus to ‘hang with’ us, we need to make His house a place He would like to inhabit. And we’ve gone about doing this the wrong way in the past. God loves the things that last. “Faith, hope and love,’ that’s what we are aiming at. His temple is not just some hypothetical glorious ideal, far, far away from us. This verse clearly shows us we are individually responsible for the state of His house. Knowing this is the beginning of change, but it won’t actually change the way we think, until we digest it and grab hold of it and act on it. Holy-Spirit guided action can, and it will. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” 1 Corinthians 4:20.

I can’t tell you what that will mean to you, but I can tell you a few of the kind of things that have affected me, and none of them are about what I eat, or what I watch on TV, or read etc! The first one is something that I call: “feeding the doubt.” FAITH! Doubt happens when I start ruminating over anything that isn’t working out the way I thought. The thing is, God’s temple is dedicated to Him and what He wants, so what I think I need or want, pales into insignificance. His Will His Way needs to be my permanent motto. And our God loves faith. So I repent. 

I may not think I have done anything wrong, but I choose to actively trust the Holy Spirit to know what HE likes. It’s His house, so I want His desires. I need to stir up my faith and talk to the Lord about His goodness to me. Then I ask for His help to remember those times when I have trusted Him, and I’ve seen Him graciously do the miraculous in my life. All those little things that don’t matter to anyone else, but they have impacted me greatly. Remembering His goodness is a great active sword. Whenever my faith falters, I need to stop, and reestablish the fact that He is good.

The next is to actively keep my HOPE in His goodness alive, in a primary place in my heart. Because without that hope, I will start trying to solve my problems by myself. His hope is my anchor. Hope anchors me into the bedrock solidity of His never-ending-always-present love. Otherwise I can float about being affected by the wash of someone else carelessly speeding past me. Now I keep on doing whatever my day brings up, I go over everything good in my life that He has given me, and thank Him for those things. I can also thank Him for saving me, and continually washing me with His Word.

This last thing that affects me is equally important – loving other people extravagantly. This bit is where we counteract what other people do. If I do good things for a return, I am expecting a benefit from this world. My hope will be shattered. When I do the things, He asks me to, as He leads me, especially for people who don’t deserve it – It becomes extravagant LOVE. This can sound impossible, especially if the person/s involved aren’t super-duper sweet guys. In other words, we aren’t exaggerating when we say we can’t love them, because they are, humanly speaking, not nice folks.  

Actually, loving not-so-nice people extravagantly is actually easier than loving the people that you deeply love, who have treated you badly. The more invested we are in the person, the harder it gets to be obedient. We can think up lots of excuses to opt out of obedience, when someone we love mistreats us. Things like thinking they should know us better, or give us their best behaviour all the time.  How realistic is that?? 

The reality is, people are human beings. Some things – even if they seem easy to you – can be hard for others. This is the time we need to remember that people will let us down, but the Lord never ever will. We have to switch our focus off them, onto Him. They can’t do everything we need – but Jesus already did!  Loving extravagantly means we lavish love on others, even when it is undeserved. This is the kind of love that blows people away. It’s not just nice, or kind, it is over-the-top love, the kind Jesus gave away all the time. 

Loving others extravagantly reaps a harvest. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9. I call this kind of verse, the kind of verse we try not to memorise because it seems too difficult to practice! The bible has loads of those. The ones we skip and hope God isn’t looking. Because we are His house – we actually don’t have that luxury. Remember, right here, right now – you are His house. Bye. 👋

P 3226 It’s plain to see …

/ DVH

…that if something is this important, we had better pay attention to it. Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 13:1-4 MSG: ”If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all His mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.”

Then Paul goes on to say what love looks like, how it sounds, how it’s supposed to be prioritised in our every day lives. When I read this I was curious to find out how you get this kind of love, the kind that means we are bankrupt without it.  I like to find something I can do, not just know … and right down in Verse 13, I found something we can all do. Of course the minute I read it I knew this wasn’t going to be easy peasy. I will need to treat dying to self, as the important part of living by faith. Jesus clearly taught us to really live for His sake, we will have to choose to die to what we want. 

Now here’s how we move toward living a life of love – verse 13:  “But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to DO to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.” Well that sounds like some pretty tough homework to me. Let’s start by loving our enemies, doing that is our greatest diagnostic tool. The Lord Himself told us to “…love our enemies and do good to those who despitefully use us.”

People who irritate us fall into this category too. Whatever words or actions we use – this is to be our primary aim in all our interactions with others! We don’t have to plan or allow for failure because we have the Holy Spirit as our Helper and Counsellor! Now, in a pinch, most of us can pretend to be nice to their enemies. but that’s where those qualities listed in Chapter 13, verse 4 – 8 draw a distinct line. Those verses totally eliminate that kind of self-deceiving response.

The truth is, if someone we dislike pokes the bear on the inside of us, we could easily find that bear ain’t dead yet! The bible says that we are to love our enemies, so something has to change and the Lord picked ME!  Now the best question to ask is what’s in MY way? I personally discovered that I have loads of bad attitudes hidden in corners of my heart, and I tippy-toe around those infected areas so I can look like everyone else. However if we look for perfection, we will disappoint ourselves. He’s the perfect one. That’s WHY we need HIS help!

Adults/mature Christians choose to make their choices based on someone else’s good. Jesus did it, and we are following Him, so that means we live like that too. We can pray in tongues until we are a hundred, the real point of the Holy Spirit’s Presence, is a changed heart. However, that does not always mean we give in to other people, Jesus spoke the truth in love. There are times when I am speaking the truth because I know what the truth is, yet I know that I have no love. There I am bonging away, ignoring the greatest opportunity I can have but choosing to hide from reality. 

It’s no wonder the other person can’t hear me, the best line of connection I have is LOVE. When I obey what the Lord says, I am choosing to kill off any childish attitudes that want revenge, recognition or vindication etc. I am actively, powerfully, choosing to LOVE. This means I am prepared to stand by, if I need to, silently. Not withholding love, but extending Grace. There is no cause for self praise if I do what I am supposed to do. 

Instead I am deliberately choosing to love that other person, by not returning anger for anger – punishment for punishment. And I do this because I love the Lord more than I give two hoots about what I want. Obedience is God’s love language, and I want to speak His language. If we can’t speak the same language then how can we be intimate? So I won’t take revenge in gossip, or avoidance. Instead I will rely upon the Lord to give me those things I need, using my faith, because, those things are in His domain. Otherwise I will probably go back to the nasty things I can do all by myself in a heartbeat. 

Let’s move on to Colossians 3: 12-14 and get a good clear look at our wardrobe. “So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.”  

The most important asset for being chosen to be God’s own precious people, is this wardrobe.  We must let Him choose our responses, our ‘garments’ in any given situation. We simply need to indicate that we want Him to help us appropriate what we need, using our faith that He will tell us. The Holy Spirit is always available, andHe will pick out our moment by moment ‘clothes’ for us. He’s brilliant at it. Love is important to God, it is Who He is. He is love personified.

It is essential that we learn to love the way He loved us, otherwise we will not mature. Immature Christians can do a great deal of damage, as well as loads of dumb stuff! And if you think that you are the exception because your life has been hard and you’ve been damaged by it, I want to encourage everyone to go back into the mirror of His Word and look harder. It is plain to see, that love is THE priority, nothing else is worth a bean without it! Bye. 👋

Let the Holy Spirit choose your spiritual clothes.

P 3225 Please don’t settle for postponing your only life.

/ DVH

The bible says that hope deferred, (postponed) can make our hearts sick!  Being ill or having a permanent infirmity can lock us into going round and round, searching for answers. We can easily forget to live the life we have. Sadly we are often bombarded by things on TV about what is wrong with us health wise – it seems we are obsessed with trying to live forever, here and now. Let me tell you that if this lot down here is the best we’ve got to live for, then we are all sunk! We definitely need higher aims!!

Some precious people in this world live their whole lives in abject poverty. What is appalling about that, is the fact that many of those who have more than enough, won’t share. Our world currently produces enough food to feed everyone in it. Back to the point: every single day the TV is full of diseases that might, or probably WILL kill you, and how we can and should avoid them. Cheery stuff! Turn off the TV I say, and put on something calming and relaxing. Something that lifts your heart. Counting symptoms doesn’t do that, it creates fear.

There are times when I see smiley-faced young and fit people doing repetitive and ridiculous exercises, or they are selling some gizmo or other and they happily tell me that ‘I can look like them if I just buy one of these.’ I laugh my head off. These people think they are telling me how to get and keep health … like somehow we have control over it! What a joke!! My genes have nothing whatsoever to do with me. The Lord knows what I need and He will always give it to me – in the meantime I want to concentrate on finding and keeping GRACE! 

Let’s do whatever we can to help ourselves, and then move our thoughts on to better things – like loving Him and loving others. Father God is not going to ask us if we used our faith to get good health. He will ask us if we took the time to help others to get to know Him. Meanwhile who wants to be the best looking old person with a great body …in a casket? Not me! Personally, I want people to remember me as that mad old lady who wouldn’t stop talking about Jesus! Let’s just aim at being His witnesses, and tell others He’s alive and He lives in us – so when we keep consistently loving others, eventually they will stumble across His reality too! 

Meanwhile good luck with keeping well enough to get out of this world alive, only one guy ever did that. All I can say is – Enoch knew how to choose a brilliant walking Companion. It never fails to astonish me that the easiest road to living forever seems to be the one people avoid the most! They’d rather do thousands of push ups! I’m not sure that being supremely fit is the best aim we can have, I don’t remember Jesus running in any other marathon but the one He called LIFE.  Moo-ving on …

Because of God’s incredible generosity, you and I have eternity to look forward too … neither of us will be sick or infirm there!  Healing is always God’s gracious generosity generated toward the sick person. It doesn’t matter whether the doctors say they can help you or not, just pray over it and give your health to Him and keep walking. 

Go after having enough Grace to manage whatever is going on. Remember we are all growing the fruit of patient forbearance in our lives. However, even when you are sick, don’t stop believing He can heal you. I urge you to keep your expectation in His goodness toward you alive by reflecting on how good He is.

Jesus didn’t only heal people – He also delivered them, taught them, fed them, physically and spiritually. Making one thing more important than another often leads to heartache for many. Especially those who struggle to believe He is good in the face of pain and suffering. Let’s just go after Him and see where that leads us. 

Even battered and bruised hope can make the best of whatever situation it is placed in, as we point that hope toward the One Who holds the future and loves us all more than life itself. Our faith rests in Him! I lean on Him and ask for mercy – a lot! I also hope today will be a better day than yesterday, and I will look more like Him today than I did last week.

Our hope needs to be well-placed and the best place for it is in Him. In His character, and love for us. When our hope is in Him, and not in our circumstances, we will not be swayed from our God-given course. It is the same one that was laid out in front of Jesus. “For your heart will always pursue what you esteem as your treasure.” Matthew 6:21 TPT. “He is no fool who gives away what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”(J. Elliot) 

Don’t settle for postponing living your life when bad health grabs you, because hope deferred can make our hearts even sicker. But focusing on Jesus first, becomes a tree of life. Bye 👋

P 3220 Let’s watch what we do with our keys.

/ DVH

“Now may the Lord Jesus Christ and our Father God, Who loved us and in His wonderful grace gave us eternal comfort and a beautiful hope that cannot fail, encourage your hearts and inspire you with strength to always do and speak what is good and beautiful in His eyes.” 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17.

Watching what we say is an incredibly important key to walking with the Holy Spirit and living in the kingdom of God. I’m not talking about being fake, or using flattery, or saying stuff that is not true – that stuff feels hollow. I’m talking about coming into agreement with the Lord and how He sees things. Now there’s a good thing to do just because He said to do it. However He didn’t say we would always enjoy it. I find the fun comes after the faith step!  

Doing what it says, even if we do it badly. and not always with the best of attitudes, certainly alleviates this problem. Jesus is not legalistic and He knows we are trying to obey our Heavenly Father. We are so blessed, we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us. Watching our words is a ‘key’ part of walking with the Holy Spirit. I’ve said dumb stuff and afterwards I sat about thinking – “Did I really just say that?” Instead of joining into a conversation that downgrades, or bad mouths someone else, it’s best to say nothing, inwardly pray and head for the exit! 

The thing that grabs us and traps us into opening our mouths, is that what is said is often true in some way or another. None of us are perfect, so somebody can often find something or other to criticise someone else about. Our negative comments will not help! At the same we don’t have any idea how this gossiped-about person arrived wherever it is they landed. 

We have been given, at great Personal cost by the GIVER, the power of agreement. Jesus gave that to us. So when we agree that so and so is a pain in the neck — we are thoughtlessly adding our powerful agreement to a bad thing. And then we wander about wondering why that person never changes! It’s because we aren’t helping with our opinions. So here’s something to chew over: “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” John 20:23. That’s an enormous responsibility!

We can be so consumed by the momentary gratification of flapping our gums, we forget we are doing untold damage to someone else. The enemy lies to us that we will feel better if we talk about this slight or that incident. Sadly, we can easily forget about what that person may have done for us in the past — what was good, what was right what was profitable. We must get rid of the idea that our opinions are more important than someone else’s reputation and spiritual welfare.

What we say needs to build other people up — and in the heat of awkward moments, we desperately need to say things that are true, right and profitable, or … … say nothing. However, when we actively dislike someone, or we are mad at them – those precious positive things can be hard to locate. I ask Him to please help me and spend time with Him working on forgiveness, because that’s the only way through it..

This world we currently live in has a me-centred focus, so we can easily have a consumer mentality … which means that other people are like chess pieces, we move them around a board in our minds to help us to win.  I can’t find that in His book! Winning that way means everybody loses. We immediately begin to negate our gifts in the body, and eliminate or minimise someone else’s ...all at the same time. 

Guilt, blame, and shame render everyone powerless!  If we want to see change, then we need to approach difficult situations or people, His Way. At the same time I think we need to pray far more for our leaders, they meet most of our bad attitudes head on. In moments of temptation I am learning to lean hard on forgiveness and to rebuke spite in me. In the past if someone had a problem with gossiping etc. they were either ostracised, or everyone simply joined in. Neither of those things will help us follow Him. 

When I say something stupid, it can be so much easier to try to justify what I just said, than it is to own my mistake and apologise. But that is the only true way to deal with the problem. James 3:10 says:“Out of the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that reflects our fear of God and profound respect for His precepts].” 

This is the major reason why we should avoid gossip, or even continually chewing over someone else’s faults! We may dislike that person who is being slowly dissected in front of us, but that is not the real point. We need to remain silent because we love and respect the Lord more than our own opinion. When we disrespect others, we are disrespecting Him. I don’t want to make a law out of this, however, I am simply stating a truth.  When our God says don’t do it – don’t do it!

Jesus has given us the joy of speaking life to other people and that privilege is powerful. “I will give you the keys of heaven’s kingdom realm to forbid on earth that which is forbidden in heaven, and to release on earth that which is released in heaven.”” Matthew 16:19. We can easily lose or misplace our God-given keys, and this is why we need to watch what we do with them! Bye. ✋

P 3197 Christmas is almost upon us.

/ DVH

You can tell that when you step inside a shopping mall. People are buzzing about like bees in a hive, frantically buying gifts for family and friends. It definitely seems official — consumerism is addictive, just like smoking, drinking and gambling. Sadly, you don’t have to have actual money to participate in this particular not-so-merry-dance. Many people put themselves into a lot of debt to create some sort of happiness, even for a day. When life is hard even a little snatch of laughter is valuable. How about we find a way to put a smile on the face of our neighbour!

Here’s something I stumbled across while following Jesus, Psalm 127:1. It challenged me regarding gift giving..“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain…”  Man there have been a number of times when I wished that verse was not in there!  I need the Lord to help me with giving gifts. I love giving gifts to people – particularly if they like them. There is something about that surprised happy face when they open their present that just blesses me. I pay very little attention to what I am given – but boy do I love giving!  And little kids are my super-duper favourite people to give to — they rip into the paper, and tear apart the boxes to get at that prize. It’s a joy to watch them. Meanwhile who can afford to buy a teenager a gift today? You almost have to re-mortgage your house!

Wouldn’t it be great if we thought about unwrapping what Jesus has said to us in His book, with that sort of expectation and happiness? Imagine facing the bible like an unknown beautiful gift, all wrapped up and sparkly … instead of a chore that must be performed – otherwise our day might fall apart. What if we couldn’t wait to get at the treasure inside? And, what if seeing one another had precisely the same effect? We might even buy a whole field just to own a precious pearl like that. … now there’s a think spot!

Back to the verse. This verse kind of means I’ve laboured in vain a lot in my lifetime. I’ve gone for the hope of happiness for me, instead of leaning on the discernment of Jesus. When it comes to giving gifts I’m hopeless. I go nuts. Somewhere in my head, I think my wiring is upside down! I am not saying that Jesus doesn’t like presents and gift giving, after all He loved all of us by giving the greatest gift of all – His life. But what I am saying is that it is possible to use gift giving to try to bridge gaps between you and people-you-don’t-get-along-with, and that can often lead to great disappointment. We can sometimes try to use gift-giving to curry favour with particularly fussy friends and relatives – instead of seeking restoration.

Maybe you have recently spent days trying to find the right gift for Great Uncle Bulgaria, and then he just kind of sniffed at your present and said a dull lifeless: “Thanks” as he plopped it on the floor. Your heart sinks into your shoes and you can almost see the sign that says: ‘That one is going in the recycling bin!”  The things we drag along behind us like the tail on a comet. Those things we think we have no say over, and feel we cannot change – except because of what the Lord Jesus did – we can!  Maybe I just need to obtain more trusty book gift-vouchers instead of driving myself balmy trying to find something just right.

There is a plus side to all this to-ing and fro-ing regarding buying gifts at this time of the year.… people smile at you and say: “Merry Christmas.” Meanwhile, it’s just like Jesus to have HIS birthday benefit everyone else, in more ways than one! We’ve found you can end up chatting to people in the lifts, instead of staring at the floor hoping the lift will get to your floor quickly, because you are feeling trapped with strangers. I have this thing with strangers, the nature of who they are to me, means I’m never going to see them again! You can say anything!  Sometimes they even talk back – WOW! 

We love Christmas at our house. My dear hubby is a huge fan, and when you put that together with someone who loves giving gifts, well … Christmas is a busy time for us. We start shopping and planning decorations in August! My fella loves his outdoor lights and he plans them for months. Lights are a lovely way to speak to your neighbours without saying a word. Our manger scene and ‘Happy Birthday Jesus’ lights have been going for 12 years. We also have joy, hope, and peace signs that hubby made. 

Yesterday, my husband and one of our granddaughters went off to take some gifts from our church to the local women’s shelter. Those poor ladies leave behind everything as they literally run for their lives. I’ve left everything behind once, so I understand their pain a little bit. However, in that position, you can’t afford to look back, or like Lot’s wife you will turn into a pillar of salt. Anyway … we have a big pile of assorted gifts to put under their tree. Knowing people care won’t fix everything but it sure helps when you are all alone and scared about what comes next. They were immensely grateful. My hubby likes to talk to the ladies in the office – nobody talks to them.

As I said, Christmas is upon us and many families will gather together and celebrate. Yet, whether they actually know what they are celebrating is a whole other ball-game! I pray we all get a chance to tell even one other person that Jesus is not a baby anymore – He’s all grown up and fighting for us! Blessings as you prepare to remember the miracle God gave us all, when He became one of us.Bye. 🥳

P 3178 Our thoughts.

/ DVH

Most despairing attitudes start in our thought-life. However when we take the time to pay attention to what we are thinking, we can exchange those thoughts for Who He is and how much He loves us! His love is the only constant thing this world has! It is a matter of choice, not a matter of proof. Do we believe what He says or how we feel. The more we know what the truth is — the bigger our opportunity is to be blessed, because we have come to know personally, intimately, a greater reality. 

These two seemingly opposite things, like hardship and blessings can co-exist. Pain, heartache, and sorrow, can be present at the same time as our knowledge of Who He is and how much we are loved by Him. Open the bible and find a scripture that helps, and then hold fast to it.  His love is always greater than the circumstances. When these things fall upon us, we need to learn to insist, purely for our own good. The Lord Jesus outweighs the things that come against us to try to drown us in our problems. He is bigger than anything we might face. Yelling ‘help,’ helps me! And no, I don’t always do that out loud!!

When we are under any sort of duress, we need to deliberately read the bible to remind ourselves of His kind of love. At the moment when you feel you can’t – you must! His love is so good, so faithful, so steadfast, that as we read, we will come to a place where we feel the darkness recede … don’t stop there, keep going. The enemy is pushing you, push back! If we fall into something testing or tormenting we know that He will help us. He says so! The Holy Spirit, the One Who comes alongside us, will kiss us back to life again. This is when our faith in God’s goodness has an opportunity to grow. Jesus died to give us that choice!

Faith needs to be tested otherwise it will not have depth. There is a stronger kind of faith that has been tried and tested and come through all kinds of difficulties with even more gratitude and worship. I know people who have this kind of faith. All kinds of hardship are actually fertile ground, fertilised by our surrender and our active faith that He is bigger than anything else. Being tested, and pushing on, can only deepen what we already know about Him! We cannot trust the Lord completely until what we believe has had our beliefs tested and shaken, so that all the unbelief falls off. Then we’ll discover that He is more than able to keep us.

If we choose to continue to follow and submit to Him even when we feel we cannot find our way—we will get through whatever is shaking our world, and come out of the other side – whether the situation changes or not.. Let’s make the immediate choice to look up and see that dear face of His so close to us. He knows all about pain and suffering and sorrow – personally. He understands it is hard – personally! At the same time the Holy Spirit will comfort us, and teach us that we can rely upon the very real fact that He will never leave us or forsake us. 

The Lord is closest to us whenever we feel devastated and alone. We have His promises. The question is, do we believe what He says, over and above what we can see with our own eyes or hear with our own ears? Hebrews 13:5b,6. “Never will I leave you;  never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my Helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Did you see what that verse says? ‘So we SAY with confidence …’  At this point I start speaking to my soul, like the Psalmist told us: I tell my soul to ”… hope in God!” (Psalm 42:11.)

Now let’s look at James 1:2-4 – “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colours. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James says that the thing we often desperately want to wriggle out of, is a GIFT. Because under pressure we are forced to face what we lack! When you know what you don’t have, you can target it with repentance and scriptures. Start by identifying what you are feeling: ‘I’m angry;  I’m afraid;  I’m jealous;  I am in despair.’  We no longer need to be afraid to diagnose the places in our hearts that lack — Jesus died for that lack. All we are doing is working with the One Who was sent to help us through!

Finally, we begin to realise that there is even something greater at stake than our immediate sense of comfort or peace of mind. That is God’s Kingdom blooming and blossoming in us. Hebrews 10:35-36 “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.”  Don’t choke in the hard bits – press through – grab hold of Jesus and hang on!

His kingdom will begin to be revealed through your life, simply because it is our destiny to bring the kingdom with us. The gospels are not some sort of fairy story with a happily ever-after ending. They end in the death of the HERO. But – His resurrection ushered us into a whole new kind of world. His world has love in its centre and it is filled with hope and faith. OUR world has things in it that can be stolen or broken, but His kingdom is an incredible storage unit, we can deposit our precious families etc. with the Lord, where this world can’t get at them.

Our thoughts are so important, they can turn the ship of our lives into the wind, to be moved by our beloved Holy Spirit – HE knows where we are going and what we will need to get there!  Bye. 👋

P 3172 The humanity of this man!

/ DVH

Paul is speaking in 1 Corinthians 1:11-17: “My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptised in the name of Paul? I thank God that I did not baptise any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptised in my name….(I love this bit!!) …(Yes, I also baptised the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptised anyone else.) For Christ did not send Me to baptise, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”

Look at that! The Apostle Paul used the ‘I can’t remember reason!’ Love it! Love it! Love it!! Because I’m older, that’s my all-time favourite excuse nowadays. Now that my hubby’s is using it as well, we bumble along hoping the other one will remember the important stuff. Fat chance!! Thank the Lord when it comes to appointments, people often send you reminder texts. 

I know I am about to lose half or more of my fellow travellers today, but I’m OK with that. Paul mentioned the word ‘following,’ and I gotta say I hate the whole “followers” thing that currently inhabits this world. Paul had the best idea –  he followed Jesus and, as far as I know, Jesus doesn’t have a Facebook page! Or any one of the rest of the alphabet soup pages people like to frequent. I know deep in everyone’s heart there is a need to be seen and understood… but the God of all the Universe and beyond, not only sees each one us, He knows how many hairs are on our heads … or not!! WOW!!

He knows what we need even before we know we need it, and He promises to supply it from His incredible riches. He bought us these fantastic blessings, like access to  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, perseverance etc. and He loves to give them away for free, to those people who ask Him. Our God always sees when our hearts turn toward Him, even if it is ever-so-slightly, and He comes to our rescue. Almighty God willingly gave up His only Son to be killed for us so we can be truly loved. Forever! That’s the kind of generosity and knowledge that is unforgettable.

Meanwhile, those Facebook enthusiasts often give anybody a bad rep, or the flick … in a heartbeat! I don’t want to support any of those vehicles, and line the pockets of already obscenely wealthy guys! I care about the poor – the poor are too busy being  hungry and thirsty and trying to find shelter, to worry about Facebook etc. Sometimes I get so sad, we are using up the time God gave us on things that will not remain. 

What remains is faith, hope and love – who gives a toss about Facebook? There are people who can’t wait to read their social media, and they skip the bible because it seems too hard. Isn’t that a terrible sentence? They take the words of strangers to heart — and ignore the King of glory. He took the time He was given to say all this fantastic stuff to each of us, personally! One of the reasons I can’t support social media is this:  our precious babies kill themselves because of cruelty in this arena. OK that was my little rant … I’d say I’m sorry but I’m not. The truth won’t kill us, actually it should shock us into action.

I love that Paul takes the time to explain himself to the naysayers and the permanently bewildered – his honesty is fantastic. What he said is so real and human: ‘I baptised, you, you and you … um … I can’t remember if I baptised you. Oh and there was that Stephanas guy and his family – I baptised them too. But what does it matter?? All that matters is the King of glory needs us to speak to others. That’s what we are here for!’ Amen! People chase unicorns and rainbows trying to find a purpose in this life, when Almighty God already gave each of us one.

Joshua found his purpose, He served God! –  In Joshua 24:14-15, he has always impacted me with these words: “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  I urge any parent reading this today to say to the Lord daily, “ …as for me and my house we will serve the Lord!”  Whether everyone in your family agrees with you or not – say it anyway! Speak purpose over those you love. People need a purpose! Why do you think kids drink, drive like lunatics, and take drugs? They have no purpose. Hopelessness leads to despair or sin. 

Paul is reminding us that there are some things more important than others in the kingdom of God. We don’t follow a preacher, we follow them, as they follow Jesus. God has something much better for each one of us to do, and some things are definitely more important than others! Who cares about who baptised who or whether I posted on social media today? Serving HIM, now, TODAY, is so much more important. We cannot afford to rest on past accomplishments when tomorrow is rushing at us. Praise God for Paul’s honest humanity! Amen. Bye. 👋

P 3164 Take up the wrap God has given us.

/ DVH

We need to daily wrap ourselves up in His LOVE, reminding ourselves that love is the best language of all. That means we deliberately remember that He loves us, that our sin can’t separate us from Him. And unlike everything else in this life – His love is not only totally unconditional – it’s free! Love is the heading under which every other grace and gift blossoms. I have put my version of 1 Corinthians 13 down below because it is essential that we remember that this kind of love is not just given away – GOD GIVES IT TO US EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Here’s a thought about outgoing love that is familiar. 1 Corinthians 12:31b – “And yet I will show you the most excellent way.”  I often ask myself when I get stuck: “what would love do?” I’ve hardly ever come up with the kind of answer that says: ‘punch that guy in the face!’ Jesus didn’t, and He had every kind of provocation to do so! Our Lord is love Himself personified and He gives us that kind of sacrificial, personal love – the kind of love that consists of undivided attention. I have put my version of 1 Corinthians 13 down below because it is essential that we also remember that this kind of love is not just to be given away – God Himself freely gives those things to each one of US and it is always unconditional.  HE is patient, kind, faithful, enduring etc. toward us.

In my mind’s eye, I can see the Lord when He squatted down on the ground, talking to a woman no-one else would bother to speak to. Or the desolated father who needed His help because the man’s little girl was sick. Jesus did everything for us, with us in His heart. He walked up that awful hill carrying a cross that was too heavy to bear. God’s love inside Him attracted people. Jesus went to His death carrying everything that separated us from God, staggering under the weight of this world upon Him. 

I enjoy old-fashioned words. I think “consider” is a very interesting word —  this is what it means: ‘look attentively.’ Let’s consider the facts given to us in the bible, never let the cross fall out of our attention. Christ’s death and resurrection totally encompasses and exhibits God’s incredible love for us. On that day, in that dark hour, Jesus Christ personally became man’s proof that our Heavenly Father God dearly loves us. Paul explains this to us so carefully. He tells us that we have a better way to live, and that means we are to live in love.

Let’s live every single day knowing we are loved by SomeOne so glorious, that we can’t even look at Him without being utterly transfixed and transformed! The very best gift in the list of spiritual gifts is LOVE. Any other gift mentioned will totally flourish in the warmth of that one gift. We need to consider the fact that it is easy to ignore what God Himself calls – THE BEST GIFT.  Love. God’s love won’t leave, it won’t betray us, He knows and cares about what is happening in our lives. The bible tells us: ‘He takes all our broken, shattered pieces, and works them together for our good!’

You know, just because we think that we can’t have that kind of love in us, that doesn’t mean we should ignore it! Instead let’s chase after Love Himself, not gifts. Let other people identify your gifts —just allow your life to continually release the sweet fragrance of His love into your family and the world around you. And if you want to know what it looks like — right after 1 Corinthians chapter 12, comes chapter 13 with a brilliant summation of what love is. I think Paul gave us this so we can’t be misled by the kind of love this world engages in. 

The bible clearly tells us love is patient, it has the kind of endurance that does not end;  it is always kind, so you don’t have to be afraid of it. It’s not envious, it could care less what you have, or how clever you are;  instead love is enthralled and captured only by Jesus Himself, and His love for you. Love won’t boast, because it knows it has nothing to boast about!  Nor is is proud, because this kind of love wants Jesus to get all the glory. It wouldn’t dream of dishonouring others because it values other people more;  it chooses not to protect itself; and it won’t get angry easily either. It doesn’t have a record of your past, or my past, or anyone else’s past! It is not happy when an enemy suffers, because it loves the truth more than revenge. It will go out of its way to protect others, and trust God with them. Love always hopes for a good outcome. It has a never-ending source of hope in Christ, and what He did for us. And it quite simply refuses to give up on anyone.

Then we read in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13, how Paul goes on to say that grown ups think one way, and children think another. He cautions us to stop thinking like children and move on into maturity. Living in Love is seen as maturity in Christ. It is the most excellent way. Everything else pales into insignificance in comparison. Who cares if we can prophesy about glories unknown, or that we should beware because danger is coming? Love is always in the NOW, it sees the best in others, and calls the best out. Living in love covers everything. 

All the other stuff will disappear, but love will always remain. Unconditional love is the quality that introduces other people to the Character of God more quickly than any of the other gifts. Let’s take off our old coats of inadequacy, obligation, and ‘ought to,’ and wrap ourselves in the wrap of God’s love instead. It is like Joseph’s coat of many colours: dazzling, varied, unique and different. Even though each piece can sometimes include suffering, solitude, and rejection, we know we are following our Saviour WHO LOVES US.. 

That coat of many colours symbolises all the favour of God, all His divine grace, power and love, plus all the gifts and fruits of the Spirit. Learn to live in His Love then give it away. Bye. 👋 

P 3159 He will inhabit our lives.

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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