Humility

P 2712 Our difficulties are actually stairs.

/ DVH

The every day obstacles, irritations and difficulties we face can be obstructions to living a new life … OR … stairs leading us up into all Christ’s blood bought for us. When we see things as obstacles, we face them with a different mental attitude. An obstacle must be avoided, or conquered or mastered, and all that involves effort and application. Stairs simply take you from one level to another. They take us from a lower place to a higher one. Today, I want to highlight the thought that the Christian life is meant to be one of progression, while we gain increasing humility, accountability, and wisdom, plus maturity. 

Nobody told me this stuff when I was a baby Christian. I was not taught that Jesus has faced every single obstacle I will ever have to endure, and that He knows the way through them. Instead I was taught to try harder… like it was a Maths test! So I just kept failing, and the harder I tried, the more I failed … I was taught I must somehow, by myself, transform myself into a new person. But Jesus actually died for, fought for and He won that battle for me. The thought that I was personally responsible to be different in my everyday life, nagged at me daily. I was supposed to be a good Christian witness to others, but I could easily end up shouting like a fishwife! 

None of the credit for starting to change my awful attitudes and actions belongs to me. All I ever needed to do was ADMIT that I can’t do any of this transformation by myself, and ask the Holy Spirit for His grace. And then – step up into it, using my faith.There are things that I know I used to do, almost automatically, that I simply don’t do anymore – I don’t even want to do them anymore. I asked for His help.

I wish I could say that when I’ve learnt something, and I’ve seen His grace in action in myself, that this means I will always act graciously! What a sad little laugh that thought is! Instead I have found that I need to practice practice practice trusting in His ability to get me through whatever He is teaching me, at every opportunity. Or I will lose touch with His grace, faster than a gambler can lose his quickly gained bundle of notes! However at the same time I have also noticed my thought patterns are changing too.

As I read the Word, and refused to accept what it said as something I would become some day – He began to teach me to act on it in faith. I started to understand that the things I dismissed as being only human, actually meant that I was not totally sold out to Jesus! Because me, myself and I – still became grumpy and nasty over the stupidest things. 

The Lord is so faithful. He revealed to me through the bible that He has already done all the work … so my part was to believe Him and step up into what He has already done, no matter how I feel.  Those things that accused me, and led me into looking after myself first, are the everyday, niggly little grumpy or sarcastic responses that the Holy Spirit loves to help us master. All we need to do is to step out of that bad mood or irritation, INTO His grace. After all, Peter stepped out of a perfectly good boat when Jesus said – “Come!” He didn’t think about it He simply obeyed!  Living this way is our birthright.

Sadly in the past, I did not have any idea that I didn’t have to live such a frustrated life, pretending to be something or someone, I wasn’t. I found, over time, that  a lot of what I was taught was a lot of theory, as well as unrealistic expectations – heaps of I “ought to be this or that!” It was not practical enough. Yet everything Christ taught was PRACTICAL. Because of what He has already done, my part is to take each attitude as He reveals it to me – then repent, repair and ask for His help. And then I simply followed His prompts, and they helped me escape from the temptation to let fly.

Jesus Christ’s death opened the prison door of sin we were forced to live behind, that place where we were trapped by our own anxious, fearful, unkind attitudes. We can even learn to resist provocation! We are no longer trapped by who we used to be. Freedom is more than a lovely song we sing passionately – it is a faith step. Freedom doesn’t mean I can do what I want – true freedom actually means I CAN DO WHAT HE WANTS!  We believe Him and what He has already said in the bible.

You know, in the natural, I have the worst trouble with real stairs, nowadays. Having fallen down our stairs a while ago, I am a bit intimidated by any stairs that have no railings. And so hubby helps me step up from one step to another, by giving me his arm. This is what the our precious Saviour does for us. We exercise our faith in the Lord’s Word, by taking His arm, as we choose how to respond to the daily irritations of this life according to His Word. We learn to lean on Him! And if we go under, like Peter did – Jesus’ strong right arm will lift us up again.

Psalm 119:133 “Direct my footsteps according to Your word; let no sin rule over me.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 TPT “We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously.”

If we want to follow Jesus and overcome every day irritations, obstacles and difficulties, as well as entering into our new life in Christ, we need to live this life with absolute humility. At the same time we need to be aware and open about our limitations. Let us not pretend to be someone we are not! Every one of our difficulties are actually our own personal stairs. My advice is to take the Lord’s proffered arm and walk up each step with His help. Bye. 👋 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3-12.

P 2694 Another kind of running.

/ DVH

“Isn’t it obvious that all runners on the racetrack keep on running to win, but only one receives the victor’s prize? Yet each one of you must run the race to be victorious. A true athlete will be disciplined in every respect, practicing constant self-control in order to win a laurel wreath that quickly withers. But we run our race to win a victor’s crown that will last forever.”1 Corinthians 9:24-25.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2.

Sadly, some sporting people can be so keen to win acclaim, they cheat. However, the kind of running which is mentioned in this scripture is not a place where cheating will work. In this case – the Judge is now our standard, and there are no rules. We simply co-operate so we can grow to be like Him. This means we follow in His footsteps, because He completed His ‘course’ perfectly. I will still be me, but I need to be motivated and activated by the Holy Spirit, while I am running my race and learning to love Him and others.

I find most people who preach or teach use illustrations, like Jesus did – He kind of set the precedent for us for that kind of story-telling. The thing is, because everything Jesus said are spiritual truths … they are like the Universe — BIG. They are consistently ever-expanding, and constantly revealing new aspects to this new way to live that we didn’t know were there! It is a mistake to just read the words on the page, without consulting the ever-present Author about them. We need to ask questions!  This picture of race-running produces images of fitness, endurance, and a love of running.

I often tell the Holy Spirit, when I am stumped and stalled, even when I am reading the bible: : “I have no idea what that means.”  I’ve found He is a fantastic teacher, He loves to help us with our understanding and application of God’s word. I have no problem admitting that I am incredibly dumb, as well as selfish as I go along,  because … I know the Coach and He loves to help. Plus … He knows the way through or around any obstacle I will encounter. Most of those obstacles come from inside me – because my endurance and will to learn hinder me running at times.

Simultaneously, I love the fact that while I am running this race, I don’t have to compete with you and you aren’t in competition with me either. I’m running in this race to get a crown, and we are not contending with each other over the same thing – because you get a crown too. Plus the people in the stands are on their feet cheering us on. This is a good time to remember that this hard fought crown is perfect for casting down in front of our precious King, Jesus, when we meet Him. 

The illustration in this scripture is talking about what we think of as running a race, but because it is heavenly “running” Paul mentions, it actually refers to the way we choose to live this life we have now, today. So, when I go to the shops, I am running the race. When I go to work I am running the race. When I do the washing, clean the house, look after the family, paint my toenails, watch TV, put out the rubbish, go to sleep … I am still running this race. This race is about how I run, why I run, and the Person I run with.

It is not even about accidental accomplishments along the way, it is far more about my personal aim to stay in step with Him. I have been given a brilliant Coach to help me maximise my potential while I am running. He knows this race, He knows me, He knows my faith, my level of trust, and my love for other people. He will coach me personally to help me rise above the person I was before I met Him. I know I will be transformed along the way. This means that the person who finishes this race, will not be the same person who started it. That’s a big thought.

Young people, old people and everyone in between those two age-benchmarks can run in this race because fitness is not a criteria. SomeBody died to make us fit. The only criteria needed to be a runner, is the desire to be closer to Him. And at the same time we need to stay open to being taught. We are choosing to do all that with humility and devotion to our King. Lastly, all the people running in this race are serious about growth and transformation – they do their best NOT to run haphazardly – because they are in another kind of race. 👋

PS In the interest of complete honesty – some days it feels more like I am plodding along, rather than running!

P 2689 We gotta get in the flow and go, go, GO.

/ DVH

Today I thought it could be useful to follow up yesterday’s blog and revise what unending love looks like: It is clearly explained in I Corinthians 13:1-8. We can’t know if we have it, or even if we are pursing the right thing, if we can’t recognise it!!  First of all, unending love is a love that just won’t quit!  Look we can analyse the word love, by saying this means this type of love, and this one means that …until the cows come home … but His love is experienced as we further His kingdom.

The point is for us to operate in the flow of His Love, and until we start stepping out in faith and practicing that, we will only know Him with limitations. When we act on our faith we step into the flow. Our God is a God of action. Read the book! To serve Jesus and others, we must take risks – on purpose. Every risk we take won’t always produce fruit, or a happy experience. But when we walk with the Holy Spirit, walking the way Jesus Himself walked – we are totally relying upon the Holy Spirit to take us through. As we do that we will get to know Almighty God in a unique way. Intimately. We literally walk a mile in Christ’s shoes!

Now let’s look at what His unending love IS NOT. It is not a tool to showcase our spiritual abilities. As our precious sister Heidi Baker often says: “the way UP is DOWN.” I pray ‘lower still Lord’ as often as I remember to do it. I realise that I must willingly humble myself, and understand that any enemy attack is an opportunity to take me to a lower place. A place where if He doesn’t help me I’m sunk. We all need to be stretched to become bigger.

Meanwhile, it goes without saying that I tell satan to take a hike, but in front of our Holy God I humble myself. Like Paul said: “not that I have already accomplished that but I press ON!”  In my mind this means that maybe I’m not good at it but I’m not going to stop my pursuit of Him. I want to know Him. Not just in the “gee I feel blessed today” moments, but to know Him so well that I will always rely upon Him.

Over to the verses above:“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship THAT I MAY BOAST, but do not have love, I gain nothing…”

We need to know His love to practically combat the temptation to become important in this world’s eyes – that temptation comes because we want to feel good about ourselves. But the above Graces are His gifts, they are given freely to us, for us to freely bless others. Without His active Love these wonderful gifts can be corrupted by our own needs to be seen and appreciated. Next the Apostle Paul tells us exactly what God’s love looks like:

“…Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails …”

If we want His kind of love we are going to have to put away this world’s self-centred idea of love.The sad truth is, the world’s way of thinking means I need everything working out for my own benefit, to prove to myself that He loves me. Instead the Lord and I get to share an experience of His love in action upon someone else’s life. We are the designated pipeline that delivers the Holy Spirit’s grace, and grace and love flow as we draw on those things to further His kingdom. Love takes risks, grace facilitates it. The more you go the more it flows.

That stuff we call love down here on earth, doesn’t have the substance or the stickability to survive this world’s despicable onslaughts. But His love is unstoppable! Unfortunately my human love falls in a heap most of the time when someone hurts me or life gets hard. That’s how I know I need to keep pressing toward the mark. I will have to pursue this kind of love, and repent when I miss it!

Colossians 3 also has a fantastic love description of His love in verses12-14 “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

This scripture shows me that I must PUT these things ON by choosing to actively use my faith. Just like Peter did when he stepped out of the boat, onto the water! Faith is an action word. It exhibits God’s glorious qualities in places that have never experienced them. Living like Jesus did means taking risks for other people’s sake, using my faith to rely upon the Holy Spirit to help me. We gotta get in the flow and go, go, GO! Bye 🥰

P 2687 The bible is huge – it just keeps getting bigger!

/ DVH

The bible is constantly revealing more about our Lord and Saviour, and His Ways – it is like the universe, still expanding. As our knowledge of Him grows so does the power and content of this book! Our corporate or personal experiences should never be used to negate what His book says, because we don’t know everything … despite the way we sometimes present ourselves to this world! We can easily misunderstand what this book says, or we can accept someone else’s POV and take it as our own without even personally investing in it. It is folly to say “God doesn’t do that” or “He won’t do this,” based on the fact that He has not done whatever it is for us, personally. We dare not judge the scriptures by our own experiences. Our experiences are limited and He is a limitless God! 

We — as part of the whole body of Christ, must stop thinking that our little denomination contains the only people who know the truth, so what our church thinks and says, is the only way. Actually only liking a church because you agree with its theology can be a dangerous thing. We just limited God to whatever our church believes. That won’t lead to transformation … it could lead to all kinds of false expectation – some of it very unrealistic! We need honest uncharismatic leaders who simply walk with the Holy Spirit.

Just because Joe Bloggs goes to a little church on top of a hill in the country, and you or I go to a mega church that meets in the city – that doesn’t make our doctrine more right than Joe’s – or Joe more right than us. It’s great if our really big church has an evangelist, pastor, prophet and teacher and lots of functioning helpers etc!  Perhaps Joe’s church has a pastor who only comes once a month!! What does it matter, if he bows his knee to Christ and so do we? We are family. Personally, I think that as ‘the Lord looks on the heart’ then that’s where we should learn to look too! 

If we want to find a good leader then we need to find an honest man who admits he’s not all that, and he’s not there yet … (wherever there is) … and that honest person continually shares his personal growing edges from the pulpit. Meanwhile it is daft to leave everything, including pressing in, to the pastor, or the prophet or someone-Who-knows Jesus better-than-I-do. Otherwise we are putting undue pressure on the top. Reaching the world belongs to all of us not just to the guy out in front. He’s the Leader. That means he is the one appointed to give us direction. He gives the Lord’s accent on things that God wants us to carefully look at, as a part of the whole body … and that includes Joe’s church!

We simply must stop seeing our own little corner of this world, and what we have learnt, as the whole answer. Jesus Christ is everyone’s Answer!! If Almighty God gave any of us His whole answer it would blow our minds! And then we would end up running about like headless chickens trying to make whatever He said happen … when none of us can accomplish anything lasting. We have more resources than the generations that went before us, yet reaching the world still escapes us! While we are fragmented we are losing the incredible power of agreement. We need humble, respectful unity.

There is spiritual power available for any individual who has been trained by obedience, and learnt love while they are following Him. In the Bible, we have our best example of the power of an obedient man! During the temptation in the wilderness – Jesus told our enemy: “man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” After resisting the enemy’s temptations, Jesus went out into the world and lived out what He just said. How hard can it be? it ain’t rocket science, even fishermen eventually managed to listen and do!

The Lord Jesus lived minute by minute giving us an example to follow. If we insist on simply adhering to our denominational rules there is a strong possibility that even more generations will miss out on the POWER that flows through corporate obedience. This life isn’t just about giving the right answers, it’s about living out what we know, and what we are becoming, in our own small way. We are the Word of God that people can see, so everyone around us can know that Jesus Christ is real. We don’t follow religious rules, we follow the same Holy Spirit Christ Himself followed.

So every single day, individually, we personally go to God to get instructions for ourselves, for our own life. We read the book, pray over it, and then go out and do whatever the bible told us to do! And that’s why I think it is not good to shop around and join a church that preaches the kind of stuff we think we want to hear. Personal growth comes from being stretched and challenged. We need the person who is our leader to LEAD, let’s forget the popularity contest.

In many churches today, we have allowed popularity and/or fear to rule us. Jesus did everything He did for ALL of us, so it is a crying shame for the body of Christ to be ruled by inactivity, social programs and fear of error. While we are back-slapping ourselves over all the programs we are running, we are missing the point. People don’t have to be taught to be obedient, obedience is normal for Christians. That’s what becoming a disciple of Jesus entails. 

This means we repent, quickly. We stop thinking we know it all and we are better than the church down the road who only have a congregation of fifty. We listen with our spiritual ears open so we can hear what the Spirit of God is saying to me, personally. We don’t just listen for praise – we listen to diagnose why we are not effectual and fix stuff with the Holy Spirit’s help. That’s where true humility starts. At the same time we refuse to pledge allegiance to anything or anyone other than Christ Himself. Plus we acknowledge that we don’t know everything and we could learn something from someone else’s church.

The bible is far bigger than we have allowed it to be. Our disobedience and lack of love is costing us generations. Let’s start by obeying Him as individuals to see where He leads us all, corporately.  Bye.👋

P 2683 We are here to be a blessing.

/ DVH

Our lives are God’s love gift to others. So today, here’s an extremely powerful way to see how surrendered we all are! Let’s say somebody has just deliberately hurt you or annoyed the life out of you – what is your immediate response? We are only as surrendered to the life of God within us, as we are in our weakest, crankiest, most vulnerable moments. Telling the Lord we surrender to Him isn’t worth a hill of beans, if that doesn’t have its roots firmly established in reality. The power to change this world around us grows, as we use His power to change ourselves, first.

What we say, sing about, or have carefully read about on the subject of surrender, is utterly pointless – if it doesn’t bear fruit that is seeable in our lives! God is looking for fruitfulness, not hot air or even wishful thinking. We can tell if we have any fruit or not when this life squishes us tightly, That’s when our true selves emerge. It is also when the fruit of the Spirit can appear and spread a blessing.

Jesus Christ showed humanity GRACE from the cross. He got that Grace the same way we get it. HE MADE CHOICES. He showed Grace to His captors when they came to arrest Him, and they nailed Him to the tree. If we want to let Grace flow out of us, like AIR, then we need to continually take it in by faith and keep releasing it. That means we don’t excuse ourselves when we react to someone else, instead we choose to repent. So we let that grace flow out of us, towards others who probably don’t deserve it. His Grace is THAT powerful. It will transform us while it reaches out to others. This life is not about acquiring graces, it is about becoming His GRACE to others.

We can daily facilitate our own walk with Him, simply by valuing Grace, staying humble, and participating in repentance. If we continually pay attention to our feelings, instead of acting on the Word of God, we are choosing to empower a place inside us that needs to die. It is not that we are not ‘allowed’ to have feelings – rather, those feelings don’t need to run our responses or our lives. We actively make a choice to stop empowering the things that don’t produce His life in us. However, if we are being real with ourselves we probably already know the kind of things that make us stumble. They are often the things we excuse and we say: “Well, that’s not all that bad!”

The greatest Grace of God, Love, includes self-control. For the sap of the vine to flow into the fruit of the vine and grow wonderful grapes, the branch must stay attached. When I choose my way instead of His way I am restricting the flow of His sap. That branch has no destiny of its own, its entire destiny is tied up IN the Vine. If we want to abide in His love, then we must to learn to operate daily using the Grace He has given us. It’s endless! We don’t need to consult our feelings to see if we have grace, we simply step out and act appropriately toward the other person using our faith. We submit to Grace, come under Grace and then release what we already have.

“Since we are approaching the end of all things, be intentional, purposeful, and self-controlled so that you can be given to prayer. Above all, constantly echo God’s intense love for one another, for love will be a canopy over a multitude of sins.… … For to Him belong the power and the glory forever throughout all ages! Amen.” 1 Peter 4:7-8, 10-11 TPT.

Christians have been saved to serve others. We are going to need loads of humility to do that. This means we choose to progressively, and intentionally, learn to live as Christ Himself lived. He lived entirely for His Father’s purposes, not just what suited Him. He didn’t pretend – He simply was that Person. However, we haven’t been redeemed to be Jesus clones either, stringently following a bunch of rules. Rather we are to be voluntary imitators of Christ. Choosing to lay down our lives like He did..

His Grace has given us gifts that we are to use for the benefit of others. They are not to call attention to ourselves or raise up some sort of following. When we actively, continually forgive those who trespass against us, we will learn humility. At the same time we are extending His love canopy over them as we share what we already have. We are here, right here, right now, to be a blessing to this world, just like He was. 👋

P 2642 Aim at the Long Game.

/ DVH

Lately, I have noticed that the Holy Spirit says to me: ‘do this.’ So I do it. Or He says: ‘don’t do that,’ so, hopefully, I don’t do it! However, after following His instructions, there have been times when I’ve seen nothing whatsoever after my obedience. No visible results. I can often walk around wondering what all that was about? Did it have a heavenly purpose? Did I make it up? It’s good to remember that faith is about not necessarily knowing the outcome until later … sometimes … much later. At those times I believe we are cultivating obedience. Abraham believed and obeyed the Lord and he acted on what he was told, and the Lord counted it as righteousness. Remember to ask the Lord’s input about anything, by reading the scriptures and waiting on Him.

Our Heavenly Father is not tied to our ideas and methodology.  He interacts with us way beyond those things – most of the time, He is doing something else. And at least some of the time we probably have no clue what that is. Sadly our current society likes instant results and immediate gratification – we like to know about everything! So — I put in my five dollars and out pops a candy bar. Or if I don’t like what is on TV, then I change the channel. However, our God has everyone’s good in His heart, as well as a distinct purpose for us to be alive at this time in history. I believe our greatest task in this world is to learn to love the unlovely.

Whenever we deliberately choose transformation, we enter into our own personal inheritance. The Lord has gifts for us that are appropriate to our ministry. They are personal, but they are given to us to do other people good. My deliberate obedience to His ways, means that Almighty God can take my no or yes and change or turn my life away from some things – toward others. It means I’ve chosen to die to self. Because of that surrender, and purposeful obedience, my bad habits, or inadequacies, drop off somewhere along the way. 

I have learnt, from personal experience, to cheerfully say no to my way of thinking and yes to His. There are times I understand … but there are also times that I don’t understand immediately. Loving grumpy selfish people who are mean to me makes no sense! That is why it seems to me that God’s system (?) is far more about following Jesus and looking for higher aims and accomplishments than this world can offer. We need to have eternal AIMS. That thought relies upon hearing, listening, and seeing the Lord, plus … obeying His word. Following Him is part of the transformation process.

The Old Testament gives us a number of examples of people who didn’t do that. Here’s one. Moses and the Israelites wandered about for 40 years accomplishing nothing – but a circuitous journey. They were not transformed into TRUSTING GOD despite their experiences. Their rebellion cost them more than a long walk – it cost them character growth. That was the very thing they were going to need when they got into the Promised land. They were slaves, they had a submissive mindset. Fighting their own petulant ways to obey God would have given them the power to fight their enemies. Although we never know what is coming next, God is incredibly good to us, following Him, step by step, provides the transformation, character and strength we are going to need, for what comes next.

However, our current society encourages us to hold onto our personal sense of self. We say: “God loves us the way we are.” Yes He does. But there is far more to this life than that. We cannot afford to entertain a false finishing line. Our personal happiness and contentment outside of God Himself —is a false finishing line! The Apostle Paul tells us his aim was to ‘finish HIS RACE well’ … walking with Jesus all the way, doing what the Lord wanted. He further indicates that he knows that living like that will take effort, and ‘he does not want to waste his energy boxing like a man punching into the air.’ Whatever Paul does, or decides not to do, to him, everything has a purpose. It’s to help him know the Lord and walk in His ways.

I said all that to ask a question – how are you and I going with aiming at transformation? Are we still inclined to be self-centred, or smart mouthed, or argumentative, or fudging on our income tax and tithes, walking our own way and getting petulant if God does not do things to suit us etc.? Have we yielded to the Lord so that humility and repentance are a way of life? We ALL need to know how to repent! We need to know the difference between saying sorry and deliberately turning away from that sin. That means we are actively entering into the process of transformation.  

Human beings can have many aims: to buy a house, or a car, or raise a family, or a great job, or have a ministry. The very best aim we can have is to let the Holy Spirit transform us so we look, act, speak and LOVE others like the Lord Jesus does. Lives around us will change if we choose to be a person that will accept His premises. Let’s not stop at instant noodles and an instant life! Let’s learn to aim at the long game = ongoing transformation. Bye. 👋

“Everyone who hears My teaching and applies it to his life can be compared to a wise man who built his house on an unshakable foundation.” Matthew 7:24 TPT.

P 2640 When you get stuck, ask for help!

/ DVH

The bible tells us over and over again that fearing the Lord is to be expected and embraced. Think about that for a minute – teeny, tiny man in comparison to incredible, wondrous, holy, pure and righteous God! He’s so astonishing, the Universe He made a long time ago – is still expanding!  In Proverbs 9:10 it says this: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One increases understanding.”We need both!

So now let’s take a peek at Romans 3:10-17 – this passage levels the playing field for everyone: “As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”That is the Apostle Paul talking, he lived in awe of Almighty God and His ways.

There is a school of thought that wants to render the Old Testament less relevant than the New. Actually, there is no truth in that idea. In the OT we see how men and women obeyed God and things changed, supernaturally.  They are a visual aid for us today. Personally, I think if it is in the book, then it is there to help and instruct us. Instead of diminishing the OT’s value, we need to ask questions, wait for answers, and maybe put some things in our pending file. He’s God – He has a timetable, the Old Testament shows us that!

The marvellous thing about Romans 3 is it is telling us that all of us stand upon a level playing ground. NONE of us get it right. We can see that the people in the Old Testament managed to muck things up! That thought alone throws competition out of the window. This life is not about striving to get things right, we are simply following Jesus! We live like He did, and we have written instructions about how He did it! As we follow Him, we will find we come into harmony with one another. He’s in you and He’s in me – and He won’t fight with Himself! If we fight – one of us is not listening properly – they are probably acting out of their heads. The first one to sincerely say sorry wins! That’s a joke BTW.

Paul, the writer of Romans, was a brilliant student of Gamaliel but back then as a student, he was full of information. Information puffs up – it makes you self-righteous. But knowledge of Christ and His ways will humble us. So much so, we end up loving our enemies!  So when Jesus stopped Paul in his tracks, this man was humble enough to realise he knew nothing and he said so. Paul was not interested in factions or parties – He simply followed Christ and was obedient. Later on in the book to Corinth, he dismissed the idea that people should follow him, or some other teacher. He made it clear we need to follow Christ … only. 

Our bible cannot be carefully digested unless we ask the Holy Spirit to explain it to us and show us how we are meant to ‘eat it.’ This book is for eating … as we do what it says, we become like it, through our obedience. It is not for information, so we end up thinking we know everything!! The same verse that turns out to be veggies on your daily plate, could be meat and potatoes for a month for me! That’s the beauty of this book – the Author sits with us to explain it personally!  This life of faith we lead operates by … wait-for-it  …  …faith!

There are times that the Lord’s timing won’t always suit us – we’ve lost our humility. The truth is, if we constantly push back against His instructions and our circumstances – and refuse to wait for His timing, then the other guy will be absolutely delighted to turn up and deliver his pack of lies and misdirect us. The bible is to be believed, its instructions are there for us to follow. It is not there to be critiqued by the likes of us, even if we did come from a High School up a hill, and we have more degrees than a thermometer! Sometimes the smarter we think we are, the dumber we actually are. Paul was a clever person, but he humbled himself and learnt from God.

The saints in the Old Testament have taught me so much about faith. They’ve encouraged me when I’ve wanted to quit. They’ve shown me that my mistakes are not terminal because, unlike them — I know I have a Saviour! Praise God!! Those men and women of old who served God, are fantastic illustrations of what our wonderful Father can do with someone who simply follows instructions. Almighty God gave them instructions and they went away and did stuff!! Many people go searching for this easy method, and that clever way to get God to do whatever they want …when the easiest way of all is to be obedient.

I have found that the Old Testament adds enormous depth to everything the New has in it. Let’s always remember – Jesus never read the New Testament – HE WAS WAY TOO BUSY DOING IT, while somebody else wrote it down! Romans 3 teaches us that nobody can ‘lord’ it over someone else. We stand on a flat plain, together. Now we choose to follow Jesus Christ – He IS the book come alive. Digestion is so much more important than knowledge! In our lifetime we can become His book to others by doing what it says. And when we get stuck – we ask for His help. Bye.👋

P 2624 Take positive action.

/ DVH

“Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbour; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone you will presently come to love him.” (CS Lewis.)

God said that like this, in Colossians 3:2-10: “Set your minds on things that are above …(!!!That’s where the real action is!) “… not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ Who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator….”

… “  (12-14) “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

So here’s my question — WHO gets all this nifty, but really nitty, gritty, hard stuff? We do! You. Me. US! This means I can’t sit about on my hands praying fervently that the Lord will change me … while I keep on doing the stuff the bible says DON’T DO! This is a really good time to remember that the Lord put Jonah in a whale (!!) to get him back on track. So if you wanna be rebellious, then you’d better stay away from SeaWorld!

Seriously, this stuff is a no-brainer. We need to take what Jesus said and make it our great AIM to leave the ugly stuff that will tangle us up and make us fall over, behind us. If you are a fighting person who gets bad tempered at the drop of a hat, then whack your hand over your mouth and vacate the premises. And don’t come back until the urge has left you! Our mouths get us in so much trouble – sadly, I have learnt this truth the hard way. What we say, or sometimes refuse to say … is responsible for so many bad things. If we choose to abuse someone else it will escalate – and unless you are talking to a door, then that other person will retaliate!

No-one wins in an argument. Even if you think you’ve won you’ve lost! When we bad mouth or abuse someone else, we are deliberately walking away from the Lord and empowering the Old Self. Jesus won’t interfere, He wants us to take responsibility for our own behaviour. Honestly, I don’t care what they said — what am I going to do about it? We must stop expecting the Lord to supernaturally intervene, and work on changing our own hearts. HE WILL HELP US but He will not do it for us! Nothing else matters but being with Him.  So put away the things that are going to drag us away from loving Him, worshipping Him, following Him. We cannot serve two Masters. Jesus said that in Matthew 6:24. 

For those of you who are related or married to somebody who loves to pick fights, or someone who gets irritable easily … stop blaming them, and quit engaging with the argument. I don’t care how wrong they are – what is the kingdom of God worth to you? Sadly, for some people it is worth less than their own opinion. We want all the power in the world so we can move mountains, but we cannot deal with the mountains of disapproval, criticism and lust in our own lives? Good luck moving that other mountain Jesus spoke about, if you can’t control YOU.

Start speaking love and approval to the other person. It is extremely hard to argue with someone else who keeps telling you how terrific you are, how valuable you are. It is not lying – that person is valuable to God! When we are angry with someone, we rehearse their faults – why not rehearse their good points?! Life is not a competition, it is not about who wins or loses. It is about life and death. Yours, theirs and the people around us. We’ve been put here to shine His light into a dark place —- not to increase the darkness! Lastly, revenge belongs to the Lord, so do yourself a favour and don’t get in His Way.

Jesus said this verse nobody likes, remember? (Matthew 5:29)“And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for. thee that one of thy members should perish, and. not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” Imagine what we would all LOOK LIKE if we took that verse seriously! 😱 We need to choose to participate in positive actions with His help. Lastly, “Love your enemies …” — because at the very least you will drive them crazy!

Bye. 👋

P 2591 My thoughts about mercy and grace.

/ DVH

“Overflow with mercy and compassion for others, just as your heavenly Father overflows with mercy and compassion for all.”” Luke 6:36 TPT. “Mercy is NOT getting what I deserve, and Grace is getting what I DON’T deserve…” Bill Johnson.

Personally, I’m not actually sure Christians have absorbed the fact that the undeserved mercy and/or compassion we have been given, has been given to us in over-abundant excess – so we have lots, and we can give it away! We need to be alert and become the people who can discern His mercy when it comes toward us…. instead of choosing to become debt collectors, who collect other people’s mistakes! A whole lot of people have actually been very good to us, when we were too dumb to know the way we were acting, was not Godly. Recognising you have been given undeserved mercy and compassion is the best way I know to abound in it … as well as overflow with it toward other people! 

Here’s a helpful hint – you and I have been given mercy because we NEED mercy!  And at the absolute bottom of that thought is the idea that you and I are not all that. Meanwhile, it does not look like we will end up being all that, any time soon either! 😂 Human beings can easily lack bigness of heart. But because we are following Jesus, and He allowed His big loving heart to be broken for our sakes, our only acceptable response to His bigness is to pass that mercy and grace we received ON to others who don’t deserve it either! We all need a whole of lot of mercy and compassion, all the time — particularly the overflowing kind. 

The problem with human beings is that we can think quite well of ourselves, and we can be ignorant of how incredibly costly the mercy we’ve freely received from others  – IS. Godly mercy is expensive to those amongst us who turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile … and patiently wait for you to find out you are not the nice person you think you are! I try to remember that the MERCY I have been given cost Jesus Christ His life. He has given us such amazing transforming benefits by releasing His grace and mercy upon us. But one of the biggest things I need to remember is that He actively encouraged me to pass what I GOT from Him, on to YOU. 

The best way to begin comprehend what mercy, compassion or grace really means, is to realise I don’t and will not ever deserve either one of them because of the sinful state He found me in. These graces are cultivated. God didn’t feel sorry for me – He forgave me! Therefore, I can’t brag about something I was given because the Giver is always the greater One. The truth is it doesn’t actually matter if you don’t deserve it either – you and I are in the same boat, and next time it will probably be my turn! We need to live this new life we were given remembering that we have nothing that was not given to us. (1 Corinthians 4:7)

Most people don’t understand how utterly rebellious we still are! Without daily recognition of God’s grace and His mercy that freely flowed out from the cross toward us … we can easily become a kind of penultimate narcissist with a complete self-interest that is totally pathological!  Sadly, there are people don’t even bother to hide that anymore. They wear their attitude with pride like a badge, and call it self-discovery!! To be merciful to difficult people in today’s world will take every bit of the mercy and grace Jesus has given us. We will have to go back to Calvary’s well over and over again. That’s what “leaning on Him” means. We are in a process, with His supervision, that will soften our hard hearts toward the world we live in, if we let it.

A hardened heart does not comprehend mercy, or grace. The more we allow the Lord to break our hearts with what breaks His heart, the softer our hearts will become. Human beings don’t want to live like that. So this means I will continually need to get these things from the Lord, to give to you! That takes humility. Very few of us know that we aren’t naturally humble. We’ve all learnt to make nice polite noises, and remain silent in the face of someone else’s bad attitude, and so we hope that will do. The wisdom to keep your mouth shut is not the same thing as deliberately loving the person who hurts you.

Here’s a thought that may save your life and sanity, as well as your often-broken heart  … people who lack these things, can’t give you what they haven’t got! They are childishly stuck in ‘me first’ and ‘my turn!’ These dear folk might understand these things in principle, but the reality is this, they are scared to face the revelation of who they actually are – inside. Christians are not nice. We are redeemed not nice!  When we face who we really are – in the light of His goodness and unconditional love – it stops being scary, and His grace and mercy get bigger.

Everything that we thought was good about ourselves DISSOLVES in the reality light of Christ’s own character and loving kindness toward us. We need to be progressively reshaped into His image one decision at a time. And learning to receive and give away grace and mercy empowers us to do it. 👋

P 2561 Anonymity can be a great blessing.

/ DVH

When you were a kid did you ever wish you had a cloak of invisibility? I did! Especially when an adult was coming at me with something in hand to punish me. Whether I was wrong or not …I truly felt I needed that cloak!. Unfortunately my mouth let me down a lot and I usually managed to say some dumb thing, or argue with my parent, and that resulted in even more discipline! I just kept digging holes with my mouth instead of remaining shtum. Kids have limited wisdom! 

However, that is not my reason for talking about anonymity today. In my opinion, fame is fleeting. The people who pat you on the back on the way up, will kick you in the tush on the way down! Fame is not always what it is cracked up to be, you only have to read the news to see that. Famous people are subject to a great deal more criticism and critique – the word jealousy springs to mind.

These words from Galatians 5:15 in the bible leap out at me: “It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?”

Fame is not only overrated, it is most definitely NOT OUR aim.“For even the Son of Man did not come expecting to be served but to serve and give His life in exchange for the salvation of many.”” Matthew 20:28 TPT. So let’s get this sorted … the One Who saved the world, did not aim at fame, or power, or notoriety … Jesus Christ aimed at elevating Almighty GOD when He saved US – not Himself.  Which may well be the reason that most kids today know way more about Star Wars, Harry Potter and Pokemon than they do about the Lord Jesus!

Over the years I have come to notice that we kind of look down a bit on our faithful Sunday School teachers, or Religious Educators in schools, as being a bit old fashioned. But these people know all about anonymity. Most of us won’t have a clue about what they do, week by week, so the children of these times can find out that the Lord’s Name is the name of a wonderful Person … not just a swear word. Today I want to take the time to remember those who faithfully serve. It seems to me that most of the time nobody notices what they do. 

You know who I mean. Brother So-and-so, who faithfully puts out the chairs week by week and is always up for a letter box drop to let people know where your church is. Or Sister-I-forgot-her-name who calls up younger Christians regularly to make sure that they haven’t wandered off the path. She also goes to the hospital to visit people as well calling into homes. She prays for the saints that are sick, and sincerely asks them if she can help in any way. She’ll probably hand you a cup of tea or coffee next Sunday!

I find it fascinating in a world that is obsessed by fame that these quietly achieving servants of God go virtually unnoticed. Because these people are the ones who actually understand they are not here to be served, they are here to serve. Oops! I think I said a bad word. That would be the word … SERVE. In this blab it and grab it, everything belongs to me lifestyle, where my service has to be noticed or I won’t do it — we are incredibly fortunate to have any people who still think that following Jesus means serving others. Because I strongly suspect the idea of serving the Lord and others nowadays, means other-people-are-supposed-to-serve-me and make my ministry famous. 

Many people want to be like the characters in the “Cheer’s Bar” on TV,  we want to be where everybody knows our name! Well I want to point out that if we are following Jesus, then those steps always go down. Not up. They will lead us on an excruciating journey like the one HE had — carrying something that weighed 165lbs (75kgs) on bloodied torn open shoulders and back. Not to mention a horrendously painful headache! Let’s think about carrying that lot up and down through a large city to a hill outside it, where the people we pass by yell abuse at us. 

Even when we arrive at our destination, we will be flanked by known thieves. Our reputation is in the bin. People jeer as they see us, because human beings have an incredibly perverted sense of winning when someone else appears to be losing! Humility is lost on most people. Yet while Christ was suffering excruciating pain He still breathed out forgiveness. That’s real service. We are called to be laid-down lovers of Jesus – that means, my kingdom go – His kingdom come.

Today, more than ever, we need to follow Christ into serving mankind by demonstrating His love to people who will never deserve it. And anonymity can be a blessing. 👋