Hungry

P 2850 Risky living applied.

/ DVH

“We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love He has for us. God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and GOD LIVES THROUGH THEM.”1 John 4:16 TPT. We can easily breeze through this life unaware of what God’s love looks like – perhaps because we unfortunately measure love by this world’s standards. This verse is a great measuring stick, one of many we have been given. The New Testament and the Gospels are filled with measuring sticks about what the Love of God actually looks like.

Are you living in love? Maybe your reply might be … “Well, of course… I love my kids and my spouse … most-of-the-time, and my church friends, my immediate family etc. YES! I am living in love!” So, Whose definition of Love are you using? There’s the rub. We tend to use our natural human feelings to tick that box. Here’s another box for you: be honest — who don’t you love? “Well, I love everybody, but there are some people I like more than others.” Right. 

So if you had a blind beggar who stole things, and he camped outside on your front lawn, would you take him in and feed him, and help him before you sent him on his way? Or maybe you would give him a couple of dollars to help him out? Hmmm? God utterly wrecked my life when He showed me my hidden hypocrisy. He did that by introducing me to HIS kind of people. People who utterly would, and DO, take blind beggar/thieves into their homes. You know, most homeless people do not do nice things, especially when they are starving and needy. And no, avoidance is not a good idea. Loving others this way, is not just someone else’s ministry. I took that excuse out for a walk and it crashed and burned. Because of what Jesus has given us, living like this is utterly possible.

One of these precious, always challenging Christians said to me: “What if the homeless poor came into your pretty house and, accidentally or not, smashed up all your lovely china, and pinched your special things?” Well, that whole thought was a big fat reality rush. I realised that I had a truck load of excuses for the way I was living, while so many other people in this world have to steal or scrounge in order to live. Feeling sorry for poor people doesn’t help them much, even if you do shed a tear. Love always looks like something. It looked like sacrificing His life to Jesus!

Our sensibilities fool us. They tell us that it will be OK to do this or that. So getting rid of thieving blind beggars is the responsible thing to do. Call the cops, let them sort those guys out! But, what have we done to our hearts when we act like that? Because it is our hearts that matter to the Lord — what are we doing with our hearts when we ignore the homeless poor at our doorstep, the needy in our own families – as we drive by in expensive cars that could feed them for years. Is that love? Is that the kind of love the Lord means? Is it even what love truly looks like? You know, we cannot stay comfortable and still follow Jesus …that’s not love, it’s fooling yourself.

The Lord Jesus didn’t live a comfortable life. He shared His life with the downtrodden, poor and hungry. He used His faith to feed people. He set the kind of example that we can easily attribute to others — the more spiritual-people-than-me Christians. He talked to and explained salvation to anyone, even the people He wasn’t sent to, and shared the gospel with them. Love does that! And He specifically taught us to love our enemies. Remember, to Jesus — loving means we will DIE – one way or another!! Our response to this kind of radical advice, is to mentally eliminate any potential enemies with a pretty feeble bunch of excuses that fall over instantly when the Lord turns His eyes on them.

I am not saying that we should sell our houses and live in a shack! But please never forget that other people are our responsibility. Jesus had no home of His own. No fancy place to lay His dear head from when He was born ’til He died. And even then, He had only the clothes on His back. When we care for others it is like we are doing it for Him. Think about the state of the world around us, there are the rich, and then there are the desperate. – is there no middle ground? Is there no way we can live more simply and help those who have no way to live at all? Or are we going to leave ‘that kind of stuff’ to the evangelists and missionaries, because we think it isn’t ‘our’ ministry. Ya might like to rethink that thought!

This world is not going to believe in a loving, kindly, merciful, gracious Saviour when His so-called family all live comparatively comfortable lives, and only give away what they think they can afford! That’s not Risky Living – it’s hypocrisy. No wonder people don’t want to join us, they are too busy scrambling for their next penny. There are times when we even fail to properly care for our church families. However you look at it, obedience to His Word means we open our doors to loving the kind of people we would normally walk around.

To live like Christ did we need to engage in Risky Living and start loving others … which, BTW, is called living by faith in the bible. We need to do the sort of stuff that is way outside of our comfort zone. Otherwise we will one day exit this world still protecting what is supposedly “mine.” Our personal thoughts about comfort and money shouldn’t ever stop us from caring for others. Changing our lives is not impossible – the bible shows us that. Bye. 👋

ps. Our precious family member has gone home – his race was run. Heaven is rejoicing.😢

P 2819 Antagonistic people.

/ DVH

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;..”Matthew 5:44.“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.” Luke 6:27. Here’s how it works – you find out who are your enemies then you deliberately, as in, on purpose, do something nice for them. Start by blessing them. Yeah, you know, if everybody did this then it is likely that our so-called enemies would not know they are our enemies! Think about it.

Living like the bible says takes a quality decision. There is no turning back or quitting. Here’s another favourite, much memorised verse – just kidding!!: 🤣 “…and a man’s enemies will be the members of his [own] household [when one believes and another does not]…” Matthew 10:36. I imagine most of the people who read this blog have experienced that last one. Long ago I had a first hand experience of this one. Praise God those people are now following the Lord themselves. But I know enough to know that a happy result does not always follow hard choices … there was a big space in the middle! People can be like mules.

Now, let’s look at Romans 12:20.“On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Romans 12:14 ““Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them.” I have prayed that last verse many times through clenched teeth. I persevered until I was able to let go of my anger! Being transformed involves choices and self-control.

You know, I can’t help but wonder how many wars might have been stopped if mankind acted on these verses. It seems to me that the entire world has gone from what the Apostle Paul said …into this style of thinking … ‘they did bad things to us, now let’s exterminate them.’ O-Kay! …That could be called extreme…!!  We can fool ourselves that we are justified in our anger, but that’s not what the book says – outside of Christ Himself, there is no justification … so why would anybody choose to live there?

This whole subject about enemies is a very interesting personal study. Because we often don’t think we have any! We will grudgingly acknowledge that we sort of kind of don’t like some people all that much. Now here is something else I’ve learnt that is fascinating. Never go into why you don’t like so and so – even in your mind. ASAP take those thoughts captive. 9 times out of 10 that kind of thinking leads to not liking that person/people even more! Many times in the past I have read verses about the way we need to treat enemies, and I have thought to myself …’I have no enemies …’ Hah! That’s like asking yourself “who am I mad at?’ It doesn’t work. Now I will give you my advice for free … 

Try not to excuse yourself on the grounds that “I-am-a-very-nice-person-just-ask-me !!”…  … Instead ask the Holy Spirit what He thinks. Ask Him who you see as an enemy. Take a pencil and some paper with you, OK? Because I’ve learnt that this kind of stuff excuses itself, hides, and jumps straight into blame … We excuse our feelings and put pretty titles on them. Like: ‘This kind of person and I are not compatible.’ The very worst kind of lies are the ones we tell ourselves … because they are so hard to uncover.

The answer to this dilemma is to ask the Holy Spirit to help us to love people the way He does. Even the ones who would like to see our heads on a pike! After that we must be prepared to go to war within ourselves, because our old self does not want to die, and it has strong roots and a big pile of great excuses!

There are times when giving into what the Lord wants, seems to be losing a battle we badly want to win, but: “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12.25. The battle belongs to the Lord, just point your heart at Him and hang on. I will warn you, sometimes it takes a while to hear that mythical fat lady sing … 

There are also times when I think that fear motivates us far more than we realise. “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes; with Your right hand You save me.” Psalm 138:7. When we believe this, and live by it, as well as counting on verses like this one, we are ‘living in the secret place, the shelter of the Most High God…Whose power no foe can withstand.” We don’t have to be afraid, GOD HAS A PLAN. Like Esther we can say: “If I die I die.”  

Except some of the time we have 94 good reasons why we shouldn’t die — yet! Those are the very best times to go ahead and choose to do it anyway. Stop counting how many times you’ve let somebody else off the hook even though they keep right on doing it – and do it one more time. And don’t peer into the future seeing the same result stretching on and on .. that’s not faith, it’s necromancy.

Antagonistic people are a gift. They call our attention to the stuff in our lives that we don’t want to see. They help us grow bigger than the traps the enemy has set before us. Now we get to fight different battles, not the same one over and over again. See you next time, bye. 👋

P 2818 More Treasure … Part 2.

/ DVH

“Jesus answered him, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is within you.’ This is the great and supreme commandment. And the second is like it in importance: ‘You must love your friend in the same way you love yourself.’”Matthew 22:37-39 TPT.

Let’s put this verse in context. An expert in the law went to speak with Jesus. This man was a serious God-fearing sort of man – but his ultimate aim was to test the Lord’s right to claim who He said He was and do what He was doing. Chapter 23 of Matthew shows Jesus interacting with the religious leaders of the day. These men regarded themselves as the keepers of the true faith, so they stood against anything that appeared to be new. They took their faith very seriously.

We need to remember that Jewish people, even today, are living the way they do to please God and they’ve been living this way for centuries! I found that they have 613 commandments in their faith, and these precious people do their best to obey them … to the letter of the law. That’s devotion. I am not going to comment on what I think about the way they live, I simply want to point out that Jesus took all those commandments from that time, and summed them up in TWO.

It must be very clear to anyone reading this blog that I am not an expert in these matters, as a matter of fact I have no information about what laws were current in those days, I just simply want to say this – I guarantee you that what Christ said — covered them all!  Please do note, that the Lord said the second commandment He gave was like the first. This is my point today, He gave that second commandment weight and importance by what He said in that moment. 

I wanted to write about heavenly treasures today, because I think it is an error to push our families, or the even people around us to one side, and simply say: “I’m going after God first.” Paul himself said we’d be better off not married because marriage produces divided loyalties! When we go after God we may be doing our best to obey the first commandment, but if we are not careful we could be going after the letter of the law – but not what is at its heart. Using the bible to prove any point is like using God’s word as a sledgehammer. His Word is like pure clean water and soap – it is not an implement to bash people. Remember, at the heart of God’s law is always LOVE. And we have a great checklist in 1 Corinthians 13 – so we know what love looks like, and what the Lord Himself is looking for! 

I said all that to explain that we can’t use obeying God as an excuse to dodge our responsibilities. EG: If your kid has blood pouring out somewhere then that kid needs to be your priority. Nor can we gloss over our responsibilities as a spouse or a parent, by making prayer meetings, etc. more important than they are. We cannot let rules discount genuine human needs. And yes, that means we must ask the Holy Spirit to help us …all the time. Sometimes, we may even need to protect our spouse from themselves, because they may say, in a spirit of co-operation … even though they are ill: “I’m OK really – you go.” Think about this subject like this, who on earth can compete with this statement: ‘God told me.’ (??)

I like that word ‘neighbour’ better than ‘friend’ and in some versions it says ‘neighbour.” You can choose your friends, but you can get stuck with your neighbours. Obviously, one of those two things will test us more! And now might be a good time to remember that the word ‘love’ is a verb not a noun! Love looks like something. It looks like food to the hungry. Being included to the lonely. Comfort for the grieving. Undeserved kindness. Love doesn’t have to constantly look after itself because the Lord watches over those who live in Love.

Love also looks like a listening ear, and a big box of tissues to the heartbroken. We must learn to treat people as valuable, because no matter how broken they are – they are incredibly valuable to Him. We don’t get to choose who God will love and redeem … that’s His job! Jesus put a price on mankind that was extraordinary – we are worth His life! His choice increased every single human being’s value.

Faith is personal. That means somebody else can’t give it to you, all they can do is give you an opportunity to embrace it. Everybody around us, on the bus, in the shops, at the beach, at school, at work – every single person is a  treasure to God.  That’s why Jesus emphasised loving our neighbour like ourselves. And I think that’s why He told the story of the Good Samaritan … but that’s for another day. Bye. 👋


“If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates (works against) his [Christian] brother he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” 1 John 4:20.

P 2814 Never EVER forget how much He loves you.

/ DVH

I have found out when life ambushes us, and hard things, or difficult situations – or even other people, add to our pain – it is easy to forget how truly loved we are. The presence of pain does not mean we are not loved! Almighty God dearly loves all His people. To fully comprehend how much, instead of reading the Old Testament as a collection of stories, look for how patient He is with Israel. I honestly believe Israel’s inability to remember that they were His chosen people and what that was meant to create for them… caused Father God untold pain! Look for the precious things He says to this nation – if you listen carefully you can hear His heart breaking because His love is lying at their feet — unappreciated. 

“For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel has said this, “In returning [to Me] and rest you shall be saved, In quietness and confident trust is your strength.”But you were not willing, …”Isaiah 30:15. “Thus says the Lord: “What wrong did your fathers find in Me that they went far from Me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?”Jeremiah 2:5. Humanity’s sin has broken God’s heart and we have that fact clearly illustrated even medically at Calvary – Jesus died of a broken heart. This verse is from the New Testament: “He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.” John 1:11. These people did not know their God even when they met Him!

It is no use to say to ourselves that we would not have done that. Sin is common to man. We have all had times when we have been so self-obsessed we would not have offered the Lord Himself a room or a bed. Remember what He said? ‘When do you these things for the least of these you are doing them for ME.’ He comes to each of us each day, just to remind us how much we are dearly loved by the Father, the Son, and by the Holy Spirit, our precious Messenger of Love.

The bible tells us our God loves everybody, all kinds of people, old, or young, or wise or foolish, grumpy ungrateful people. We merrily quote “God so loved the world that He gave…”but we forget to add to that thought that it COST HIM to do it. That’s what love looks like, and this is how God expresses His love – sacrifice. What Jesus did for us was free to us, but it cost Him His life to do it, and it cost our Heavenly Father to allow it to happen. He’s a FATHER … and He’s a good good Father! We are the apple of His eye and love is His primary motivation.

Meanwhile, don’t waste your time feeling guilty, or ashamed, or inadequate – instead stop thinking about yourself at all — and give the Lord your sincere, heartfelt appreciation! He did everything He did because He loves us. As human beings we often associate love with getting what we want when we want it, or when we think we need it.  Sometimes people just want the easiest and most fun answers! We link love with feelings of comfort and ease or feeling special – but God’s love is eternally linked to a cross and an empty tomb. 

In my opinion we need to get our heads around the fact that authentic love always wants the best for the other person! Guess what! God sees you and I as the best, so He gave us His best. We are so precious to Him, He is longing to marry us to His Son. And He is very satisfied with the bargain He made by giving His Son’s earthly life in exchange for our eternity with Him.  You and I might worry over Aunt Minnie or Uncle Fred because they are not ‘saved.’ Imagine how HE feels. The Lord Himself knows them intimately. He gave them that cheeky smile, and those sparkly eyes and He longs to talk to them. They are not strangers to Him – they are His beloved.

We have clear descriptions of what God’s love looks like in 1 Corinthians 13 and Colossians 3. That kind of love is the love Almighty God Himself chose to clothe Himself in when He came to earth. His precious Son, His chosen human personification, had no soft, stylish baby clothes — Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes. Strips of cloth – the baby clothes of the poor. That tiny little precious infant slept on straw, have you ever even sat on straw? It’s not something you’d want for a brand new infant! I encourage you to never ever forget how much He loves you – it is more than just nice scriptures – it is a fact!  Bye. 💕

“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one—for God Himself has given us right standing with Himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?

(As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.)” NO, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, Who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed,nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:31-39.

P 2812 Contentment has great value.

/ DVH

Here’s a great source of contentment for us from the Bible: “His love endures forever” — that’s in Psalm 136, it is repeated 26 times. Now there’s something we can attach our contentment to! In this mixed up world we need firm anchors for our faith, and the fact that God’s love is never-ending is a great anchor! Jesus freely gave us His access to contentment.

Let’s look at one of the Lord’s servants and see how this grace worked out for Him. Paul teaches us that we can learn to be content In any circumstance. In the book of Philippians, he clearly tells us he lived that way himself. Yet this saint’s life was full of more ups and downs than a giant roller-coaster on steroids – with a death wish! I have always thought that any guy with a theory is completely disadvantaged by the man who has experience, and Paul had heaps of experience.

We will begin by reading Philippians 4:9-13 “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.”

You know I am constantly learning, often the hard way –  that when I am not content with what I have, and worse stuff happens, life quite quickly seems like the sky is falling. Ya might want to think on that one. We are now look at the Apostle Paul’s life very briefly — he was beaten three times with rods. Stoned once. Thrown in jail, and wait for it – shipwrecked three times! I mean can you imagine that? He tells us he was hungry, thirsty, cold and not clothed, dragged in front of governors etc. to ‘please explain!’ Plus he was once bitten by a poisonous snake! Meanwhile, in his spare time, he only wrote 23% of the entire Epistles!! That’d be funny if it was not so weird!

It can be easy to think that this was Paul, and he was specially gifted. But if we look at his life carefully we can see that he learnt to be content through … or even because of, his circumstances and suffering. You know, I’ve tried the popular system that says we are meant to claim this and speak out that – and I found that I was just going round and round, spiritually speaking. I didn’t actually grow! Instead, I kept fighting the same battles over and over again. The only sign of growth I had was grow in the wrong direction! I grew impatient with the Lord for not recognising all my efforts to follow Him! Boy, that’s not a good place to land! Self-effort promotes self … and …discontentment, and discontented people make allowances for repeated dumb responses!

Real growth started to happened when I chose to learn to be content no matter what was going on. Now let’s be clear, I would hate to think that you think, that I am saying: “Look at what I did all by myself.”  Hah! The thing that utterly changed my whole walk with Jesus was when I learnt to be obedient to His word, His way and started to rely upon Him to help me do it.  I stopped making excuses for myself because “my life is hard, blah blah blah, boring boring boring,’ and I chose to forgive others, put bad stuff behind me, I believed He could save me from all of it.

Father God grabbed me in my heart one day when I was merrily rehashing someone else’s faults and He asked me this question. “How do you think that they can make up for all they have done to you?”  I was stumped. None of us can redo yesterday! It’s gone. Plus these people had no clue about what they had done over long periods of time. But that was the very thing that had skewed off my thinking into ‘poor me.’ Actually the people thought they had done well and I was the difficult one. 

I learnt a couple of useful things that day – only God knows human hearts, plus He’s the only One Who can change them. To do that He needs co-operation, and that can’t happen when the person doesn’t think they are wrong in the first place! I am still regularly tested about forgiveness, but something amazing has happened that is worth noting. I have become far more generous toward others when they annoy me, as I continue to acknowledge my own humanity. Given their circumstances, I could easily have taken some of the same roads they did…if it weren’t for God’s enduring love and what Jesus did for me.  

Here’s a piece of trivia that may change the colour of your day – the word “let” is used in the bible 1,511 times. In order for change to come we must let/allow God to change our perspective. The Lord has never said what happened to me in my life so far was OK with Him – instead He reminded me that sin is common to man. So instead of exacting verbal, emotional, physical, and mental retribution from someone, I have learnt to pray over it and let things go. 

The secret of contentment is to remember God always loves us and His love is enduring, steadfast and eternal. I urge you to focus on that – not on someone else’s sins, deliberate or not. Their sins against you and I are as forgiven – just like ours are. But when I focus on what someone else did to me, my ability to remain content disappears. That’s how I discovered that contentment is a thing of great value.  Bye 👋

P 2699 Nothing happens by chance.

/ DVH

I read this yesterday, and I thought it might be a blessing for others. It’s an exhortation from the translators of the Passion bible written by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez: It’s a great word, it lifted my spirit and I hope it does you good as well. We’ve been blessing people all week, and today it’s your turn! The Lord says to YOU –

“Come into the secret place and find encouragement that waters your thirsty soul. I have words of life to share with you today and living-understanding to strengthen you. Run into the shelter of My presence and let My love wash over you in a fresh way. I don’t offer stale bread to My hungry lovers. Eat of My now word. Tune your ear to My Voice.

Give Me the heavy weight of the burden of fear you are carrying. There may be uncertainty in your life, but I see everything clearly. There are no mysteries to Me, and I won’t let the tides of confusion sweep you away. See how My hand holds you steady. You cannot escape the grip of My glorious grace, child. 

What wondrous plans I have for you. What a future you have in Me. Let Me guide you further into My goodness as you follow My leading. I promise never to let you go or get too far ahead. I give you eyes to see from My perspective. Look to Me, and nothing will ever shatter your hope.”

Praise God for their gift of exhortation! Moving on to some real life testimonies … … we had a brief break last week and it seemed to us that the Lord is much more ready for us to speak to people than we are to do it! Any time we go anywhere, we find that there are suddenly numerous opportunities to talk to strangers. In the shops, or even to tradesmen in our home.

At our house, we have had some things break down and afterward we realised what happened wasn’t about the broken item … it was about us talking to the person who came to fix it!  We’ve seen this over and over again, Father God will bring people to us. He really is looking for His kids to share the wealth of heart knowledge He has given all of us. We need to freely talk about Him! This past week we have had all kinds of opportunities to encourage strangers..

While we were away, the internet in our rented holiday unit fell over, so a tech guy turned up to fix it. We were chatting away to each other, and we just included this guy in our conversation. After about five minutes, told us he had been very sick recently and he was very scared because he thought he might have had cancer. Now that is definitely God! People rarely go that deep that quickly with strangers!!

This young man went on to say they discovered it was coeliac’s disease. So hubby prayed for him. Meanwhile, the silly internet still kept blanking out…!!  You know, God isn’t interested in our comfort, but He IS always interested in people. Like I’ve said before, knowing His Ways helps a lot!

On Tuesday this week, a carer came to our house to clean the floors for us. To be truthful, I was a bit annoyed because I found out that our usual lady wasn’t coming …again! I never do these spiritual sums until afterward – I guess I’m a slow learner!! It has taken me four weeks to work out that we’ve not had our usual helper each time because the Lord wanted us to talk to other helpers about Him! 🙄 

This particular young woman was delightful and we very much enjoyed her company. She did a great job too. We had a very profitable time talking about her life, our lives, and the Lord. So much so she said; “I could stay here all day!” She also kept saying, over and over again: “There is so much joy in this house, I’ve never been in a home with this much joy before.”  You know, sometimes I’m so dumb I don’t notice things, unless the Holy Spirit sticks a great big “look here, dummy” sign on it! Hmm… you might think I’m joking … I’m NOT!

Hubby decided to call ahead to a place we are going to be staying at next week, as we make our way up north to give away bibles. He spoke about bringing blankets, toiletries and food for the poor. The young lady on the phone nearly came through the phone she was so excited. Apparently most small towns are quite overlooked when it comes to government aid. However the Holy Spirit personally picked that town. Who knew they had a homeless problem there? He did. 

I just want to finish today by saying that the Lord’s plans for us, to bless us, include everyone around us. Nothing happens by chance. It is good to see even inconvenient interruptions as opportunities for His kingdom. Bye 👋

1 Peter 2:9 ESV“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”

P 2651 The Western world is believing a lie.

/ DVH

I believe the lie is this: we think we are entitled to have a happy, prosperous care-free life. Who told us that? Where did that lie come from? And where does that leave the billions of poor people, those who are oppressed and tortured? Those people who constantly live in fear of their lives. They think they are lucky to have one meal a day, and their only shelter is a cardboard box or they sleep out in the open… victims of the elements. These people have no access to clean water, or facilities — all those things we take for granted in the Western World. Our thoughts of entitlement are terrifying … and unscriptural. (Read the book!) We are miserable because we are self-obsessed! Learn to be other centred.

Yet we can get irritated and out of sorts when our bus or train is late. Even our kids have learnt to live entitled lives – they feel deprived if they don’t have the latest iPhone!  Our society acts like the world we live in, is there to serve us. We lack GRATITUDE, big time. We need a much bigger attitude of gratitude and generosity. There are plenty of people in our own country who are doing it tough … who says we have to own a home at 25 years of age? The way to live this life as an overcomer is to not complain, or be jealous, angry or fretful – those things are a waste of the precious time we have been given. The way to overcome is to live like He did – Jesus used His faith all day every day – and He was thankful!

We must deliberately look for things we can be thankful for. Some days my attitude of gratitude is that I woke up!  There are millions of people across this planet who live on $2.15 a DAY. Let’s look at this life sensibly – ya can’t buy too many big Macs or chips and a coke for $2!  We don’t have to feel grateful to BE grateful, we simply need to be obedient.“In everything give thanks for this is the WILL of Christ Jesus concerning you!” I Thessalonians 5:18. Let’s use the time we have been given to be observant and interested in what is going on around us and help others. The feelings of gratitude often come later. Here are some scriptures that have impacted me:

“What do you have that was not given you?”  John 3:27, Romans 12:3. (That’s in the book twice!) “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21. Here’s another great diagnostic tool – people who are living in the flesh, are constantly reviewing and revising their current situation, looking for improvement, and feeling deprived if they think there is none. People of the Spirit know that: “My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory.”  Philippians 4:19. Father God is rich in ways we can’t count!  So if we don’t got it – then we don’t need it! If we lack something, ask the Lord for it, and if it doesn’t happen – then praise and thank Him that we can live without it.

Here’s something that Paul said that has always grabbed my attention: Philippians 4:11-13: “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.”Paul rejoiced in his lack because his lack gave him an opportunity to rely upon God even more! That’s a sentence that’ll blow our minds! It is the WAY we look at this life that helps or hinders our day to day living.

At the same time, other people can’t hurt us by their nasty attitudes … unless we let them. So we need to make a quality decision that the peace we get from the Lord Himself is worth something. It is a waste of time to make up excuses for others, sin is sin – forgive them instead. It is not our place to judge, so let’s pray and then give it all to God and let go. We need to put our everyday effort into remaining attached to Him and His ways – and let the world do whatever it must. Lately I’ve had to stop watching the news because I want to yell at the people on the TV for their appalling behaviour toward each other. 😳

Lastly, listen to this exhortation – it’s IN the book:“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8. I’m the boss of my mind. If it keeps thinking things that are out of line with what the bible says, then I need to deliberately renew my mind. Let’s begin to weed out the lies we’ve embraced and give His truth priority! The Word of God is our reference point, it is the Manufacturer’s handbook. It tells us how to proceed in this life we lead.

As we learn what it says, then we become responsible to apply what it says into our lives. It is not enough to memorise it – we must become it, by changing the way we think, and act. Using our faith. Many people are living a lie. We’ve become obsessed with wanting more, things that are bigger, brighter and more expensive. I know someone who has a clapped out old car – that car somehow runs on God’s goodness, forgedabout petrol! Personally, I know I’m blessed. I have food and shelter and medicine for what ails me, praise God! Amen. 👋

P 2435 You don’t have to be clever to serve Jesus.

/ DVH

1 Corinthians 2:4&5, 9&10TPT “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power… … However, as it is written:“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— these are things God has prepared for those who love Him—these are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit.”

Some people say that the Apostle Paul had a really big brain — they say that about Einstein too. Apparently Einstein’s brain was 15% bigger in some areas than ours is. But in these scriptures above, Paul carefully explains that it is NOT his brain that comes up with the stuff he wrote! Those words came from the Holy Spirit’s inspiration and wisdom. And then Paul said something truly amazing – his words were a demonstration of the Spirit’s power. The Holy Spirit’s words are extraordinarily powerful. They heal, release, and open spiritually blind eyes, instantly.

The bible is not just there to comfort our soul when we are sad, mad or under the weather – the bible is a spiritual thermometer and diagnostician. The next time you read it, highlight the bits that really annoy you or puzzle you … The comforting stuff is great, but if we read just to gain comfort we will not grow.

There are often times when the way to get past something awful that you feel stuck in, is to persevere, and keep on reading the bible. Then go find something you don’t like, and you don’t want to do, and then go and do what it says. If you want a breakthrough this will give you one. This book can teach us about our real selves … if we let it. Human beings don’t just hide from others, we hide from God — and ourselves. Sometimes, WE don’t want to know what we don’t know!

The bible shows us our errors and missteps, as well as comforting us with God’s everlasting eternal unshakeable love – not just NICE thoughts that tickle our ears. Our God’s love is passionately fierce – He will not turn a blind eye to something that damages or is destroying His children … … even if they choose it.

We must be careful about what we let our faith REST ON. Seriously, keep that thought in the forefront of your mind as you read His book. We cannot rest our faith on what someone else said. We need to rest it on what the Lord says to us, personally. This is why it is good to read until the Lord speaks to your heart. Anybody can take 3 different scriptures and make them say 200 different things. Just read this blog every day, I take a stab at that with what I write all the time! 😂 

You and I need the Holy Spirit’s personal attention in our own personal lives, hearts and minds, so He can apply what we read into our own situations. Principles are great, but principles are an overriding umbrella, an impersonal thought, that can and will shelter you and I. But we need our own little Holy Spirit-given raincoat and wellies when we are struggling along against the wind and rain. We need to hear from Him, for ourselves. 

Remember what Jesus said: “Man cannot live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” The bible is our daily bread – our daily bread is not toast, coffee or weeties! It’s His word. Every single day we need a personal glimpse into His glory, to keep our faith alive and vibrant. We cannot do that without the Holy Spirit’s input. What we read when we read what Paul, or Peter, or John wrote, is the insight and wisdom they got from day to day as they too studied and thought about the bible as they knew it. 

We can only read the Epistles etc. with the Holy Spirit’s help – otherwise some concepts seem old-fashioned and irrelevant. The Holy Spirit knows what will settle our hearts when we are disturbed or afraid. We cannot possibly imagine what God will say … yet, when He speaks, that changes everything. He even speaks to little children who are not apparently, fully developed yet! But little children can come up with the most profound things. I think that’s because their childish faith doesn’t put what they know up against what He said!

Our wonderful heavenly Father has so much more He wants to give us. We must never leave His table, the one He has prepared for us in the presence of our enemies, feeling hungry or in despair. Stay there until you are full! Those times are the exact time to put aside what this world has said about our own ability to study or think, and go on to pick up the love, advice, comfort and wisdom of the One Who was here before this world began. It takes listening obedience to serve Jesus, not just a clever mind. Bye. 👋🏻

p 2429 Bless others and be generous.

/ DVH

“Those who live to bless others will have blessings heaped upon them, and the one who pours out his life to pour out blessings will be saturated with favour.” Proverbs 11:25 TPT. Boy that verse paints a great picture, especially at a time like this, when things everywhere are so difficult. You know, when things are tough we can tend to look the other way, and hope any other people who are suffering, will look after themselves. There’s another way to look at tough times. “If it is this hard for US, what must it be like for THEM?” 

I want to be clear right at the very beginning of this blog – generosity is not just about money, or goods etc. or service. Being generous and blessing others, these are heart things. Things we voluntarily do to enrich someone else’s life. This life will never be about who has the most – it is about who loves the most. Jesus told us when we do this stuff we are doing it for HIM. This means anything we do for others is not related to their relationship to us. Under the Holy Spirit’s guidance we care deeply about what happens to strangers. It happens because His love wells up inside us, and we start praying He will show us how to help.

Sometimes living like this means we will text or phone someone just to see how they are doing. It means becoming involved in the day to day issues that many people face, but doing that…without taking over. Blessing others means offering support, and letting the other person know that they are not alone. It also means not storing up our wealth down here on earth, but instead we share it with those who are less fortunate – and Jesus says that is storing it up in heaven!

It also means spending time on our knees, as we hold up someone else’s plight before the throne of God like it is our own issue. God’s love in us does not stand back and wait to see what will happen next. Nor does it wait to see if it is going to be needed. That’s because His love is not afraid of rejection. Jesus was always incredibly generous with His time. He sought to bless others, simply because it is a part of His nature. As we follow Him our goal is to become a people whose generosity increases.  

We need to continually ask Him for His help so we can make practical and caring suggestions. We do that because in times of trouble people have enough to cope with, and thinking up something for you to do to help me, when I’m drowning, is too much work! Plus that isn’t actually helping!! The only thing that kind of action helps is our own conscience. “Well I tried to help them, but there didn’t seem to be anything I could do.”  Suddenly it is their fault if they are going down for the third time, because they couldn’t think straight under pressure!

Suffering people need somebody to lift the rubble of this life off them, and stop their proverbial bleeding. Somebody who cares enough to take them into their hearts until that injured party can stand up again. Love looks like something. In things like this it looks like commitment! Generosity, and blessing others looks like something concrete.“Beloved children, our love can’t be an abstract theory we only talk about, but a way of life demonstrated through our loving deeds.” 1 John 3:18 TPT.

Blessing people is not just restricted to helping those who cannot help themselves or even people who have little or no resources. All kinds of people can be spiritually and emotionally poor. We can open doors for the spiritually hungry by loving them in spirit and action. In prayer, words, and also practical ways. Being generous toward other people is also about the way we view what we actually have. Is it ours … or is it HIS? Do we bless the people we know and like, or will we help anyone? A life poured out for others is a life well-lived. Jesus modelled that.

Sometimes our time given to someone else includes weeping with them. Then we pray. One by one we hand all the things that are concerning that person back to the Lord, without preaching at them, or imparting condemnation. Always remembering that we are there specifically to bless, and we want to bring forth “An apple of gold in a setting of silver” — not a baseball bat and a lump of coal! 

A generous person who blesses others is selfless. Their aim is to leave the other person better off than they found them – closer to God and each other. Our generosity with our time, and care, as well as our finances can utterly transform someone else’s life under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. It opens inner doors. 🤗

P 2427 Forget needing a sandwich!

/ DVH

“Then the disciples began to insist that Jesus eat some of the food they brought back with them, saying, “Teacher, you must eat something.” But Jesus told them, “I have eaten a meal you don’t know about.” Puzzled by this, the disciples began to discuss it among themselves, “Did someone already bring Him food?” To clarify, Jesus spoke up and said, “My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me and bring it to completion.”” John 4:31-34 TPT

Now there’s a tasty lunch: ‘My FOOD is to do the will of Him Who sent Me!’ Hubby sent me this scripture yesterday … after reading it himself. We sometimes do that. We like to swap any scriptures that grab us. This one, plus what hubby said he saw in it, blew my socks off! Meanwhile … I don’t actually wear 🧦 (… just saying is all.) 

Here’s what hubby said to me: “What if ‘doing what He says’ is the very thing that is meant to sustain our lives today? NOW?” As you can see, I thought what he said was incredibly important… Meanwhile … I’m still thinking on it … that’s a really big mind-blowing thought! Sometimes the Lord just has to shift our gears and turn us in another direction to reveal Himself further. Like C.S. Lewis said: “Higher up and further in!”  PS … isn’t it interesting that this revelation came after I talked about … ‘MORE Lord,’ yesterday? 😶

However, my immediate response was this: ‘I’m sure I couldn’t say that!’ It was the word ‘sustain’ that grabbed me by the throat. Then I came up with questions. What does sustain mean? What actually refreshes me so much it is like food to me? Is doing what God wants my primary mission? I love to obey Him when He prompts me to do something, and it blows my mind and heart to watch Him at work … but … sadly no – at this stage I don’t think I could say it is food and drink to me. Because food and drink, like Jesus said, sustain life.

Jesus Christ never had to ‘try to be spiritual.’ As it says, at that particular moment, He was simply hungry. You know, I don’t think the Lord ever shifted His focus from God’s will the whole time He was on earth! Jesus was never distracted by this life. And at that moment, when He was talking to that lady at the well, that fed Him in a way that blows my mind. He was so specific later on when He talked to His disciples. He called that simple interaction, food. He wasn’t even obsessed at all, as we often are, with getting another soul into the kingdom! Jesus didn’t do that. He didn’t have altar calls, or a show of hands. He let the truth loose to speak for itself. 

Imagine walking through this life, with all its twists and turns, so full of the life and love of God, when things bump into you – you spill that life and love everywhere. “Do me like that please Lord!” Amen!

Back to my point. What the Lord said to His disciples wasn’t a metaphor either! Jesus meant real food. He was energised and satisfied in His flesh by something He did in the Spirit. Doesn’t that just blow your mind? What a wonderful consequence to doing the will of God … We know that He walked minute by minute with the Holy Spirit, wherever He went. They flowed together to please the Father and impact mankind. 🤯 !

You know, when I look at some of the marvellous saints who have gone home before me, I stand rebuked by their strong faith and purpose. I can see there were many who have since died, who were definitely sustained in this life by what they did in faith. Their lives were lived in pure dedication to making His Name famous. People with hearts like the Moravians. Who left homes and families behind in this life to serve Christ in the darkest places on the earth. They had such devotion to Him. The very thought of those actions is astonishing to our hedonistic society – Jesus is more of a hobby, than a lifestyle. 

When I look at the Christian world around me I see many people who want to make a profit, as well as – making His Name famous and His will known. In my opinion, because we are the people who follow and want to serve Jesus Christ, we would be so much better off to be FED by what the Lord asks us to do – before we ever go on to those … “other things that He said would be added unto us!”

Instead we can easily end up living this life expecting Him to serve us, and as a consequence, sometimes we are disappointed when the outworking of our faith doesn’t meet our expectations. So here’s my conclusion, and it turned out to be an outrageous pun. At the very least – that verse is FOOD for thought! Bye. 👋🏻