Intelligent

P 3342 HOW?

/ DVH

Philippians 1:9-11: “So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.”

I have come to understand that Paul’s prayers are not just in the Epistles for the churches he started and pastored – those prayers are for us too. It is good to read these things aloud and say Amen … I personalise the scriptures and pray them for myself. I’ve been praying for years that “the eyes of my heart would be enlightened” so I can see what He wants me to see. PS I also ask for wisdom. I don’t stop praying for that, because I don’t want to put a ceiling on what He wants to give me. And I thump the daylights out of Psalm 91, mainly because I need to remember every single day I’m only a spectator – participation is optional!!

Yesterday what I wrote was pretty intense. When I read things like yesterday’s blog, my first response is always: “That’s terrific, and I am all revved up and ready to go… but how?” … The secret is in the HOW …  BTW today’s blog is not comprehensive, however I have learnt it is good to make some sort of a beginning – and remember to be kind to yourself while you are learning – God is! Stay filled with the Spirit – if you mess up, repent, and refill. If you give out to others refresh yourself in His love for you.

The Apostle Paul tells us what love looks like over and over again in the scriptures. Part of HOW is this: Love looks like something. It looks like patience when you ran out an hour ago and you and the Holy Spirit are wading through the ghastly stuff of life and He’s holding you up!  I think any mother can tell you what patience looks like.

I think it looks like a two year old who wants to get dressed “all by myself” … and then go to church in any old jumper, especially if it is inside out, together with odd socks and shoes – I let the kid wear them BTW!  Kindness looks like your elderly parent who tells the same stories over and over again and you already know them word for word. Kindness understands they are really saying: “I’m still here, I had a life, things happened to me too.”

Love looks like not giving someone else – who often clearly deserves it – a piece of your mind. Instead, you tell that person how much you appreciate them and why! ‘But, but, but – that’s so-oo bad — aren’t you lying?’ OK. Let’s unpack this — are you saying that telling them what you really think about them isn’t bad? BTW, for your info, I’m not talking about lying – I’m talking about asking the Holy Spirit what HE sees in that person to love. The Holy Spirit knows everything and He will share those things with you. This means I’ve received, for free, a whole heap of insight into the person who is bugging the daylights out of me. 

One of the Holy Spirit’s Names is HELPER – why not allow Him to help you! We have a Resident Helper Who knows you, as well as that other person. As I was typing He reminded me about a person who is in my ‘difficult to relate to file.’ I prayed and asked for His help, and I saw them just yesterday – we got along so well. I think it was because I relinquished my own efforts and gave our future conversations to Him.

This is the biggest part of the secret of HOW. I urge you to pray over things, repent of your own bad attitudes – and don’t forget to let Him decide what a bad attitude is! … Then give it all to Him and leave it alone. He’s GOD, He can do anything! Sometimes we think we can see what that the other person needs, and we don’t even ask the Lord what He wants! Bad plan. Take the time to consult the Master Planner first. He knows it all. He’ll tell you what to do, He will give us useful stuff to help us love others .

Plan to live a life of love. That’s my next bit of advice. You have to plan it, and own it, day by day. A life of love cares about others. It is not absorbed in promoting itself, and it doesn’t emphasise ME being understood, instead it concentrates on love. The last suggestion about how to do it – is this: There are things we often say, and we say them because we are down, or someone has hurt us. But, if we are honest, they really don’t need to be said – I would like to suggest that it is better if they are not said.  

I don’t think we need to be paranoid about these things, because then they can become a task that needs to be done, instead of a way of thinking about others. Let’s revise our thinking prayerfully, repent wherever necessary, but be careful not to end up religious about it. Religion prospers, because it becomes a cultivated habit … it’s easier! But it doesn’t bring LIFE. Listening to the Holy Spirit means we’ve given up our agendas and we want to walk in His. So that’s the how, to yesterdays’ theme – “there is a bigger reality.” Bye. 👋 

P 2990 The great wall of blankets … as seen from space!

/ DVH

“If we are out of our mind [just unstable fanatics as some critics say], it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for your benefit. For the love of Christ controls and compels us, because we have concluded this, that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that all those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for their sake. 

But all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ [making us acceptable to Him] and gave us the ministry of reconciliation [so that by our example we might bring others to Him], that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them [but canceling them]. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation [that is, restoration to favour with God].” 2 Corinthians 5:13-15,18-19 AMP.

Well you could easily think that hubby and I have lost the plot…until you read 2 Corinthians 5. Then, hopefully, maybe not! It seems the Apostle Paul also suffered from the same idiosyncrasies as we do, only his case was wa-ay worse than ours! He went on the road and stayed on it, permanently. He preached in jail as well. Gee I hope we never have to check that jail one out!! And what Paul is saying in Corinthians above in a nutshell is this – if I’m nuts, then I’m nuts for God, and if I’m sane then it is for your benefit.

He knew what was important, and he did more than ask people to church next Sunday – as if!!  Or hand out flyers and pass-it-on cards, he totally left comfort behind and travelled all over the Mediterranean preaching and starting churches. He was not just saying “I have A message” — he is saying “I have THE message.”  The message of the ages…  and … you in your small corner and I in mine ... we two are off on the road again! 

If I told you everything that is in our way you would think we have totally lost the plot! The thing is, we probably have. But Jesus is our Redeemer and He can take our spirit of stupid and do something amazing with it. All we need to do is be obedient. We are going because we too know we have been given the message of the ages and we want to give it away to everyone we meet. Our wonderful God is incredible, He turns up even when we have nothing to give. Actually, I should say – especially when we have nothing to give! He truly loves poverty- stricken people. Sometimes I wonder why we try so hard to look like we are coping, when God promises to be our strength. Moving on… 🙄

The above picture is just some of what we need to fit in our wonderfully elastic car. We have heaps of medical aids for me as well – not to mention some little things … like food and clothes! Every single time we go, hubby throws his hands in the air and says: “It is just not going to all fit in the car, I can’t fit it in.” This whole thing is becoming like a well-known play – the stuff always goes in. And afterwards we say things like:“I dunno how it went in, but it did. Just don’t sneeze OK?” Meanwhile the relief we feel when we off-load blankets, food, and bibles along the way is huge. Suddenly there is oodles more room… 

We once took our only slightly crazy dog on a trip with us … just once mind you … once was enough! Her presence added a degree of difficulty we were not equipped to handle. We are never doing that again. Instead we are giving her a holiday somewhere else safe. Anyway, hubby went around a particularly steep corner and a packet of chips and the lid of a container fell on her head.  She sat there for ages until we noticed she had a new hat, and then we figured out how far back that corner was! What a patient creature she is… I know I could definitely use some of her doggie patience.

As you already know hubby and I are big fans of love in action. Love in action facilitated me hearing the gospel. I was 27 years old. Years ago a dear older lady at a previous church used to come to my front door and give me the local parish newsletter every week. She didn’t have a car, and she walked all the way from her house to mine. I imagine I was one of many people she kept up with. 

I was highly suspicious of her kindness, and barely spoke to her when she appeared at my door, because I had 3 little kids who needed my attention. However, that lady just kept on coming … and when a crisis in my life occurred she was the person I phoned. I gave my life to Jesus on that day, all because she just kept on coming, week after week after week. We don’t always know what key will unlock someone else’s heart. But God’s love through her did not give up on me. She too was constrained by the love of God.

It is good to understand that loving God and others, starts with our obedience to what He has told us to do.“Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship.” Romans 12:1. 

I have absolutely no idea what God could possibly want with my busted elderly body, not to mention dear hubby’s bad back! My theory is this – let’s all just live our lives presenting whatever we have to Him, following Him. Visiting our neighbours, or people in hospital or old people’s homes, shut-in mothers, plus genuinely caring for those people who work alongside us. We may never reach multitudes, but anybody can talk to one person! Let’s live this life, stuffing our cars full of blankets. ‘Cos love looks like something. Bye. 👋