Jesus

P 2234 Dead, dead, dead, dead, DEAD…BUT…

/ DVH

Over to Paul. “My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives His life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empoweredby the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that He gave Himself for me, dispensing His life into mine!” Galatians 2:20 TPT.

Are we looking to our own strength to fix ourselves or “looking to Jesus Who is the Author and Finisher of our faith!?”  So what does that phrase mean? It means Jesus Christ did not just die to get us a free ticket through the pearly gates. He died for our total transformation into His spiritual likeness as well as our restoration into real fellowship with our Heavenly Father. Now, in this life.

Here’s a question for you:  if we expect heaven when we die …. then shouldn’t we live now, today, expecting He will use our everyday circumstances to constantly renew and transform us, through our relationship with Him?  Otherwise, how do we think that transformation will happen?? By osmosis?? Somebody is going to have to die and Jesus already did …now it is over to US.

Our time away this time has been fun-filled with all kinds of medical difficulties. However, hubby and I both know personally, from experience! … That … ’we can do ALL THINGS because He will and HAS strengthened us.’ And He’ll do it again tomorrow too! We are about to go out and talk to people again, and we know we can’t, not without Him helping us. Knowing or thinking you can’t do something doesn’t negate God’s will in your life – it ACTIVATES it. 

Humanity’s destiny has always been to be restored into the image of God, like we were in Genesis …”let us make man in Our image …” In that garden of His provision, Christ Himself is our living breathing example of what God’s provision looks like. It doesn’t look like a Lear jet, or a posh house, or a fancy car, or expensive meal, it looks like the ability and the desire to love others the way Jesus did when He was on this earth. He gave His life for us, so now we can have His power to give our lives for others. And we get the power to overcome through obedience. 

Adam and Eve did not have to plant that garden … it was planted for them … their job was to look after it, to manage it. It was already established for them. I said all that to say this: GOD ALWAYS DOES THE WORK for us, but… we still have work to do. We must look after what He has given us. We need to be protective of it, by listening to the Holy Spirit, reading His word, and following His instructions.

When sin overcame mankind Jesus came to take our punishment. He came to restore our relationship with Almighty God back to the one Adam and Eve had in the garden. And we get that inheritance, which is rightfully ours, by sheer obedience. We need to manage what we have been given. This life, right here, right now, is our garden, how we manage it, matters. We may not feel anything – we simply need to live this life the way He wants us to live it – knowing He promised to help us win.

Genesis shows us that God wanted to be with humanity, but we were tricked into wanting our own way to get there. satan virtually said to Adam and Eve: ‘You will become like gods, if you eat that fruit. God is keeping something from you.’ Sin is appealing for a season … and then the consequences turn up! Unfortunately, we didn’t just want fellowship with God – we were tempted to be like God. When God told that couple they would die – it was more than a literal death – mankind’s relationship with Him died too.

Long ago, satan wanted to be like God and that’s why he got chucked out of heaven in the first place. Now he is busy trying to make people into his own image! he wants to hurt our Father, by taking away His Beloved Son’s BRIDE. The Holy Spirit is not leading us to die to self because He’s mean, or a party-pooper!  He’s teaching us these things so we can escape from satan’s lies …  “Jesus said: “I AM the Resurrection and the Life, the one who believes in Me will live even though they die.” Dying to self is the only way to escape from satan’s lies and truly LIVE. 👋🏻

P 2232 How to witness.

/ DVH

When we go out to give away bibles etc. hubby often finds that people weep – even grown men and women. Then they get embarrassed about crying and say things like: “I don’t know why I’m crying.”  Here’s how we explain that to them: “Oh that’s Jesus. He’s just crazy in love with all of us. He came here 2000 years ago, and personally fell in love with mankind. Then people killed Him… but He didn’t stay dead. Now He lives inside me. He sent me here to show you His love and bless you, and the thing is, I just can’t stop Him – He loves us all so much, He can’t help Himself. He is always reaching out to people.”

I am not trying to give you some sort of a formula, instead I want to encourage you to put something that resembles this into your own words – as He leads you. Just allow the Holy Spirit to give you a way to talk about things like this, that is natural to you. I’ve only written the above words today, because so many Christians only speak Christian-ese. 

That’s the language in the church that we all understand, and use. It has words like faith, joy, grace, saved, redemption, salvation, sanctification, propitiation … in it. However, those words have complex meanings and they sound old-fashioned and out of touch with this world we live in. For most people the way we think in church is like a foreign language, filled with unmanageable incomprehensible concepts. Faith doesn’t make sense to people who don’t have any. 

And Jesus Christ sometimes isn’t an actual person to them, He’s an historical figure. So when He reaches out and touches someone through you, it is good to explain to them that it is not you – it’s Him. We understand a lot of what we’ve been taught as normal, but it is not normal to the people we meet in the street. Our aim is to make the Lord visible and accessible, and the more we mystify Him, the more we are making Jesus inaccessible. I am not speaking about being sacrilegious, far from it, we definitely need to be reverent and honour Him. But it is more about presenting Christ as a God-Man.  A Man Who came and died for all of us – on purpose.

This is why I really recommend that we need to know the four gospels really well – everything we will need to talk about the Lord is in there. The more well-rounded our thoughts and ideas are about Jesus Himself, the easier it will be to talk about Him to others.  In my opinion, talking about the Lord should be so natural, it flows out of us. That takes practice, it doesn’t just happen and we all have to start somewhere. It should flow the same way as it would if you were talking about your friend, mother, father, brother, cousin. Christianity needs to be much more accessible in this world, less intense, and more natural. Also talk about what Jesus has done, recently in your life – that’s your witness.

Hubby told the people we’ve spoken to on this trip, about the Lord helping him to paint with his non-dominant hand. He explained that he is right-handed and he rarely if ever uses his left hand, except in conjunction with His right one! People were astonished simply because it’s a miracle. And if I were talking to someone about what God has done in my life recently, I’d tell them about losing my earrings, as well as looking hard for them, and then finding them on the floor in plain sight! Our experiences with the Lord and His great Grace, need to be repeated and we should brag on Him! Tell them that when He touches them personally, that Jesus sent you there to pray for them and/or help them. So it’s not you – it’s Him … making Himself known.

Our greatest strength lies in the fact that we know that we ARE the same as the people we are talking to. The difference between us and the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet is what Jesus did for all of us. We know about what He did… and they don’t! This fact is Christianity’s best kept secret and it shouldn’t be. Jesus died to open the doors for everyone. At some time somebody told us that truth, and now we are telling others. Christians and non-Christians are not on opposing teams – we have our humanity in common. 

Some of us grew into understanding what we believe and some of us encountered Him in a remarkable way but we all live our lives for Him now. It isn’t the experience or lack of it that matters – it is the real live Person that we know personally. 👋🏻

“But in your hearts set Christ apart [as holy—acknowledging Him, giving Him first place in your lives] as Lord. Always be ready to give a [logical] defence to anyone who asks you to account for the hope and confident assurance [elicited by faith] that is within you, yet [do it] with gentleness and respect.”  1 Peter 3:15

P 2231 Encounters.

/ DVH

The blessing of being on the road for Jesus’ sake, is the terrific people we meet. The day before yesterday, we went to a look out (see above) in Nambucca Heads. The sun was out and it was so pretty. People came, admired the view and then went, and then an older lady came along. The Lord told us to give her a bookmark, so hubby did. She loved it so much, she came right over to the car to say thank you to me. 

Nancy is a delightful aboriginal lady, from the Gumbaynggirr people. She knew heaps about this area because she was born here. Nancy passed on a big secret! The best place to go fishing – only the local aboriginal people know it, so we wrote it down, memorised it … and then promptly chewed it up and swallowed it. I felt like James Bond! Well, not really … but you get the vibe. 😂 Meanwhile I’m incredibly sure Nancy would know where to fish!  After a lovely conversation we gave her a word of knowledge and she hugged us because she was so glad to meet us. And all we did was drive up to look at the pretty view!

After that we drove on to visit caravan parks. The first one was down below the above view, you can just see the edge of it in the picture … if you take a magnifying glass that is!  Nambucca Heads is such a pretty postcard place. The ladies behind the desk at the first cara park were Donna and Joanne. Hubby said they looked a bit fierce like Aussie country women do sometimes, tatts, bronzed and all! …. But they melted like butter when he gave them a couple of bookmarks. They took bibles for the cabins and hubby had a great time talking and sharing with them. 

As he came out of the office, he noticed an older man, Sean, sitting outside having a smoke. The Lord told hubby to talk to him – so, fishing being our new area of expertise – hubby asked Sean about fishing in that area. Meanwhile he didn’t mention the fishing spot our aboriginal friend mentioned, because it really IS a secret spot!!  Hubby ended up giving Sean one of his prophetic paintings and a word. The older man teared right up. Loving people, on purpose, is so precious when you are walking with Jesus.

Before we left for this trip, I made some bookmarks with some expoxy gummy bear charms on them for younger people. Boy are they chewy!! So, when we stopped at the next park,  hubby met another much younger girl and she was de-light-ed! Pink is her favourite colour – she loved the pink gummy bear one. You know, every place we took bibles the managers received them joyfully. “The fields are white …!!”  Everybody has room for more appreciation and love. 

We’ve given away 145 bibles so far, plus 12 bookmarks, 3 prophetic paintings, one prophetic letter, and 3 prophetic words. Counting everything, we’ve given away over 189 things. And we’ve only been on the road for three and a half days. Lastly, we also went to two places where we couldn’t find the owner – sometimes you drive miles and miles … a-n-d ….there ain’t nobody home!  

Yesterday, was a travelling day and we had to go past one of the parks where there was nobody home and lo and behold … somebody was in. Sharon, an ex-school teacher who loved her bookmark with a wise owl on it and she took bibles too. Isn’t the Lord amazing? An owl for a teacher?  Man He cracks me up!!

So here’s an inconsequential story for you – just for today! When we arrived where we are currently staying, here in Forster, we unpacked. Unpacking consists of hubby jumping about like an energiser bunny putting things in useful places, while I watch him and make unhelpful suggestions. (Unhelpful suggestions are in the wife’s manual of things to do that drive husbands crazy… FYI) 😱 

Any-w-a-ay … I took off my very pretty, and extremely precious earrings that hubby bought for me many years ago, and carefully put them together … and then …promptly lost them. We both searched high and low, down the back of the sofa, as you do … under the sofa … everywhere I had been, about four times. In the end, we prayed the help help prayer …a-n-d … nothing. My dear hubby looked places I’d already looked at, and I looked places he’d already looked as well. Nothing! When nothing happens … I “oh well” whatever it is and leave it with the Lord.

Hubby had to go shopping, and I kept periodically looking. The earrings had disappeared.  Eventually he arrived back at the unit and we both started looking again … and low and behold!! They were right in front of the place I was sitting – on the carpet! They were not there before – trust me! 😳 We’d both searched very thoroughly and they were not there before  –  but now they were. Unbelievable!!  Who knew the Lord cared about lost earrings? Lost people – YES! Lost earrings – NO!  I learn something new about the kindness of the Lord Jesus every single day. He is Lord of the little things. 🙌

“The Lord will work out His plans for my life—for your loving-kindness, Lord, continues forever…” 👋🏻

P 2229 ‘Help help’ is a great prayer!

/ DVH

I read this today in Psalm 91:1”Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Today I just want to mention God’s provision of rest for His kids is the only way human beings can manage this life and all its pressures. The Lord is wonderful, when we live this life for Him – He blesses everything.

We are not alone. We need to learn to progressively and intentionally “rest in the shadow of the Almighty…whose power no-one can withstand!” Our enemy has no power over us in that place of peace-rest. The Lord Jesus Himself said the same thing in Matthew 11: “Then Jesus said, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. Let Me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  Jesus Christ understands humanity – He understands how hard this life is. We can LEARN THIS, He will teach us.

The best place of shelter, EVER, is IN God Himself. We hide in what Christ already did for our sake. We can try to hide away from trouble by staying busy, or actively choosing to forget stuff, but hiding in God is the only place we will find the kind of real safety, and solutions that last. Everything else is temporary. So, how do we do that? Learn to run to Jesus immediately when things go upside down – and tell Him He is your refuge. 

I do that out loud! Even before I lift the phone to get others to pray – I start running toward Him inside – yelling help help all the way. I understand that we’ve all developed independent … not-so-great habits … of relying upon ourselves – but I have found personally, that when I try to figure things out … the line of admitting defeat moves away from me, and so does inner peace and sleep. And my brain starts to feel like messy mush. 😂 I get exhausted. That’s why I’ve learnt it’s easier to give up and ask for help immediately. When I see God acting on my behalf, that miraculously reminds me that GOD LOVES HIS KIDS. Real peace and safety in this life is an illusion. Our Father wants to help us. 

The older hubby and I get, the less enchanted we are with our own brain power and memory bank.  We seem to have developed a super-power of forgetting most things ten seconds later! This Psalmist knew how to stay safe until disaster had passed by Him. Because of what Christ did, WE can live in that place permanently. Jesus gave us that when He died for us, that’s why He mentioned it. Praise God we all live on the other side of the cross!  We have a safe place to run where we will always be welcome, and that is God’s ever-active MERCY toward us.

We all get beaten down by this life and some of the people in it. That’s the time to pick up those burdens and give it ALL to Jesus. Then we do whatever He says, in the book – and then…we  leave everything with Him. Tell yourself ‘God is looking after that!’  If we accidentally revert to worrying and problem solving, then repent, and give it back to Him again. Learn to live relying upon the finished work of Christ’s death on the cross. The more you live like this, the more it becomes the way you think. The technical term is called renewing your mind. Even if you accidentally go back into worry etc.- then give it back to Him, just one more time. Human beings are much too frail to walk around with heavy burdens on their backs.

Listen to this: “Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down.” Isaiah said that 700 years before Christ was born. One day he was praying and he ended up in the throne room and God’s incredible holiness gave this prophet a revelation about who he really was. Isaiah saw his sin. Thank God, he also prophetically saw Jesus coming into this world 700 years later! Isaiah saw God’s provision for his sins and everything else, long before Jesus was ever born. Seeing that changed that man’s POV forever.

This is what Jesus Christ came to earth to do for humanity, to show us another way to live. The bible gives us so many witnesses. Today I have put one from a Psalmist, plus Isaiah, plus Jesus Christ Himself. They all tell us we can come to God, and offload our burdens, troubles and sorrows, because SomeOne has spiritually taken them for us – JESUS Christ took all those things to the cross, 2000+ years ago. Those weighty things in our lives are as gone as our sins!  Let’s ask for His help to continually lay our burdens down, and live in His rest, instead of this world’s turmoil. 👋🏻 

P 2228 What ministry is really about.

/ DVH

No it’s not surfing – but it could be!  All ministry must come out of our own personal walk with Jesus, and any kind of ministry is hard work. Actually, it is a whole lot of unseen, hard work. This current adventure we are on, started even before we left home. We had 20 brand new blankets, so we called around to find somewhere we could take them. We found a great group in Tweed Heads who look after the poor as a ministry. Unfortunately, 😂 there were so many complications to organise our delivery of said blankets that in the end, we just gave it all to the Lord and gave up trying to make it work.

The lady who wanted these blankets, promised to ring us the next day if she could arrange a pick-up on our forward journey and we didn’t hear, so we went into the Lord’s rest, and packed them into the car anyway. She called like 15 minutes before we left..😶 Ya just gotta be fluid if you wanna work for Jesus. We delivered said blankets after a very large detour. Convenience is a luxury God’s kids can’t afford. It’s about Who we are living for.

This made me think a great deal about the idea of having “a ministry.” It may seem like fun to others, and innocent people often ask us – ‘how was our holiday?’ The truth is we haven’t had what this world thinks is a holiday, in over 17 years! But I also know we’ve had more fun than anyone on holidays could ever expect. The Lord sometimes sends us miles out of our way – for just one person. We are more like Phillip with the Ethiopian man, than Peter on the day of Pentecost. At the same time we have had people turn down bibles … but most people don’t. There have been maybe two times, when they were not-so-polite about it!  

As Christians we need to know that living our lives His way IS ministry. However, simply living for Him also means that you don’t have a nice natty, spiritual label. There is only one Person we need to recognise whatever we do. Jesus. At the same time we do have a responsibility to anyone who chooses to support us – prayerfully, or with funds, or both. This is not how hubby and I earn our living, we are pensioners, so all the money God gives us through faithful people, goes into these trips and bibles etc.

I also need to say that with any kind of ministry there will be opposition. Whether it is living for Jesus or having a title. You enter the battlefield instead of sitting in the stands. Because when you do what Jesus says, the other guy doesn’t like it. The week before we left, we discovered hubby’s elderly mum is not doing very well, and my mum was also quite ill last night. She’s 95. Just what you need to hear when you are going off out of the state on a bible run. Plus yesterday, hubby couldn’t lock the front door, or the back door – the key refused to turn in either one of them. 🙄

We also had to change one booking at the last minute, mainly because there were quite a lot of outside stairs. That is not good for people with disabilities. Stairs and I have come to an agreement that we will probably never get along again! Hubby’s hand is still sore from the operation he had on it, so he is one-handed and it’s the wrong hand! None of that is good for moving luggage every second day. So he is driving with one hand in a plastic cast – the doc says it is OK for him to do it, BTW. 

My point is this: we all have troubles, and feel inadequate, but with Christ we can do all things because He strengthens us. If you want to live for Jesus then learn to be a stealth bomber – fly under the radar, don’t go after a ministry or a title –  just be someone who loves and obeys Jesus, all the time instead! There were 120 people in that upper room when the Holy Spirit fell on them – we don’t know all their names because they didn’t write stuff that ended up in the bible, they were too busy living and dying for Jesus’ sake!

We met a whole lot of lovely people today, and gave away 74 things about the Lord including 44 bibles – plus those blankets for the homeless. Hubby had a nice friendly chat with someone who loves to surf. The man looked almost exactly like the above picture that hubby painted, and this man knew surfing terms so he knew all about “the blue room.”  ‘Bob’ thought it was a miracle hubby could paint with his non-dominant hand! Everybody we talked to today was thrilled that we came, and they were so glad to receive anything we wanted to give them.

What the church regards as ministry can be highly romanticised. It might seem to be filled with importance, and have a high profile, but don’t be fooled – visibility ain’t all it’s cracked up to be! I believe that the Lord is looking for His army of believers to rise up and do whatever He gives them to do as individuals, as part of their every day lives. Hubby and I give prophetic words – we constantly give words of knowledge etc. to people who don’t know the Lord. They are astonished. First of all by the fact that God knows their names. and circumstances, and secondly that ordinary people like us are His messengers. Our anonymity is our greatest strength in terms of ministry. 👋🏻

“I refuse to be ashamed of the wonderful message of God’s liberating power unleashed in us through Christ! For I am thrilled to preach that everyone who believes is saved—the Jew first, and then people everywhere!” Romans 1:16 TPT

P 2226 Jesus helps me to keep going.

/ DVH

When I sit and read about the Lord, and think about what He did while He was on this earth, and how HE struggled with facing His own death – it helps me to keep going every day. First of all, let’s look at the fact that the Lord needed to pray 3 times in the garden of Gethsemane. He needed to pray what He was facing through, and He waited on God for the spiritual strength to carry it all out. Jesus prayed until He knew the job was already done – spiritually speaking. His total surrender, in those awful moments, gave Him the power to endure what came next. He died to Himself in that garden and it was a terrible battle. 

This scene shows me that it is OK to struggle with spiritual stuff – it doesn’t mean I’ve missed His will, or I am going the wrong way. When things are hard to do – we need to press into Him. Jesus spoke a great deal about His death in the days before the crucifixion, so He already knew this time was coming. Yet He still prayed for that destiny to be taken away! He struggled with God’s Will. Praise the Lord, because Jesus is my visible illustration of God’s Will in action! It’s OK to struggle – remember to surrender and then go into trust. Push on past your fears etc.

Let’s look at this in Matthew 26: 38-46 …“Then He (Jesus) said to them, (His disciples) “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.” Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.” Then He returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with Me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

“He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may Your will be done.” When He came back, He again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So He left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then He returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners…”

Jesus allowed Himself to feel the total appalling impact of what was coming toward Him. He didn’t hide from it, or  have a stiff-upper-lip mentality, nor did He deny the reality of what He was facing. It’s OK to hurt, it is OK to be disappointed or even grieve about whatever has happened to us. But, at the same time, we need to remember that we have HOPE – His Name is Jesus … He is our anchor. If someone you love is suffering then pray that God will give them real HOPE in the face of adversity.

Jesus was very hurt with His disciples, for not praying with Him. I think He was also disappointed for their sake. Getting in touch with God in a crisis is the only way to get through whatever is coming next. The biggest test those men had ever faced was hurtling toward them… and they were vastly under-prepared for it. He was still caring for them on the brink of His own pain, suffering and death.

Lastly, the Lord Jesus helps us to have courage because He did everything He did for all of us. Our failures, fears, sicknesses, disappointments, sins, those things were all dealt with as He struggled with the concept of being a substitute for us. He was about to be separated from God’s bright Presence and He did that deliberately for our sake. He became our separation so we don’t ever have to be, or go anywhere without God’s Presence again! 

In times of despair difficulty and trial – I think of the Lord Jesus saying, with such incredible faith: “… Your will be done.” That was a faith statement. Christ had never physically suffered to the point of His own death and He had to rely upon the Holy Spirit to bring Him out of that grave. Jesus knows how hard it is to have faith in times of crisis. His vulnerability at that time helps me keep going when stuff happens in my life.  Praise Him. 👋🏻

P 2222 How to know God.

/ DVH

“Jesus explained, “I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the Life. No one comes next to the Father except through union with Me. To know Me is to know My Father too.” John 14:6 TPT. Jesus is doing something extraordinary here – He is pointing out how to be close to Father God – how to know Him. When we read the Gospels and we are observant about the way Christ interacts with people, as well as what He says, we will know the Father too. We will begin to see God the Father’s heart toward mankind.  

Jesus Christ spent His time talking to, and mixing with, ordinary people. Up until He came, these people had no ‘WAY,” to get close to God Himself. The view of God they knew up until Jesus came, was always going to be remote and unapproachable. Only the High Priests dared to approach Almighty God, wearing thick smoke and total darkness as a disguise! Isn’t it fascinating how religion HIDES God?! The Pharisees, the Sadducees and the teachers of the law, were the only ones with any chance of gaining knowledge about Him. However, we are so blessed. We have a book filled with stories about Him, and the Way Christ interacted with people.

To humanity’s great astonishment, Almighty God Himself already had a solution to this total separation – God Himself solved this problem and He came to us. HE approached us!  Ya might want to pause and give thanks for that. 🙌 And … sometimes I also like to give thanks for Paul. If God hadn’t saved Paul, we’d still be on the outside looking in!  Meanwhile, Father God did not replace the Jews in His affections – instead, He added us into them. I gotta say: I love the Lord’s Maths!! He always makes things more beautiful and BIGGER.

I don’t know about you but I was totally unchurched – if Jesus hadn’t revealed Himself to me – I’d still be dead in my sins. And I strongly suspect those sins would have piled up into a very large stinky pile by now!! I did not know ONE CHRISTIAN in my whole life before I met the Lord Jesus – there was a whole other world out there I had no knowledge about. I strongly suspect many people fall into this category.

Do yourself a favour, read the Gospels with Almighty God in your mind – because Jesus IS Him in human form. Father God broke all the known rules and yet He fulfilled them all at the same time – IN A PERSON. Christ! (Ephesians 3.) That’s Almighty God as a 12 year old child, in the temple talking about the rules He already gave the Jews personally, a couple of thousand years previously, through Moses. Yet  the Lord Jesus never flaunted Who He was. That’s called humility. 

Think about the gospel stories like this – that’s Father GOD touching a leper. That’s GOD walking all the way to Samaria to meet a Samaritan woman. No Jew would speak to that woman, she had five husbands – but the Lord Jesus revealed to her another way to live, instead. That’s GOD Himself delivering a demoniac who was living(?) in a cemetery. That’s GOD striding through the colonnades at the Beautiful Gate to get to a man who had the faith to believe, but he could not get into the water fast enough – so GOD came to him!  How prophetic is that??!! That story always fills my eyes with tears.

It is time to get rid of our ideas about who, and how people can be saved! It’s not just the dear people who gather up the courage to come into our churches. He wants to save the people out there that look like everyone else, but they are wandering about, eating anything that looks remotely spiritual. They are looking for something REAL! We’ve made their lack of knowledge about God about them, but it is really about our inability to actively carry the Presence of God with us wherever we go. WE ARE NOW HIS PRIESTS. Religion will not comfort their broken hearts. You and I, we have the reality of Christ living inside us. We dare not separate ourselves from this crazy world because: “We are IN this world, not OF it.” And it is our God-given duty to tell them there is a whole other reality out there.

Jesus met people where they were – in the streets and market places. Every day as we work, play, shop, clean and learn, we are now, by His Grace, in union with God Himself. We can not only learn about Him – we can KNOW HIM, for ourselves – in Christ. 👋🏻

P 2216 We need His unforced rhythms of GRACE.

/ DVH

Matthew 11:28-30 says: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

The place to begin to learn those unforced rhythms is to teach yourself to focus on Him. You know, Jesus didn’t start a bible college, the Pharisees etc. might have killed Him a lot sooner if He’d done that!! Instead He called men and women to walk with Him – all day, every day. Not just a quick – “Hi Lord” in the morning and “Bye Lord,” before they crashed out at night … like we are all tempted to do. 

Here’s my advice, periodically, during your busy day, just stop for a second and on the inside remind yourself that Jesus is your Lord. Tell Him: “Lord Jesus, I’m just turning my focus to You. You are the centre of my affection.” Doing that shifts our focus. It’s called ‘setting your affections on Him.’ And it is mentioned in Colossians 3:2: “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

Christ Himself said: “I only do what I see my Father doing. I only say what I hear my Father saying …” His mind was set on the things above. Jesus needs to become our life because Grace’s rhythms don’t come easily when He is an add-on.. “In Him we live and move and have our being …” Acts 17:28. We start with Him, and everything else we do comes out from that relationship.

There is a flow of Grace – Grace in, and Grace out toward others. I just ask for more Grace whenever I think of it, whether I need it or not at that moment. Something is bound to happen that will irritate me! We are the only ones who can interrupt this flow. I call this process the power of choice. Choose to focus and ask for His help. It can take an effort to get free of our human ideas of ‘what is meant to be our priority.’ We aren’t just here for Him on Sundays! So we can’t just do what we think on Mondays.

The Psalms are also a wonderful road map to living like this. Try Psalm 91. Look for instructions. Meanwhile, I have found it is very useful to follow scripture like you would instructions from the doctor or the chemist. Pray, then ask for the Lord’s help, and go and do what it says on the label. In our situation … it’s in the book.

Next we need to pay immediate attention when we hurt others or they hurt us. There is nothing like being angry with someone else, or them being angry with you, to cause human beings to stumble and leave what God thinks, behind them. That kind of stuff is a whirlpool – it sucks you in! The Holy Spirit knows how to guide our steps through the pitfalls of human emotions and thoughts. He knows what the other person meant when they said that dumb thing that really got our goat! 

Many people think that worshipping the Lord, praying and reading His word is all that is necessary …BUT – walking with Him minute by minute actually revolutionises our lives. WHY? Because HE knows the way we should go – that’s why. “Our steps are ordered by Him.” Psalm 37:23,24. The disciples walked around with Christ, and now because of what Jesus did for us the Holy Spirit wants to walk around with us. If we let Him and make Him welcome. He will teach us, guide us, and help us to do what we are here to do – love people. And we all need His Grace to do that!

His Grace is like fresh air, it gives us a fresh perspective. We breathe it in when we mess up, and we breathe it out toward other people no matter what they did – or haven’t done. Our own will power is not enough. We need His Grace to die to self – the Grace that faced CALVARY. Grace needs to become the rhythm of our lives. I believe Grace is the Holy Spirit’s air in our spiritual lungs. 

Grace is so much more than just putting up with difficult people. Grace is love under pressure. And it refuses to give up on anyone or go into self-preservation. We cannot ignore this quality – it is the currency of His kingdom. 👋🏻 “Nothing is impossible WITH God.”

P 2213 That tomb!!

/ DVH

John 20:1-2 “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.  So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him!”

11-14 “Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put Him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.” 

In my opinion, Mary was not expecting to meet Jesus, because she thought He was dead. Every single story about God, mankind, and death in the bible shows us humanity’s responses and reactions to disaster and total desolation. We give up. We cry a lot. And then we mostly sit in the dirt, railing at God. At the time of the morning of the resurrection, people’s individual responses show us how easily human beings wander off into faithlessness, hopelessness, despair and unbelief and fear.

Grief is normalised in Ecclesiastes 3, and in the Beatitudes, but the men and women who walked with Jesus show us that despite the fact that they were warned in advance – human beings don’t cope with death. We can have our little theories and happy thoughts, but … just wait until those theories are tested!  Death seems final. Nobody expected His resurrection.

Even though the Lord told His disciples, in person, that He would rise again. Maybe their old religious thoughts got in the way. Not one of them said: ‘But, hang on a minute, the Lord told us He was going to die, and He would rise from the dead. So maybe this is that. Let’s not lose hope?!’  Every single one of them got stuck in loss, fear and grief. Not to mention they were all locked in the upper room to keep the bad guys OUT. To them, Jesus was dead and those who thought they saw Him were nuts or deluded. In the end a couple of those men went to check out Mary’s story for themselves. And one of them was a hero and went in … and the other waited outside.

Meanwhile total unbelief emerged toward anyone who actually saw the Lord in person! This shows me that it doesn’t matter what we think we know, or what we hear, or what we seem to believe – if we do not deal with it, unbelief and fear take over pretty darn quickly. But to the disciples, the tomb was a tomb and there was a blooming great rock in front of it, plus Roman guards. Meanwhile I never did figure out how Mary thought she was going to move the rock to get in for those burial rituals! That’s the thing with graves – they look permanent and they can steal away your hope.

Jesus predicted His death to His disciples on at least three different occasions. (Mark 8:31-33, 9:30-32 and 10:32-34.) But I’m not really sure the disciples actually heard Him. To be honest with you, I have often wondered whether they were totally attentive and listening to Him in the first place when He said it!  Yet they all saw Lazarus, who was dead 3 days, come out of his tomb, very much alive just a short while ago. It seems to me that the disciples were utterly shattered by the events that put the Lord Jesus in the tomb in the first place. That, plus the fact that they all ran away at a crucial moment.

I have come to the conclusion that there are times when we only hear what we want to hear.  And bad news ain’t it! I’ve also learnt how easy it is for despair to throttle the daylights out of you. Sigh. Christ’s tomb was empty, and the disciples had no idea how to deal with that either. They were still mourning the loss of the new way of life they had found. However, the kindness of Almighty God in that moment is glorious. Christ comes to them in Person, He sounds just like He did before He died.

And then He rebukes them because they didn’t believe each other. Why didn’t the majority believe the few? Perhaps that is because I can only believe what happens to ME. I probably think to myself, ‘that’s nice for you’ – if I hear a story about something fabulous happening in your life. But this is where the rubber hits the road – this is how we know we are not yet transformed, or living our lives by faith in the Son of God.  

On this Easter Sunday morning, we need this fantastic resurrection story because OUR OWN FAITH NEEDS TO BE RESURRECTED. We have let it languish in pits of despair, disappointment and dread and hidden it in tombs. We have to come out of our spiritual tombs and start living that resurrected life – right here, right now. I wonder if the Lord would say to some of us: “Where is YOUR faith?” 

All around us, this world is living without hope. Today of all days … please, please … tell someone who doesn’t know it, that …”Jesus Christ is alive, HE IS NOT DEAD.” 👋🏻

“My heart and soul explode with joy—full of glory! Even My body will rest confident and secure. For you will not abandon Me to the realm of death, nor will You allow Your Faithful One to experience corruption.” Psalms 16:9-10 TPT

P 2211 The cross!

/ DVH

The cross is the place where humanity stands totally alone. It is the place where God’s will impacts and challenges ours. That place where Jesus defeated all our stinky self-serving attitudes once and for all – and gave us new soft pliable hearts. We own this new heart bit by bit, as we say no to our own way, and yes, to His.

The cross is the place where sin is simply SIN. At that hallowed place, there are no big or small sins. It is the greatest equaliser ever seen. We were given the power to live in obedience to the One Who died to give us the right to stand in Almighty God’s Presence – unashamed. The cross is the place where our Saviour deliberately submitted Himself to humiliation, punishment, torment and death on our behalf and He left us, clean, forever!  

Now we have the utter freedom to choose to obey Him. Before the cross we had no choice. That is a fact that always astonishes me, no matter how many times I read it in His book. All of us know we were not worthy of everything He did for us during that terrible day.

If you and I look carefully at that wooden cross you will see our names carved there into those precious hands that blessed people and healed them. Our names are somewhat obscured by all the blood running down from His face, His side, as well as His hands and feet. There was so much blood that day, His sacrifice spilled all over  mankind – everyone who has ever been born. That cross was dripping with His blood. That’s where Jesus Christ cleansed us and made us brand new people. 

Christ’s blood was incredibly rare and costly, because the One Who had never ever sinned, became our sin. At that cross Jesus’ goodness, grace, love, joy, peace, patience, mercy, kindness and long-suffering, together with absolute and total purity, was drowned in our sins. And hell was let loose on Him – until Christ died from the sheer agony of it.

After truly seeing and understanding that cross, how could we ever refuse to do whatever Jesus wants us to do for His kingdom’s sake? He will not refuse us. He will not turn us away, even though He knew, like Peter, we would all betray Him. He knew before we ever gave Him our lives that we would walk through some of our days acting like His cross was nothing to us – just an historical record. You and I are blessed because we live after Calvary. Calvary is His-story to all of us. 

Whenever I look at Christ on that cross I marvel that Almighty God would so submit Himself to mankind that He became an infant, and grew up here on earth, in a dusty little town. He walked, talked, lived and breathed around among ordinary people like you and I. He allowed others to treat Him like they treated the rest of humanity, with indifference, disdain and cruelty. Jesus Christ let the Jews and the Romans punish Him like a criminal. Yet He died for them too. 

On this day, I want to pause, and celebrate the cross. Someone … God bless them!!!… told me what Christ did for me. Today, I stand there, in my mind’s eye, and look up at Him … I remember what my life was like without Him in it. I remember all the things He has given back to me, those things that I lost with my own careless, sinful, selfish ways. Jesus Christ freely gave us eternal things, the kind of unearthly qualities and attitudes that humanity never dreamt we could have. 

Standing there, I take the time to remind myself that I will never ever be totally alone again. I will never lack love again. The purest love this world will ever know is hanging right there in front of my eyes. The cross shows all of us that it was always Father God’s plan to be One with mankind, and save all of us from ourselves as well as our enemy. Christ’s love heals every wound, every heartache, every painful moment and His hope calls us into a brand new future. The cross is the day our possibilities became endless. 

This was the day Almighty God made the beginning of His dreams for mankind known. Let’s rejoice! We were born on the other side of that terrible wonderful day and we know the end of this story … it’s in the book. He came and rescued each one of us from ourselves and our humdrum little lives, and nothing can snatch us out of His hands. Our lives can no longer be out of control, because now He is in control. 

Jesus and you and I swapped destinies, our destination was hell and His was heaven. So He died that day in an unrelenting, dreadful, painful fashion – then He went to hell and beat up the devil, and purchased our freedom and gave mankind the promise of heaven, instead. Happy Easter! ✝️