Jesus

P3476 Speaking His language.

/ DVH

The bible is full of what the Lord thinks, what He wants, and what happens when men and women listen to Him. We can see first-hand the result of someone else’s obedience, or – disobedience. We can also note that obedience leads to miraculous events, big and small. It’s in the book!

Eons ago, back in the ark -when I was a very young, not-quite-so-spiritually-focussed-Christian – there was a lady at our church that I did not particularly love. She drove me bananas. This Christian sister would turn up at my house with her little one at around 8.00am unannounced. I had three children under five, so my mornings were chaos. She did not call to say she was coming, they simply randomly turned up. Then they stayed, and stayed, and stayed. Often until lunchtime. Of course her child wanted to play with my kids the instant she arrived, just as I was trying to get my day started. There was no time to spend with Jesus, this lady was sitting in my lounge, drinking countless cups of tea.

OK, it is confession time. In those days I rarely cleaned the toilet until after everyone else in the house was finished with it. So my toilet was not in great shape first thing in the morning. Back in the ark those things were important – people critiqued each other’s housekeeping. An-y-wa-y … I was wandering about one morning, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, whilst encouraging my kids to eat up their breakfast etc. as I fed the baby, and the Lord spoke to me. He said: “Quickly go and clean your toilet now!” So I did. Two seconds after doing it, the door bell rang. It was my not-so-welcome-Sister again. She wanted to use my toilet. In case you don’t know, Father God cares about our difficulties.

I became very irritated over time. During this time, I began to try to hide from this semi-regular visitor. One time I climbed back into the shower. I had already taken a shower but I jumped back in again. I did it just to avoid her. I didn’t know how to tell this lady that appointments need to be made and agreed upon, and that 8.00am was way too early at my house! Inexperience had me by the throat, and religion wouldn’t let me speak up! So now I will come to the point of my sorry little tale. I was praying and talking to Jesus, reading the Word and as I was talking about my dilemma, He said this: “You have aught against any.” (KJV)

In my immaturity, I argued with the Holy Spirit. That didn’t last long… He showed me that I had so many ‘aughts’ they were now my anchor, holding me in place because of someone else’s sin. To be clear, this meant that Jesus Himself was no longer my anchor. My hope had gone out of the window, with one push of a doorbell. Instead, life was planned around avoiding this lady, plus trying not to shout at her. I wanted to be a ‘good’ Christian – OK?

I try not to wait to fix the stuff the Lord points out – over the years I’ve learnt that the enemy is right at my elbow explaining away any conviction when it comes. The answer to this kind of sticky problem is never condemnation, it is confession. It was clear to me what I had to do. So I bundled up the kids and I just went – actually, I practically ran, to her house, because I knew otherwise I would talk myself out of it. She answered the door and I blurted out what I had done and apologised. Then in fear and trembling, I asked for her forgiveness. The most amazing thing happened …she laughed and laughed and laughed and then wiped the laughter tears out of her eyes. I was not expecting that response! She was not laughing AT me, she was laughing at the dumb situation. We sorted it out.

After that morning this nice lady didn’t bother me anymore. To be fair, she stopped banging on my door so early, and we made appointments instead. However I learnt something extremely valuable … God cares about the things we don’t cope with. He has answers, and we simply need to ask Him to show us what we should do about these things. Sometimes obedience to His Word will open our eyes to things that we can’t see, yet. The bible is full of fabulous stories, but they can seem irrelevant to our life, today. Plus there are times when our automatic response is the wrong one, but we don’t know what to do about it.

First of all, I think we have to stop treating the bible as information and start finding ourselves in it. The Lord wants to help us, that’s why Jesus taught so many lessons. He wants us to know that instructions and the law – when they are misused – can deaden the life of God in us. We only have to look at the men and women in His book  – they had to ask God how to carry out what He told them to do. The bible is not just a book that tells us stories about God and His people, nor is it simply a list of dos and don’ts — the bible is His language – His way of thinking … written down. 

It shows us what is important to Him. When we reduce it to a list of dos and don’ts, we are totally missing the point. It is a love story, carefully laying out the tender interactions between God Himself and mankind — it shows us the Way He does things, and how His relationship with mankind is always uppermost in His mind. It is not the stories per se, although we can learn so much about our own humanity and His goodness when we read them — it is about Father God taking the time to explain Himself. His ways! 

When we read it from that POV we will begin to learn to speak His language too. It is a language of love and redemption that reveals His heart toward all of us. Bye. 👋. PS He will not only “be with us in trouble” – He will bail us out too!

P 3475 Pause, remember … and reset.

/ DVH

“God, You’re such a safe and powerful place to find refuge! You’re a proven help in time of trouble— more than enough and always available whenever I need You. So we will never fear even if every structure of support were to crumble away. We will not fear even when the earth quakes and shakes, moving mountains and casting them into the sea. For the raging roar of stormy winds and crashing waves cannot erode our faith in You. Pause in His Presence” Psalms 46:1-3 TPT.

When I read this today I realised that the last 4 words are the key to the first 79 ones! “Pause in His Presence.” What does that mean to you? To me it means when ‘the stuff’ is flying about so rapidly I can hardly breathe, my very best first response is to stop … and stand in His Presence. Why? Because those first 79 words remind me of Who He is and how much He loves and cares about us all – every single minute of every single day!  Those last four words show us how blessed we are. We can be in His Presence anywhere. Doing this will remind our spirits to defer to His ways.

Wherever you are reading this blog today, now is a good time to stop … and just stand or sit, in His Presence. Remember, it says pause, it doesn’t say ‘you must spend three hours.’  Anyone of us can pause for a few minutes, just long enough to slow your breathing and look into Jesus’ dear face. This is one of the best habits we can cultivate. We will momentarily block out the immediate, and focus on the eternal.

Our world may be groaning and griping all around us, but Jesus is not fazed by it. He knows what comes next. “He knows the plans He has for us – the ones that give us a hope and a future.” What we focus on gets bigger. When we focus on Him, He gets bigger than the problems, especially when we take a moment to renew our trust in Him.

Everything seems to be spinning around so fast sometimes, it is hard to keep up with what is going on. However, when we go and stand with Jesus and look up at Him, the noise, the fear, the challenges and the heartache come into perspective. These things come, and they go … Jesus always stays the same. His loving face toward us will not change.

The Lord Jesus’ love does not change, that’s why we can trust it. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases …” Our ineptitude in spiritual matters will not change His response. His love continually comes toward us. You are taking a moment to be with SomeOne Who truly understands humanity. And as you pause, please remember, despite what is going on around you, He’s the same Jesus Who loved you so much He died for you. Just let that soak in … then go back to your day. 

He is praying for you right now, right where you are. He prays perfect prayers. Pause and remember… ‘His goodness in the land of the living.’ ‘He is with us to give us His abundant life.” Those promises are not only about earthly things, they are about forever things. Like love, joy, peace. We can have peace with God because Jesus came here and made peace for us in His own Body, with His own blood. He will not take it back … “He demonstrated His love while we were still sinners….”

Troubles come and go, but our God’s Word remains the same. Your version of the bible may be a little different than mine, but it is still His Word to you today, right where you are. Pause, remember how much you are loved. He loves us when we first wake up and we haven’t even done anything yet! This love is not the kind of love that keeps score, because Jesus is not interested in Himself, He came here for mankind. We are His joy. The Lord looked through the pain He suffered and saw US. It is His greatest joy to facilitate our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Let go of all those bad, unhappy feelings, because they will cause you to stumble. Just cling to His truth and remember … the God Who made the Universe loves you. As we take a moment to pause in His Presence, we will begin to realise that these afflictions we are going through are momentary. They simply seem endless while we are in the middle of them. Remember, disappointment and despair do not come from our Heavenly Father, God. That’s the other guy. Resist him and bring all those busy thoughts captive, and just take the time to breathe. 

These moments belong to you and the Lord, whether you are on the train, in your car, on a bus. Wherever YOU are HE is there. You and I both know that the Lord has asked us to keep no record of wrongs, because Jesus Himself doesn’t remember our wrongs! In your pausing, remember to let go of any hurtful or bad things — just like you would let go of a balloon and watch it float away. Those things can’t hurt anybody when we let them go! Jesus understands … let that be enough.

We pause, remember, and reset, even if it is just for a few moments on our way to somewhere else. Stand in His Presence and watch the worries, cares, and seismic shifts jostling you, simply melt away. God’s got you, your family, and this world. Like Jesus said to the wind and the waves: “Peace, be still.” So let’s take any opportunity to quiet our hearts in the middle of life’s bustle and strife… and pause in His Presence, remember and reset. Bye. 👋. Thank you Jesus!

“So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23 TPT. 

P 3474 We follow the thread.

/ DVH

This is something hubby and I have learnt to do over the last 20+ years. Personally, and together, we walk with the Holy Spirit, daily. He tells us “Go here” and we do, then we follow the thread. We feel so blessed when we do it. This is how He stretches  and strengthens our faith. It is the way we live. There is nothing like working with the Spirit of God!

The first thing I want to say is that — the Lord loves it outside our comfort zone, because that means we are using our faith. Just tell Him:  “I am going for You, and You are utterly in charge. Please help me to pay attention to everything You say!” No matter how unusual stuff seems, as He brings it up, hubby and I simply go and do what He tells us. This has led to growth in the area of our own faith — and bucket loads of Grace for others, plus something I call automatic praise. 

That’s not like the loving cheerful songs we sing to enter His courts. Automatic praise is startling in it’s power and accuracy. It happens when we get so overwhelmed by His goodness, and we are so happy – praise just pops out, unbidden. When you get to see the Lord at work, it’s not hard! The Holy Spirit loves it when God’s people do what He asked them to do – and one of the things He has asked us to do is: “GO!” As far as I know the Lord Jesus has never taken back that directive. Simply tell Him you are available and then you obey.

When I read the Epistles I can see a whole lot of very different people who spent their lives “going!” Even those people who didn’t travel. The ones that stayed home reached out to their neighbours, and the church functioned together as a unit to bless anyone and everyone around them. You don’t read much about them buying this and that, or going on holidays – their plan was to follow HIS PLAN. 

There are times when the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet can be difficult … but just when we want to quit, we pray: “help help” and He helps us. If He says: “Go down that road and talk to someone at the other end,” we do it. There is always somebody who needs to hear what we have to say, at the other end of that road! It never ceases to amaze me. Someone needs to know that God loves them so much that He sent His Son to bring them into a relationship with Him. We have driven miles out of our way to go and talk to just one person. 

Let’s be real, there have also been times when we were both exhausted from driving for hours, and the Holy Spirit said: “Turn off here” … and … we didn’t. That is hilarious. Have you ever watched something that isn’t aligned properly as it tries to continue with the task it performs? It kind of clicks, and clunks and stops, and slowly clicks and clunks some more. That’s what it is like when we don’t turn around. We both look at each other, and then turn the car around and go down the road we tried to avoid. That quiet feeling of being ‘out of step’ just gets to you. 

Nobody taught us to do this kind of reaching out, it simply happened as we obeyed Him and followed His thread. It has never been our intention to make a big deal about it. I’ve only written about it here, in case someone wants to know how you reach out to complete strangers. It’s actually easier than reaching out to the people you know! The Lord gave me this helpful thought on one of our trips — “You are never going to see these people again. Do you care about what they think of you?” After I finished laughing …because boy is that true … I realised I actually was scared of other people’s faces and dealt with that. 

The Lord is so gracious about helping us when we are trying to obey Him. Do we get it right all the time? I dunno ask Him! That part actually doesn’t really matter. We’ve personally seen that God cherishes anyone’s baby steps into His much larger world. At the same time, we’ve learnt so much about humanity in the past 20+ years. The people we think won’t respond, usually bawl their eyes out.

Please understand that we are not evangelists. We simply take the command of Jesus to be witnesses seriously, that is all. “But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.” Acts 1:8. It is not hard to be a witness. They simply tell others what they know, and what they’ve seen, and invite those people to come and meet Him too.

Here’s what I’ve noticed … when you make yourself available to Jesus, He will take you up on it, because He is looking for witnesses. Ordinary people who will probably never stand out in a crowd, but they know that they have a story about Who He is and what He has done in their lives. My advice is, just tell your little story. We call things like that a testimony, but to be honest … it really is just you, telling your story! People have said to us: “Why don’t you write a book?” I said… “Because we are too busy doing it!“

The Holy Spirit will have people lined up for you to talk to. Half the time we don’t look for them, now they talk to us first!  We’ve seen miracles. We didn’t set out to see them, they just happened along the way. I encourage you reader to follow the Lord’s thread, His leading. The Holy Spirit has been sent to lead you and He will lay what He wants out in front of you. Then you follow it as far as it goes. He lives inside you, please, let Him out! Bye. 👋. 

“But we are certainly not those who are held back by fear and perish; we are among those who have faith and experience true life!” Hebrews 10:39.

P 3473 Have extra-fit faith!

/ DVH

“We can get so busy looking at the waves that we forget to look at Jesus!” My daughter said that to me the other day, and I thought it was so accurate. Having faith that works matters. Otherwise, when the roof falls in … and nowadays the roof can quite literally fall in on anyone … that’s when we hit despair and start spiralling down. Our faith resources can be depleted by everyday difficulties, and we become disappointed and disillusioned because our faith is not in God … it is in what He is supposed to supply.

That’s when those waves start looming and we start sinking – because we are looking in the wrong place. Our faith is not in walking on water, or getting whatever we need — our faith needs to be in Jesus’ ability and His willingness to help us. We can nearly drown if we don’t prayerfully assess how fit our faith is for the mountain we are facing, or if we try to do whatever it is without our eyes on Him.

We can totally miss what Father God wants to give us, when we take our eyes off Him. When Jesus said “COME!” — it was the whackiest idea any of the disciples had seen thus far. But Peter was so enamoured by the miracle of Jesus on the water … that he wanted to do it. Jesus could have said: “Your faith isn’t up to this Peter” — because it clearly wasn’t — and Peter and 11 other men would have missed out on seeing what faith in action does. IT TAKES A RISK. God won’t stop you or I from trying, just remember to ask Him if you are up to the answer to that prayer you keep on praying. If the answer is ‘no’ or ‘not yet’ then ask Him to help get you fit for it.

A number of years ago the Holy Spirit told me to learn to lean on Jesus and not on my own understanding. I think Peter failed because he knew more about the ways of the wind and the waves, than he knew about the power of God! It is so easy to be distracted by the things we think we already know. We end up making those things our yardstick and fail to remember that God’s ways are higher, more sure, more reliable than ours.

At one time, Jesus made wine out of water … BUT WE make wine out of a whole lot of effort! We can get so distracted as we think about how a miracle will help us, that we fail to realise that faith grows as you exercise it. Our faith may only be little (a mustard seed) – but it must be IN HIM, and not just in the answer to our prayer. Peter wanted to do what Jesus was doing to prove that it was really the Lord. “Lord, if it’s You,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to You on the water.” His faith was not engaged in God’s matters, it was engaged in proving something.

Our faith is designed to grow as we stretch it daily. We can’t live an ordinary life doing what we want, and expect to grow miracle-working faith! Our enemy will fool us into thinking we are failing in our faith, because some things don’t turn out the way we prayed they would. But the truth is, are we learning to lean on Him, or are we still independently minded? Will we trust God more the next time, or less? Human beings like to categorise things – God has a WAY, not just a category. We need to know His Ways.

Peter had faith. He climbed out of that boat … against years of personal knowledge and experience. I think He simply needed the Holy Spirit’s input to put his faith into action and keep it there. This man didn’t just take His eyes off Jesus, he transferred his faith to what he could see and what he already knew. The task was bigger than his faith, and his personal knowledge about where he was standing, overcame him.

Getting extra fit faith is not the same as spending a fortune on gym membership and regularly going there to build up your strength. That’s all about what you can do. It’s the wrong direction for eyes of faith. Eyes of faith look at Jesus not our puny muscles. Let’s look carefully at what He said and did: “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God ..” Romans 10:17. Our faith grows as we get to know Him through His Word.

We must stop trying to manoeuvre God into doing this and that, and become intimately acquainted with what He wants and what He doesn’t. The faith to move a mountain starts and is strengthened by knowing the One Who made that mountain, not by looking at bulldozers and explosives or how high, wide or deep that mountain is!

We learn to exercise our faith by living daily for Jesus. When things are easy, and the water of our lives is still and steady … OR when this life is riotous and the water looks like a washing machine in full cycle. When hard things happen, let’s pray – give it to the Lord and wait for further instructions. If that takes time, then we relinquish it and walk away, and leave it with Him. Safe in the knowledge that we are merely spectators, not the main event. 

Having extra fit faith means everything we do revolves around that faith. We hold nothing back because Jesus held nothing back. If Jesus wouldn’t do it, then we won’t do it either. Faith is the substance of Jesus Himself, kissing our prayers, as we choose to learn to daily trust Him with our whole life. Bye. 👋

P 3472 Don’t leave Him out – He wants in!

/ DVH

Lately it seems to me that we have become so busy creating things ourselves and making money, that we have forgotten the simple pleasure of enjoying everything the Lord has made. Ambition is often applauded in today’s world, but I think contentment is far more valuable than that or money. You have to learn how to be content – Paul tells us that. And at the bottom of a lot of sin today is the sad state of … deliberately leaving God out. Even Christians. We relegate the Lord to Sunday, and a ‘quiet’ time, but true contentment comes from knowing Who is in charge here – every moment, every single day. 

It is important to give the Lord His place, and if we don’t, then repentance is the best way back. Sometimes the pride of life overtakes us, and the idea that our best is not ‘good’ enough, can be difficult to swallow. But the truth is, unless we totally lean our lives, unreservedly, unashamedly and wholly on what Jesus Christ did for us — we are wasting all our energy and passion. It becomes incredibly easy to repent when you realise you haven’t just done wrong – you ARE wrong!  As Christians we do our best to avoid visible sins, and that can fool us into thinking we are getting things right – those thoughts start us on a downward spiral into works and pride. Gratitude is the best attitude. And genuine repentance, keeps us under the blood of Jesus.

In this life, we need the Lord … every single second of every single day. I am not intimidated by that thought, it blesses me. God knows the way I should go, I can trust Him. We are so fortunate to know Him. Blessings are not a sign of His approval, they occur simply because He is a generous Father and He loves to give.

The bible says so “ … so that you may [show yourselves to] be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on those who are evil and on those who are good, and makes the rain fall on the righteous [those who are morally upright] and the unrighteous [the unrepentant, those who oppose Him].” Matthew 5:45. 

God is good to everyone! We are His ONLY because of what Jesus did. If you are far from Him, and still breathing, then it is never too late to turn around and go home to your Heavenly Father. Jesus is a Saviour – He saved us from ourselves and our idea of what is right and wrong. It is time for every single one of His children to come home. It doesn’t matter how much dirt you’ve accumulated along the way – Jesus’ blood washes all of us clean.

Repent. Fix whatever you can, but come home. Your Father is waiting at the gate, looking down that road you ran off on. He has prepared a celebratory garment for you to wear and He wants to throw a huge party —- simply because you are irreplaceable to Him. Ask Jesus and the Holy Spirit to help you leave behind the pigpens of this world, and go home. The Lord wants to help you, you just need to ask … and then start taking faith steps.

We don’t have the power within us, without His help, to overcome our passions, proclivities and preferences. Like Adam and Eve we can easily be deceived by satan, and self-deceived into thinking that the Lord approves of what we are doing, or have done. Repentance means turning around and going the other way. That’s hard. It takes a huge effort to shake off the dirt of this world, because it thinks self-promotion and self-importance are the pinnacle of this life. People’s idea of right and wrong changes with political climates and popularity.

The church has made a god in her own image when she moved away from what the bible says, into popular opinion. Human beings have fooled themselves, believing that what we know today, and have experienced, goes far beyond what God planned when He wrote the bible. We think we are bigger than God Himself … until something goes wrong and we can’t fix it!  What we are saying is this: Almighty God is old-fashioned, we are now smarter than He is, and we know more than He does. That is blatantly untrue …when we are dead and gone we will be forgotten — but His Word remains forever.

We’ve all been saved by the Grace Jesus Christ extended to each one of us, when we didn’t even know, or care that He did it! All WE could do, was acknowledge what He had already done. My prayer for all of us is that every single day is filled to overflowing with the knowledge that:  you have never been more loved than you are right here right now.. 

Never ever doubt that you will be joyfully received by God. However the past needs to become the past. We are now living in a time of Grace, and Almighty God has postponed judgment in the hope that all of us who need to do it, will turn around and come back home. Those who have known Him and those who have not, yet. Grace does not smile on our faults, it has covered them with the most expensive substance known to mankind… Jesus Christ’s BLOOD! Please don’t leave the Lord out of your life, He wants to be IN everything. Bye.👋.

“Beware that no one distracts you or intimidates you in their attempt to lead you away from Christ’s fullness by pretending to be full of wisdom when they’re filled with endless arguments of human logic. For they operate with humanistic and clouded judgments based on the mindset of this world system, and not the anointed truths of the Anointed One. For He is the complete fullness of deity living in human form. And our own completeness is now found in Him. We are completely filled with God as Christ’s fullness overflows within us. He is the Head of every kingdom and authority in the universe!” Colossians 2:8-10 TPT.

P 3471 God’s welcome sign is always OUT.

/ DVH

“You can pass through His open gates with the password of praise. Come right into His Presence with thanksgiving. Come bring your thank offering to Him and affectionately bless His beautiful Name! For YAHWEH is always good and ready to receive you. He’s so loving that it will amaze you— so kind that it will astound you! And He is famous for His faithfulness toward all. Everyone knows our God can be trusted, for He keeps His promises to every generation!” Psalm 100:4-5 TPT.

Version 2: “Shout with joy before the Lord, O earth! Obey Him gladly; come before Him, singing with joy. Try to realize what this means—the Lord is God! He made us—we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Go through His open gates with great thanksgiving; enter His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His Name. For the Lord is always good. He is always loving and kind, and His faithfulness goes on and on to each succeeding generation.” Psalm 100: 4-5 TLB.

I’ve put two versions of this Psalm up today because it is  helpful to read verses in different versions. It helps clarify the Lord’s meaning. Meanwhile, I think the language in the Passion Translation is so welcoming and positive, who wouldn’t want to be that person? Our biggest mistake when we read the bible is to be swamped by the words the writer used. That can lead to skimming over any old-fashioned terminology that we don’t quite understand. In both versions of this Psalm, the theme is the same – as we praise and give thanks, the Lord’s gates open wide!

However, let’s not also deify the words, I think that would be a mistake. The point of the words is the Subject — Almighty God Himself! Words are simply the vehicles that open our eyes to Who He is and how much He loves us. The Holy Spirit is the One Who takes those words and makes them pertinent to each one of us, day by day. He gives us the Lord’s Grace to act on them, and uses them to challenge, and encourage us. We have access to the glory of God Himself as we meditate on and chew over what He says to us from day by day.

The encouragement and confidence we get in return for our spontaneously joyful attitudes, can become the very thing that sustains us during our mostly ordinary days. Especially as we pause in His Presence, and allow His words to sink in. This is what is meant to happen every single time we pick up the bible. Reading His Word is like going to our Father’s house to thank, praise and worship Him for all He has done for us. Studying the bible is not a chore when you see it from the point of view of messages from the Lord’s heart to ours. “God wants to see ME, His doors fly open when He hears MY praise.” Forget the worship leader with the great voice and skills – He loves your singing, gratitude and love toward Him. He is, when all is said and done — a loving FATHER, proud of His kids.

As I read this Psalm today, the thing that blessed my heart was the realisation that when I spend time with Him, I am never an interruption, or an afterthought or even unknown. He won’t ever say to the Holy Spirit … what’s-her-name again? 😊 The thing about any kind of praise and thanksgiving is that it aligns my heart with what is already going on in heaven. I am joining in with something far bigger than myself! These words may have been written by a man, but it is the Holy Spirit speaking, that’s why this person chose to remain anonymous. The Speaker wants us to see Almighty God, not just their words. 

All of us can tune into our Father’s heartbeat immediately, especially when we make those two things – thanksgiving and praise – our starting place. No matter what else is going on in our lives or how affected by circumstances we may be, those gates and our own personal love and reverence for the Lord, opens our heart when we praise and thank Him for loving us. We know that we are always welcome at His house because the bible tells us so, over and over again. He loves to see us! It is easy to praise and thank the Lord as we discover how He feels about His children. Here’s a word of advice, don’t just read to find information or instruction, ask the Holy Spirit to help you find His heart!

Heaven is the most important place in this world or any other, and when you and I remember His goodness to us and enter His courts to enjoy His Grace, Mercy and love – we are transformed by what we receive there. Praise and thanksgiving are incredibly easy when you get rid of entitlement. Suddenly everything the Lord does for us, becomes an undeserved gift. A heart of gratitude can sustain us through so many difficult circumstances. Like the Psalmist says: “We need to be prepared to be amazed by His responses.” 

Our God is not removed from humanity, that’s why Jesus came here, to illustrate by His life and death the lengths our Heavenly Father went to, so He could have all of mankind for His own people. This is yet another place to pause and give praise and thanks. The good news today is:  “YOU ARE ALWAYS WELCOME AT MY HOUSE. You can give your praise and thanksgiving to Me, in person, in My Presence! You will find I am always so happy to see you.” Amen. Bye.👋.

P 3470 Entitlement can shoot us in the foot.

/ DVH

Denying ourselves can be really hard. Since birth we have had to negotiate our way between what’s OK to do, and what isn’t — and that pretty much depended on who you were talking to! Maybe your Grandparents thought you could do no wrong, while your parents experienced a totally different reality. But now, because we have chosen to follow Jesus, the responsibility for denying ourselves, falls on us – not on other people’s rules. We can choose to change our ways, or we can continue to take the same entitled, childish attitudes we had way back then … into adulthood.

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me].” Matthew 16:24. 

You don’t see many people writing songs about that verse! When things don’t go our way, first of all our flesh gets antsy, we can get really grumpy, and before you know it, we are in the middle of a gigantic pity party. That thought pattern is a satanic plot to undermine the way we live our lives. And it happens simply because we feel entitled to better treatment from this life, and other people. When we give our lives to Jesus, that idea goes out of the window, forever, and we need to get used to it. We gave our lives away!

I want to dismiss the theory that this life owes us something. I had a pretty hard childhood, and bleating about it didn’t seem to make a whole lot of difference to the cosmos – it simply ignored me. And then it threw even more guff at me to make sure I knew who was boss …  and with my lightning fast mind, I eventually figured out that was definitely not going to be me! For some people this means a fully-fledged battle with this world at every opportunity, all of their lives. And for others? Well they just lay down because they know from experience that they are going to end up on the floor anyway — no matter what they do or say. Resignation is not our destination either. Paul found out he was ill-equipped to fight against God – the Lord knows where our “off” button is! 

The only true alternative is to allow the Holy Spirit to teach each one of us how to fight, who to fight, and how to engage in the everyday battle to lay down our lives for others. It involves a process nobody likes, especially initially. This means I ask the Holy Spirit for His help and I lay aside that snappy, snide reply.

Sadly the only thing that seems to impact many human beings to change anything is the thought that they might die if they don’t! The thing to remember is that change means Jesus is not just doing a ‘make-over’ … He’s ‘remodelling’ us from the inside out to look like He does, but then we become more like our true selves, designed in God’s image. What we lose is irrelevant in the presence of what we will gain. 

“Then Jesus went to work on His disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with Me has to let Me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow Me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, My way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?” Matthew 16:25. GNB. 

I am not even remotely trying to make this process sound easy, because that would be lying to you. You and I have spent a lot of years practicing living our lives, one way, and then the Lord interrupts our excuses, subterfuges, and manipulations with a clear directive like the one above. We can’t afford to ignore it. The truth is we no longer have a life – we gave it away. So we can know Jesus here and now, and live with Him forever!

“All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honourably with personal integrity and moral courage]; …” 2 Timothy 3:16. 

Is there a plus side to this less-than-materially-motivated or unappealing deal? YES. “His truth makes us truly free …” in this life and the next. I have no idea why anyone wouldn’t want to co-operate with the One Who made you, He knows far more about what we can and can’t do, and He is generous and kind. When satan cried out for my blood, I knew I deserved what was coming to me, but Jesus gave him HIS BLOOD instead and He definitely didn’t! The more I read about the Lord and His plans, the more I emphasise that God’s processes can be difficult. It’s hard at the beginning to say no to yourself when you feel entitled to a better deal. However, what we walk away from is temporal – what we walk toward is eternal. You do the math.

The sense of entitlement we have had since we were born is in direct opposition to everything Jesus stood for – so when we choose to follow Him, we need to understand that this part of our journey ends in a grave. Entitlement is a fairy story we tell ourselves so we can cope with hardships. Ask Jesus to help you cope instead! The truth is, without Jesus Christ’s sacrifice we are all entitled to hell. Bye. 👋.

P 3469 What a Saviour!    

/ DVH

“In many separate revelations [each of which set forth a portion of the Truth] and in different ways God spoke of old to [our] forefathers in and by the prophets, [But] in the last of these days He has spoken to us in [the person of a] Son, Whom He appointed Heir and lawful Owner of all things, also by and through Whom He created the worlds and the reaches of space and the ages of time [He made, produced, built, operated, and arranged them in order]. He (Jesus) is the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God’s] nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power. When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high, …” Hebrews 1:1-3. Amplified Bible.  “For the rule and authority over all things has been given to Christ by His Father; except, of course, Christ does not rule over the Father Himself, Who gave Him this power to rule.” 1 Corinthians 15:27. 

Like I’ve said many times before, God’s ways are not our ways. The Lord has been revealing Himself constantly for over 2,000 years, through His various servants, but now, on our side of Jesus’ history … He has chosen to reveal Himself through His own dear Son, Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus came here and showed us what was in our Father’s heart toward mankind. So when we see Christ being kind to sinners, that’s God Himself doing it through His Son. That’s Almighty God healing the sick, delivering people from evil … He’s doing it, in Person.

The bible says something so extraordinary in these verses. Jesus Christ Himself ‘is the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God’s] nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power.’ Here’s my translation of all those words, if we want to know what Almighty God is like then look at His Son … Jesus came here to show us what our Father is like. The Holy Spirit’s power guided Him, sustained Him, held Him up, and Jesus is now our example.

God’s Word is so powerful it makes sure the earth doesn’t bump into anything, as we rotate our way through the days, years and seasons. Almighty God loves this planet, and the people in it – He called all of it good. You know, if God had fingerprints, they would be the same as Jesus’ fingerprints, They are so close to each other. We don’t understand Oneness, we think it’s just about agreeing. Actually, it is hearts blended and beating together so completely they have exactly the same purpose. That purpose is for our benefit. We need to get some of this kind of thinking out of our heads, and into our hearts. We are so loved – all that He did for us shows us that.

If we really understood the things we say we believe, inside, where it counts, we would ACT differently. Nobody would have to tell us what is good and bad, because the same Spirit that was in Jesus, would be guiding us from the inside. We definitely don’t want the Holy Spirit to quietly leave … if He leaves us it will be devastating. We will be left to our own devices … and that is not good! Let’s stop pretending to be what we’ve already been given and live this life differently because of what Jesus did. He did these things before we were born!

The same God Who sent Jesus here to help us, is now IN us. We give Him our lives and He is now the occupying Owner. We have been freely given the power to choose  —  so let’s choose to do whatever He asks us to do, simply because our relationship with Him is so valuable we can’t bear to walk away from, or without Him. That’s passion. Our constant prayer now, is for the Lord to stay with us and help us to walk in total fellowship with Him. I pray I will never be too busy to care about what Jesus thinks, because He is all I want to think about!

Jesus didn’t forget one thing that was necessary to reconcile us with God. He did it ALL – and all means all! His eyes are on you and I even in these times, wherever we are, despite all the ruckus going on around us. He is loyal to mankind. But the question is … are we loyal to Him? Father God is not distant, or far away from us. He deliberately came here, as a man, and lived the same kind of life we are living, so we can have SomeOne we can see, and follow.

People follow Marvel/DC comics and their movies with far less incentive! They also follow pop groups, sporting heroes, and music stars — and some of those people have such filth coming out of their mouths their momma should have washed their mouths out with soap … many, MANY times! Jesus told us: “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?” Don’t be surprised if you choose to eat bad fruit and end up with a tummy ache! These people are blind guides …trying to sell us something. We can end up in ditch.

“But we are certainly not those who are held back by fear and perish; we are among those who have faith and experience true life!” (Right here, right now!) Hebrews 10:39 TPT. How can that be? He did the work for us, purely for LOVE.  Love Himself will lead us into the Ways of Love! There is no room for fear anymore, even if we step out of love – we can repent and go right back in again – because His sacrifice has made our new life possible. What a Saviour! Bye. 👋.

P 3468 Check out of lukewarm!

/ DVH

“No soldier when in service gets entangled in the enterprises of [civilian] life; his aim is to satisfy and please the One who enlisted him.” 2 Timothy 2:4. 

“Sow seeds of righteousness for yourselves, and you will reap a harvest of God’s unending love. Break up the hard, fallow ground of your heart. For it is time to seek YAHWEH’s favour until He comes to pour out righteousness on you like falling rain.” Hosea 10:12 TPT.

We remain in His teaching when we live the way Jesus would. The bible tells us there is no room for lukewarmness, yet that very state is almost normal today. We have excuses for the way we live that are like the Tower of Babel … they reach up to the sky. But the only thing that is meant to reach that high is our praises! It seems we’ve chosen to forget that we died the day we came to Christ. Dead people have no reasonable excuses, they can’t defend themselves, or criticise others. They can’t do anything!

We can’t afford to wait for this kind of passion to overtake us – our new life in Christ relies upon us choosing to mature and taking every bit of what He said seriously. Nobody else can make us do that – we must do it voluntarily. The thing is, let’s be aware that we can maintain a perfectly even, cheerful outside attitude, while inside we are seething with anger and keeping count of other people’s supposed trespasses against us! Actors count on their ability to deceive their audience with their performance, but we are not actors.

It is up to us as individuals to find and break up the hard fallow ground inside us. Those things are — ‘areas that have become cold, unyielding, and closed off due to old habits, pride, emotional walls, or unresolved pain.’ (Google.) The Holy Spirit loves to help us identify areas where our hearts lack true Godly compassion and mercy. Let’s choose to remember that if the eye suffers, the whole body does. 1 Corinthians 12:26. We no longer have any claim to any kind of judgment, dead people don’t.

Here is a quick test to see if you have anyone in your life that you really can’t stand, and you want to avoid them like the plague. Check out your state of generosity and love levels toward that person. Generosity takes our ‘temperature,’ and we can often ignore it. We are told to ‘do good to those who despitefully use us …’ sadly, most of the time we can settle for appearances, or avoidance, or living our lives removed from others with token, spoken care. Many people have moved from one church to another because they felt lonely in the crowd. Husbands and wives end up treating each other like opposing forces, yet they appear fine on the outside.  

Because of what the bible says, I know that Jesus has redeemed the old me, and the new me would not dream of flinging bad stuff at you! A mature person knows that any differences  are present because that other person is unique … so they don’t withhold love, or doing good to whoever crosses their path. They don’t live with a level of deception that pretends all is well when it is not, and they don’t blame others for their own shortcomings. Instead they find places of agreement, and ‘lose’ the bad memories under the blood of Jesus, and deliberately choose to remember instances where love prevailed.

Breaking up hard ground starts with acknowledgement, repentance, plus reparation … We are even prepared to take the whole blame when it is obvious to you that you have done nothing. Humility thrives. These people care more about winning their brother than winning some squabble! They don’t justify their own behaviour, and blame someone else for what they have chosen to say or do. Humility hates separation and will do everything in its power to repair things. Here’s a great incentive – Jesus lives in each one of us, when we are unkind to each other we are being unkind to Him. Let’s not care about who did or said what to whom, and choose to care about unity instead.

“Your people (that’s God’s own people) will rebuild what has long been in ruins, building again on the old foundations. You will be known as the people who rebuilt the walls, who restored the ruined houses.” Isaiah 58:12. Did you get that? Rebuilding ruins … those things that have been broken for years. But then you, together with the Holy Spirit, choose to rebuild on the foundation of what Christ said and did. We’ve made the mistake of thinking that we must agree with others for relationships to be restored. Instead we agree that other people, whoever they are, are worth the effort because Jesus died for them too. 

We are now “in the service of our King.” That doesn’t ‘turn off’ when we are tired, fed up, or even ill. Let’s not forget what Jesus did for us, and GAVE to us. Otherwise we might forget the reason the Holy Spirit is here with us. He gives us the power to overcome in spite of our difficulties. He isn’t just with us so we can feel good, blessed or comfortable – His sole task is to make us, with our co-operation … like Christ. His goal is transformation, not petting us and patting us so we feel happy, vindicated and okay. 

Like soldiers who obey orders, now we live our lives in obedience to the Lord’s will, His way. There is no room for lukewarm when we daily choose to live like that. Bye. 👋. 

P 3467 Our Joy needs to break out.

/ DVH

“Celebrate with praises the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has shown us His extravagant mercy. For His fountain of mercy has given us a new life—we are reborn to experience a living, energetic hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We are reborn into a perfect inheritance that can never perish, never be defiled, and never diminish. It is promised and preserved forever in the heavenly realm for you! 

Through our faith, the mighty power of God constantly guards us until our full salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time. May the thought of this cause you to jump for joy, even though lately you’ve had to put up with the grief of many trials. But these only reveal the sterling core of your faith, which is far more valuable than gold that perishes, for even gold is refined by fire. Your authentic faith will result in even more praise, glory, and honour when Jesus the Anointed One is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:3-7 TPT.

Did you see the bit at the beginning that says ‘celebrate?’ when I read that, I do it. Why? Am I pushed along by some sort obligation? NO! It’s an opportunity, not an obligation. I have just been reminded of how wonderful our Heavenly Father is, and how much He has done, and He will do, and is doing, right now in my life … and yours! That’s a really big reason to cheer wouldn’t you think? When I am in public I cheer inside. My “Yaaaaaaay Jesus,” can get a bit loud and I would probably scare other people. People find it hard to feel loved when they are scared. 

Did you get the bit where it says that His mercy is a fountain? That’s not a trickle, or a few squirts here and there, a fountain shoots water high up into the sky, and all over itself. It splashes anybody walking near it. Fountains remind me of freedom. There is nothing like running, leaping, flowing and bubbling water to illustrate that point. At the same time our hope isn’t just laying around, lethargically. No, our hope has energy it, moves  and gathers momentum. It is ALIVE. Well, of course it’s alive! JESUS CHRIST IS ALIVE forevermore and He is our living hope. Hallelujah!

The Holy Spirit says that… “We are reborn into a perfect inheritance that can never perish, never be defiled, and never diminish. It is promised and preserved forever in the heavenly realm for you!” If you ain’t smiling by now you are officially DEAD. Peter is telling us that our God is our constant guardian, so nothing can get into my life, that He and I can’t deal with. I hold fast to that. OK. Are you ready now? We just got to the jumping bit. Gird up your girdle Gertie … the Bride of Christ is going to get happy.

The whole world around us has been waiting for this … “For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God’s sons to be made known [waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship].” Romans 8:19. The people around you are waiting for you to stand up and be His kid! We can sit about feeling sad because we don’t have this or that, or choose to get bogged down in the things that we haven’t done that we ought to have done … etc. Repent and repair stuff! And then we can go back to cheering and jumping, because Jesus took all our sins on Himself, voluntarily.

I like the way the bible acknowledges that trials do happen, that tells us they are normal, and we can be temporarily held by them. But there is a plus, the bible also reminds us that these times reveal how our faith is currently doing in spite of the strains and stresses. Our faith is subject to the difficulties of this world, just like everyone else on the planet — whether they-know-Jesus-or-not!

The idea that we are supposed to never have difficulties, or, if we have them, then somehow God is mad at us … is unscriptural. Jesus said:  “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. Trouble is normal. It’s not the yardstick – but it is normal. The point of trials is to have PEACE in the middle of them … not just avoid them, escape from them, or pretend they don’t exist. It is always helpful to know the point!

These trials expose how our faith is doing, because our faith  is incredibly valuable to Almighty God. When we have faith we are choosing to reveal Him in a faithless world. Even more importantly our faith gives our Heavenly Father, God, the glory He deserves. Our faith guards and progressively reveals our full salvation, which is now, and … also … not yet. Our living faith, the faith that has been revealed by troubles and trials, gives the Lord glory, honour and praise, and we have to celebrate what we have been given. And look at that … we have arrived back where we started. We started with celebration and expanded into eternal glory and honour for the Trinity.

One day we will totally understand what we have been freely given and what a party we will have! Some people think about heaven as a quiet peaceful place, but maybe that is simply because they need a lot of peace and quiet down here… However these verses in Peter indicate that there might be also be a whole lot of jumping and shouting going on as well. The good news is, we won’t get tired of doing it, because every time the Spirit of God turns and moves, there will be a fresh revelation of the Father’s love and grace toward us all. “Divine revelation is dynamic not static.”  

All of this and far more, is ours. I think it’s time for joy to break out in our hearts and lives, simply because … while we were all sinners … He saved us.  We can have joy because He has us and we have Him, forever. Bye.👋.