Jesus

P 2928 Sometimes the Lord plays peek-a-boo!

/ DVH

Isaiah 8:16-22 “Gather up the testimony, preserve the teaching for my followers. While I wait for God as long as He remains in hiding, while I wait and hope for Him. I stand my ground and hope, I and the children God gave me as signs to Israel, Warning signs and hope signs from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Who makes His home in Mount Zion.

When people tell you, “Try out the fortunetellers. Consult the spiritualists. Why not tap into the spirit-world, get in touch with the dead?” Tell them, “No, we’re going to study the Scriptures.” People who try the other ways get nowhere—a dead end! Frustrated and famished, they try one thing after another. When nothing works out they get angry, cursing first this god and then that one, Looking this way and that, up, down, and sideways—and seeing nothing, A blank wall, an empty hole. They end up in the dark with nothing.”

Isaiah is making a profound point in this scripture. It is so easy to want an instant solution to prayer! But the Lord has His own timing. See Ecclesiastes 3! And we’d better get used to this, cos that’s just the way it is. He is God and we are not. Trying to be in charge got the Israelites into a whole heap of trouble  – maybe that’s why Isaiah wrote these six verses. BTW, in one version it says the spiritualists etc. chirp and mutter. Somehow I find that thought hilarious.

But my real point today is that the Lord appears to be hidden sometimes, and it seems to occur at a time when we need Him the most. The bible tells us a few ways that we may have contributed to this situation. Again, many thanks to Isaiah, who seemed to have no problem with the fact that any mistakes that may have occurred came from his side of the relationship! Isaiah 59:2 explains that our sins can get in the way. So it is good to not let them pile up around us like leaves on the lawn!  

Job mentions this phenomenon too. In chapter 13 verse 24: “Why do You hide Your face and consider me Your enemy?” Hands up anyone who has had that thought!  This man was described by God Himself, as a righteous man, but his initial understanding of the Lord appears to be founded upon fear and superstition, not love.

Moving on from that scripture to Psalm 88 – this Psalm expresses the depth of despair that any human being feels when they cannot find God in the midst of their terrible suffering. It is also a prime example of how feelings can escalate into anguish and then we often let go of what is good, right and profitable and focus on all the things that have interrupted our idea of a happy life.

All I want to say about that is, I’ve bin there and dun that. My feet got stuck in the sticky, unyielding toffee-like morass of expecting God to explain Himself to me! Not.Happening.Jan! In Matthew 11:25-26 the Lord Jesus says this:“At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what You were pleased to do.” 

Father God sometimes hides things from people who think they are eminently qualified because they already know everything there is to know. Instead He reveals things to those who are prepared to embrace humility. These people are open to learn. However, having a child-like heart is not the same as being childish and pouting when we don’t get our own way. Father God cares about our attitudes – the moment we think we have arrived spiritually, we better get ready to throw a pillow out in front of us, because we are getting ready to fall on our head! 

It seems to me that now is a good time to remember that Almighty God turned His face away from His only-begotten Precious Son, Jesus. That’s how much and how perfectly Jesus identified with us in our humanity. He suffered all that dreadful pain for us, so we don’t have to. In our current daily lives, this kind of rejection is an emissary from the pit, and it needs to be rebuked. The best defence against satan’s lies is the truth in the bible. 

Hebrews 13:5&6 says: “…for He has said, “I will never [under any circumstances] desert you [nor give you up nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless], nor will I forsake or let you down or relax My hold on you [assuredly not]!” So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently say,“The Lord is my Helper [in time of need], I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?”

We can often allow human beings to loom larger in our lives than God Himself – because our theology is faulty.

I have learnt that I only doubt the power in this verse when I look to my feelings to validate whatever is happening instead of His Word. However, I freely admit that this response is hard when the world falls on top of you!

There is another kind of hiding, I want to mention today, that the Lord does, and it is for you and I to protect us.  in Psalm 91 there is a marvellous explanation of how to enter into God’s protection and rest. We choose to make Him our very own hiding place! In that place we are hidden from the difficulties and torments of this life – waiting, watching to see what He will do next. Always remembering and relying upon the fact that He has deliberately chosen to love us. 

Lastly, I hope the above ‘keys’ help to identify what is really going on so we can make and have an appropriate response. Sometimes the Lord simply says ‘peek-a-boo,’ and He is being playful. Our wonderful Father has an amazing sense of humour, and fun, which we can easily overlook. But you will have to learn that for yourself, if you haven’t already found it. Bye. 👋

P 2927 God loves diversity.

/ DVH

Inadvertently, in Christianity, people have made some subjects into major things — stuff like the speaking gifts. Some things are entirely up to the perseverance of the individual and application. Things like speaking in tongues will help believers with their focus. It takes faith to step into this gift, but people should not drive themselves crazy because they don’t speak in an unknown tongue, or they haven’t so far.

Christians from all generations – people who came from all over this planet, have followed the Holy Spirit into this world’s darkest places. They died for what they believed. We know that they were devoted saints – yet they didn’t happen to speak in tongues and if they prophesied we weren’t told! Tongues, teaching, exhortation,  prophecy, any speaking gifts are not some sort of spiritual badge, they are spiritual GIFTS and those gifts have been given to us to benefit everyone else! Our aim should be to step into the flow of what the Lord wants, so we can carry it out. Every gift matters.

By the way, people who pray in tongues pray as the Holy Spirit leads them, but their minds may not understand what they are praying. That’s why we need to pray both ways, with the Spirit and with our minds. We have inadvertently divided His Body over things that were given to us to be a blessing, not a prerequisite or a qualifying mark of greater spirituality. Personally, I ask Him to help me pray, and I let Him choose how!

Those Christians who find that this precious gift is not part of their package from the Lord, are often people who are afraid of being blasphemous – their fear of hurting the Lord is blocking their faith in His ability to be faithful to us! That’s not SIN. It is a sensitive, badly-informed heart. When anyone prays in tongues, they have stepped into the stream of Eternal Never-ending Flow of what God is doing and saying, using their faith… We are speaking the Holy Spirit’s language, not necessarily ours!

The real test is the level of our humility, not our ability to look spiritual. Prophecy, for instance, should edify and build up everyone’s faith, as well as speak directly into the heart of the people who hear it. It is not a badge that proves one person is more spiritually attuned than someone else. It is a gift. It was giv-en to them — but the Person really responsible for all that beauty is the Holy Spirit! So when others hear Him speak, they will hear Him speaking directly into their hearts, their situations, their pain and joy. It touches them, sets them free, and makes them feel they are not a failure. Father God doesn’t see His kids as failures – He sees us through the shed blood of His darling Son! 

We need to honour what Jesus did for us over how we feel at any given time. Yes, we might have a good reason to be caught up in our feelings, but that’s often precisely when we need to step out in faith and tell the Lord that He is bigger than our feelings, and then do whatever it is, anyway! This means we are putting Him into His rightful place. Making Him our first and highest priority. 

Just like repentance and reparation are not optional extras, they are a part of a living faith. We get muddled up because we think those two things mean we need to feel something. Maybe we should feel sorry about what we have done. But actually these two things are about sheer, unqualified obedience to His Word, not our feelings. I have asked for forgiveness from someone and it was months later I realised what I had actually done! Think of this as being like an orchestra, when the instruments are not tuned together there will be disharmony. Only the conductor knows each part and how in tune to His composition accurately.

1 Corinthians 12:4-11 says: “God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God Himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows Who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:”

These verses explain the main point of Spiritual gifts. The majority of Christians have gifts they have not activated, so they remain unaware of the power of letting Him operate through them. All His gifts showcase the glory of Almighty God to others. That’s why we were given them. Those gifts are all about HIM, not us. I really don’t care if anyone prays or exhorts others well, or prophesies so brilliantly that God’s glory comes down upon everyone, or teaches us so clearly, it is mind-blowing… They are still His gifts, for His glory. It’s about HIM.

We can elevate some gifts over others – but we should never underestimate the gifts that operate quietly, behind the scenes because that’s the Lord too! Jesus served humanity without capital letters on everything! (Unlike me! 🤣 –  I’m still being perfected!) There are no big or small gifts, only big or small human attitudes. Our God loves everything we do to honour, elevate and illustrate His goodness to others. Spiritual gifts are for everyone’s benefit – and God loves diversity.  Bye for now, 👋

P 2926 Compromise.

/ DVH

To die or not to die — that is the REAL question! One of the saddest deceptions that has gone vastly unchallenged today, is the idea that if we don’t want to die to self, then that will be OK. The logic behind that thought is this – after all Father God loves us, and He understands how hard it is for us – so we don’t have to be like … totally sold out to Him. He understands that we are only human! 

Yeah, that’s right, Jesus gets it. After all He took on our form and walked through this world, sinless. BUT! Jesus got His power to live an overcoming life, from His ongoing obedience and connection with the Holy Spirit. We always retain the power of choice, but the reality is, God knows the right way for us to go,so why the heck would you want to go any other way?? Obedience shows trust. Jesus obeyed His Heavenly Father – to the death!!  The bible says: “There is a way that seems right to a man but at the end of it is death!” Proverbs 14:12. Dying to self is not the same as losing the life of God in us to deliberate sin.

Everything about my natural man will try to protect ME, myself and I – and from personal observation, we are blooming good at it too! Not only that, but I can protect me, and make you look like a ruffian and then go on to prove you are dead wrong from the book! But the bible is not a club it is an implement of freedom.  And our inward, and often unseen choices, can undermine our spiritual life. We can’t afford to lose the Holy Spirit for a minute. We need Him daily – all the time. Temptation is waiting around every corner. When we choose to hide, or pretend, that’s when the precious Holy Spirit leaves us, quietly, unobtrusively. Sadly we won’t even know He has gone. Then our own vain imagination takes over …and boy! …  Is that a scary thought!

Jesus offered us a new way of life, not an alternative lifestyle. He said ‘this is the way walk ye in it.’It is extremely dangerous to try to walk, and/or balance our lives between those two worlds of total surrender and commitment … and living like Christianity is an optional extra – something I take part in when it suits me!  We cannot look after me and serve Jesus. We must leave looking after me to Him!

So the answer is simple – give up the power of choice, stop being double-minded and live this life like God is bigger than you are, and He knows what is best. We have a big book full of examples of what He can do with people who obey Him. Simply follow Jesus and see everything else as a distraction from that chosen path. Living like that is how we will learn to be in this world the way He was, because He was here to do His Father’s will. The Lord Jesus was always about His Father‘s business and that’s our mandate too. 

He told a lot of parables about people who went off and did their own thing. Stories about when the master of the vineyard etc. was busy or went missing. Those were not good stories for the people who chose to do their own thing, and they did not have happy endings. The safest way to choose is to choose to follow Him unreservedly. And because He is humble in His heart, that road will lead us down. Lower still. Less recognition for us, and more recognition for HIM.  

We will probably fall over and mess up a bit while we are learning these things, but the reality is the choice to remain on His road leads to life – and more life. That’s the abundant life that Jesus talked about. The Lord is so sweet, He will be very patient with us while we are learning. He will correct things “…and teach and guide us with His eye upon us.” But we simply can’t live this new life without HIM, because we will fail, get discouraged and fail again … just from sheer disappointment! There is no middle ground – that’s just something someone made up so they could live with a foot in each world! 

In today’s permissive climate this is definitely not the time to go skipping through the daisies doing whatever we like, and expecting the blood of Jesus to cover it! The blood of Jesus is incredibly precious, so we must not ever misuse it. We can’t afford to misunderstand and mistake God’s incredible Love for us as permissiveness. We dare not tell people that they simply need to be saved – without telling them they need to be changed – by His Grace and their own obedience! 

We need His wisdom to negotiate our way through all the things that will come against us. Personally I have found in the face of difficulties, it is best to immediately, verbally, yield. Tell Him you want His will, His way – no matter what. We are never alone, praise God, we have an Advocate Who understand what it is like to be human! Jesus prays for us all the time. After I do that stuff, I hand everything over to Him and I do nothing until I get further instructions, mostly from His book. Otherwise it is way too easy to be dragged about by the wind of this doctrine, and that clever theory/idea. 

At the same time we need to remember our aim is love, so when we fall short of love, we are falling short of what Christ would do. But when I am dead to self, and I have no agendas anymore, who I love is no longer up to me – it’s up to Him. Dying to self is not an optional extra … it’s the point! He died so we can have the power to live this life His Way. That’s what disciples do, they represent their Master’s wishes. Anything else is compromise. Bless you, 👋

P 2925 The truth should change our lives.

/ DVH

“If the Spirit is the source of our life, we must also allow the Spirit to direct every aspect of our lives.”Galatians 5:25 TPT.“My true life is the Anointed One, and dying means gaining more of Him.”Philippians 1:21 TPT. I had put these two verses away for further meditation a while ago, because they seem to be seamlessly interwoven. They were written by the same man, Paul, at different times, to different churches.

Moving on …that verse in Galatians totally hinges on that first word. IF. That word is a word that is often overlooked, but it actually gives us immediate context. IF the Holy Spirit is our source then HE needs to be in charge … of … everything. Over the years people have baulked at what I’ve just said when I said it — in their opinion God gave us a brain and He expects us to use it. My problem with that line of thinking is this – something is wrong with our brain … it needs to be constantly refreshed! 

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it…”  Genesis 3:6. Eve made a judgment call. She used her own opinion, her eyes, and her brain, to decide what was good. Now God had already told her it would not be good for them to eat it — BUT EVE—this is a really important point—discarded what God said in favour of what she thought. 

That point is important because you and I do this every day. The Lord speaks to us. He doesn’t shout or have a brass band, or angels flying about the room, so we dismiss what we hear because we are unsure if it is Him or not! The way to be sure of what you hear is to know what the bible says, and then obey it, even when it seems too hard. We cannot digest the word by simply reading it, we must participate in God’s processes, voluntarily.

God clearly said to both Adam and Eve: “… but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:17. And because of their disobedience, Adam and Eve both died on the spot … even though they didn’t actually fall down DEAD! They died in their relationship with Him, and slowly but surely mankind walked away from Almighty God, by allowing distance to give us the freedom to do whatever we wanted.

Disobedience ushers in death. It won’t physically kill us, in fact we may go for a very long time without even realising we are dying! But eventually, because the Holy Spirit is gracious and He continually strives with us – we will realise we have walked further and further away from Him. That’s a dumb move!! HE’S THE SOURCE OF ALL LIFE. The further away we walk, the dead-er we will get, until we don’t care anymore what He thinks. That’s very dead.

The way we fix this dilemma is clearly shown to us in that second verse, Philippians 1:21. We must live this life choosing to die to ourselves, voluntarily, otherwise we will slowly lose sight of our heavenly calling and we will be dragged away by our own lusts and need for comfort. If we choose to die to what we think, and obey Him in the face of our fears, temptations, unbelief, antagonism, anger etc. – that means we are choosing to die to self. Self is the bit that needs to die. SELF ate from that tree!

At the right time, Jesus was born into this world. God came to earth Himself, as a MAN. Jesus Christ accepted the dreadful fate that awaited Him. He knew what came next and, despite the cost, He still made that choice to continue on that road. Now, we follow His example every single day.The Lord Jesus was separated from His Father when He became sin, He was separated so we don’t have to be. Intimacy with God is now our portion.

Jesus chose to die knowing that His Father would raise Him from the dead. Now the fear of death, and death itself no longer had a hold over Him – it could not keep Him in the grave. He knew the pain had a bigger purpose. Jesus died for us, so SIN will no longer have a hold over us, either. We don’t have to fail – we have been given the freedom to choose His Will, His Way. He gave us the power to overcome sin and our enemies..

We can live like Jesus Himself did – by living for the will of our Father. The secret is to make the hard choices, like this: “But I will do it, I will go to that person I cannot get along with and ask for forgiveness and then I will die daily as I apply that decision into my everyday life, no matter what it costs me.” The Holy Spirit will lead us, day by day, to die to ourselves, and live a brand new life. He knows the Way through every pitfall, every temptation, every grief stricken moment. 

Now we can go beyond the veil of ignorance about our own sin and unbelief, into the Holy of Holies, where God is. Jesus paved the way for us. The Holy Spirit has been given to us to lead us, and reveal to us what God wants from each one us. We have a reference book that is alive, this book is used by our Helper, to convict and convince us about where we need to change. The truth should change our lives. Bye. 👋

P 2924 The future is HERE ……NOW!

/ DVH

“But you need to be aware that in the final days the culture of society will become extremely fierce. People will be self-centred lovers of themselves and obsessed with money. They will boast of great things as they strut around in their arrogant pride and mock all that is right. They will ignore their own families. They will be ungrateful and ungodly. They will become addicted to hateful and malicious slander. 

Slaves to their desires, they will be ferocious, belligerent haters of what is good and right. With brutal treachery, they will act without restraint, bigoted and wrapped in clouds of their conceit. They will find their delight in the pleasures of this world more than the pleasures of the loving God. They may pretend to have a respect for God, but in reality they want nothing to do with God’s power. Stay away from people like these!”2 Timothy 3:1-5 TPT.

Yeah, I dunno about you, but at this moment, I’m thinking about heading for the hills, because this scripture sounds just like last week’s new’s headlines to me. Isn’t it scary when you can read something like this — which was written in 40-60 AD and yet you still think — boy does this sound so familiar! 

You know, God has never said that other people would like what we say – He just said: “TELL THEM.” And He also said, live like this – “make love your great aim” and the bible shows us how love lives. The news of today is filled to the top with death, anger, sorrow, murder, rage etc.and those things can subtly influence us to think people are not worth the sacrifice of laying down our lives. Sadly all we need if we want to be an influencer,  is to have a sad story, or  give away money, or stuff. Today you can buy people’s interest. And if you call it a competition, they will jump right in! 

But the bible says we are here to to tell them that they will go to hell if they keep going in the wrong direction. Yeah! That kind of changes the colour of anyone’s day. At the same time as we are actively loving them, we need to tell them what they are doing is eternally costly. 

However, we do not have to market God! There is a school of thought that says if we can be as slick and appealing as the things of this world, people will listen to us. This is what Paul was talking about in the above verse: “…having a form of godliness but denying its power …”True godliness is about fruit, it produces substance, not just appearances. There is no power in exhibiting the appearance of godliness, practising that will produce religion. When what we are looking for is inward transformation. 

Now, let’s look at that first line in Paul’s discourse. “The culture of society will become exceedingly fierce.”Hmmm. Does today’s world look like a loving, supportive culture? There’s a lot of talk about empowering people but not much talk about living a life of love. It seems to me that many people in the Western world have learnt to speak badly about others – so they can make money on TV shows by deriding the way people walk, dress, and live — we even pick on what other people EAT! We indulge in gossip simply for conversation’s sake. Gossip has become a way of life – a method of communication – a way to relate!

We need to assure the people around us that there is something much bigger, more important and infinitely more lasting, than working hard to look good. Mankind’s greatest challenge is to continue to be loving in the face of evil, and that will take the supernatural power of God! Meanwhile, the church can’t keep on doing what they have been doing because it isn’t working! Often our worst enemies are exactly who Jesus told us they would be – the people we dearly love.“… a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Matthew 10:36. We are going to need the power of God to cope, and still love them!

We have let our children down. Someone (??) decided the little darlings are basically good. Obviously these people haven’t read “Lord of the flies!” or “Grimm’s fairy tales” or the newspaper lately! Sadly we raised our children to be entertained, not instructed. But despite how cute they are, children are not born good. “All have sinned,” it says so in His book. Did you know that the first word most babies learn is “NO?!” 

We wonder why our kids are careless about the real things in this life that actually matter, and why haven’t they learnt integrity, obedience, and kindness etc? Wisdom and spiritual knowledge come from investing time and energy in people – not just chasing dollars. Our kids need to learn to contribute, not consume, and it is our job to teach them. Inanimate objects don’t cause delinquent behaviour, lack of supervision does.

I think Paul was looking through God’s Time Machine into a telescope of our future, when he wrote this letter of warning to Timothy. Let’s remember, Timothy was his disciple, he was teaching this young man the way he should go. He was also instructing Timothy about the times that were to come …  And now… happy, happy joy, joy, here they are! The future is here. Now! Always remember, the darkness cannot put the light out – HIS light in us will conquer the darkness around us. Love is the vehicle. Bye 👋

P 2923 Let’s NEVER forget.

/ DVH

Isaiah 6:1-8: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on a throne—high, exalted!—and the train of His robes filled the Temple. Angel-seraphs hovered above Him, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew. And they called back and forth one to the other, “Holy, Holy, Holy is God-of-the-Angel-Armies. His bright glory fills the whole earth. “ The foundations trembled at the sound of the angel voices, and then the whole house filled with smoke. I said, 

“Doom! It’s Doomsday! I’m as good as dead! Every word I’ve ever spoken is tainted blasphemous even! And the people I live with talk the same way, using words that corrupt and desecrate. And here I’ve looked God in the face! The King! God-of-the-Angel-Armies!” Then one of the angel-seraphs flew to me. He held a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with the coal and said, “Look. This coal has touched your lips. Gone your guilt, your sins wiped out.” And thenI heard the voice of the Master: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?”I spoke up, …
    

… “I’ll go.” Send me!”

It kind of seems rude to comment on such a beautiful piece of prose, so I will try to keep it brief. However, I think that this scripture from Isaiah needs to be meditated upon, over and over again, because  it is just such an incredible, beautiful, scene. 

I don’t care much about angels with 6 wings etc. and what they look like. Some people are kind of obsessed with them – beats me!!  I’ve just never understood why people make such a fuss about angels. I guess they must be spectacular to our human eyes, but, over the years, I have known many people who have done so many searches, as well as research about angels … so I’m kind of over it. Some people seem to see angels everywhere. Me? I see nothing. I am aware however, of times when the Lord has sovereignly intervened in our lives and sent angels to help us. But personally, I’d rather be like Isaiah and see HIM!

When I read something like this from the bible, the very first thing that grabs me is that these angels Isaiah saw were calling out to each other … “Holy, Holy Holy, is God of the Angel-Armies. His bright glory fills the whole earth.” God’s glory is just so magnificent that these two angels can’t help calling out about it! Just pause for a minute and imagine what church would be like if we said things like this to each other… !!! … Yeah, I know it seems kind of old-fashioned, but wow!! Let’s not leave behind the things that are beautiful for the sake of being modern. After all, nobody can look at our wonderful Heavenly Father and not be affected by what they see!  Now there’s a nice little Selah point right there.

Secondly, when Isaiah sees the glory and holiness of the Lord, he becomes painfully aware of his own shortcomings. And he doesn’t mince words either. “I have said so many blasphemous things, and so have the people all around me.” Now that’s conviction! Maybe we need a lot more of that right now, because our society today says anything it wants to. And before either of us draws up our skirts/trousers and says, a bit religiously: “I don’t do that, I don’t talk like that.”  Well here’s a really nasty thought, what do you do when someone else talks like that around you?

The other day when the maintenance man was unpleasant and asked us for a pornography DVD to test out the DVD player, this happened. When I said:“HE wouldn’t like it,” ☝️… the dear man shut up instantly. It was quite funny. Then as the two men were leaving, hubby said that the other fellow working with the maintenance man stuck out his hand, shook it, and looked him right in the eye, said: “Nice to meet you.” My point is you don’t have to come across holier-than-thou to make yourself heard, you can be true to your calling and still be sweet.

Let’s go back to the text… Isn’t it just overwhelmingly glorious that the Lord did not leave Isaiah in that state, where he was utterly bereft before a Holy God. Instead an angel was sent by God to help him. Such love! Did you notice the coal was for his mouth? I did! He’d sinned with his mouth so that needed to be cleansed. Isaiah was a prophet and he spoke a lot for the Lord – people who speak for Him, need to be aware that what they say can be tainted by this world. Just saying is all …

And now we come to today’s punchline … … well you knew we would! …🤣 “I heard the voice of the Master: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” I spoke up, “I’ll go.” Send me!” —That verse is the reason I write this blog. Almighty God is continually asking that question of each one of us. Wouldn’t it be lovely if everyone who prayed; “I’ll go. Send me…” – actually went! I pray that we are not like the people in that parable Jesus told about a wedding feast … “I can’t come, I just got married, I bought a new house, I have so many commitments I simply cannot come.”  That’s one feast none of us has to miss out on – Jesus made sure of that, personally!

It makes me so sad when people work so hard day after day, for the things they can’t keep. They miss out on the joy and wonder of interacting with the Lord, all the time.The more we live this world’s way, immersed in our daily lives, the further away the Lord becomes. Let’s never forget, we have a Saviour Who cleansed us from all our sins, and that includes the less obvious sins of omission. We have no reason to keep silent anymore…

👋 Bye.

P 2922 Help!

/ DVH

‘🎼Way out west where the rain don’t fall’ …🎶”. The people living out here, In Western Victoria, have been in drought for 6 years!! We discovered that on this trip. You won’t find it in the news, I looked. Because of overseas politics, or rampaging delinquent kids, plus people maliciously hurting each other – those things have pushed this kind of news off the front page. Instead we know more about what some movie star is doing!

These people have also had terrible bush-fires, which are a direct result of electrical storms and very dry foliage. Hubby and have driven for days and days on empty roads, past paddocks where farmers are desperately hand-feeding their stock off the back of their ute. Imagine an electricity bill for a farmer… when you pay your own bill next time.

These people, in our very own country, need help, and a loving caring acknowledgement of the fact that they are doing it tough. Money is a help but it is also a temporary solution. Maybe if we lived sacrificially we could be more help— why not store your money up in heaven like Jesus suggested and help the poor. You never know, the poor may live next door to you!

There are a number of passionate Christians who want to go on a mission trip to a much poorer country and be a blessing to the inhabitants, by joining in with some famous evangelist or other … They want to be a part of their team and see miracles…but … NOBODY comes to places like these! Jesus stopped for the one who was sitting beside the road, just as easily as He ministered the Word of God to thousands of people. 

We’ve just come through an extensive period in the church where we’ve had such incredible teaching – on the net, there are great bible schools, or through social media, on TV, even evangelists and healing ministries have come to town … But now, many churches are as dry as the paddocks hubby and I have seen — day after day after day. We all love going up the front and being prayed for, but it seems when those feelings went away … so did our passion for growth!

Instead we seem to have become more greedy for signs and wonders and not fruit. (John 4:48). The Lord spoke to me today and told me that in this life we sometimes think the majority must be right … “That is error,” He said. “I died for everyone. I want My children to bless that one right in front of them. You will find them under bridges, in doorways, huddled in bus shelters …  … winter is coming. Their homes have been repossessed, they can’t find a job, and they have nowhere to live.”

Helping others opens doors to all kinds of conversations. When you speak to a middle-aged woman about Jesus and the bible;  you could discover that she has no clue what you are talking about. And yes, hubby shared the gospel with that particular lady and gave her a bible … among other things!

Everywhere we have been for the past 14 days, we have discovered that there is a huge need for kindness and generosity. It seems many Christians have lost touch with the wonderful blessing of using what we have, to reach out to others who have so little. You know, it never hurts children to learn, firsthand, to freely share with those less fortunate than themselves. 

Hubby was telling me that he spoke to someone where we are right now. This man said electricity bills are bad in people’s houses, everywhere. But for a business like a country supermarket, for example, they pay up to $20,000 a month. Imagine that! Without even buying stock to fill their local store, these people out here have to find more money than I can imagine, every single month just to keep the doors open and their fridges cold. We shop locally wherever we go, to sow money back into the country towns.

We are used to travelling through the countryside now, so we never pass a dam, or a creek without looking for water in it. We know water is life out here. It is not a mistake that the bible is called living water. Maybe you could take bibles on your next holidays, and give them away. Don’t forget bibles and books for kids —or the next generation will know even less about the Lord Jesus than the last one does! The days of trusting other people to do this work are over — those of us who say we love Jesus, must pay much greater attention to what brother James said in his bit of God’s book.

James 2: 14-17.“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

Mankind is a family, a global family. The Holy Spirit loved and cherished each one of us enough to spend 9 months forming us inside our mothers!  We will serve our better selves when we help each other. People say to  me: ”Well you are always going on about listening to the Holy Spirit and He didn’t tell me anything, so it must not be my job.” This is my reply: “I’m sorry but you are wrong. Looking after the poor and helpless is mentioned over 2,000 times in the bible. He has never stopped speaking about it – you have just stopped listening. Loving one another is a strong theme.”

The people we’ve met out here every single day, need Help. They are not rich and they do not have ‘spare money!’ They need His help through us. He will become real to them, through you. Thinkabout it. Bye. 👋

P 2921 Running over!

/ DVH

“Overflow with mercy and compassion for others, just as your heavenly Father overflows with mercy and compassion for all.””Luke 6:36 TPT. That verse doesn’t sound much like a suggestion does it? It sounds like a constantly ever-expanding instruction to me. So the real question becomes…how? How do you overflow with mercy and compassion for others, the way Jesus does for you … ? Sacrificially that’s how.  That, by the way, is the same loving attitude He has toward everyone on this planet!  

Well, the first thing to remember is this, nobody can think their way through this one – our brains just can’t take in the magnitude of God’s love for people. We will always need His Spirit to help us. The Holy Spirit can and will expand our capacity for love and compassion as we allow Him room in our lives — the more room, the bigger the expansion!! It is worth also saying at this juncture that as we renew our minds, the easier it will be to know what the Lord wants from us! So we have to stop skipping over the bits in the bible we think we can’t do and start asking for His help to do them.

This is why we cannot afford to hold grudges, or cheat on our income tax, or walk past a poor person who needs help, or break the law by excessively speed along the highways. Those are dumb examples of an all pervasive current attitude toward this life. When will we decide we have more than enough and start to act like it by helping others? We simply must move away from greedy, grasping, looking after ME,  into gloriously generous, overflowing giving, looking after OTHERS.

This is one of our Heavenly Father’s characteristics … He looks after us daily. Look out of your window – did the sun come up again? Then His mercy is brand new again today. If we want to look like Him then we will have to walk down the same pathways Jesus walked. It was not a mistake that Christ was born into a poor ordinary family… rich people have a hard time with FAITH. That’s not my opinion …Jesus said so!

Speaking for myself, without the Holy Spirit’s help there are many times I want to say to someone who wants even more time than I can give: “Just go away will you? You are disturbing my nice image of myself!” But we can’t actually successfully think our way through spiritual things like this. The things of the Spirit belong to HIM! It isn’t helpful to berate yourself for not having the fruit of the Spirit either. We quite simply need His help, so we throw ourselves on His brand new mercy today, and take a leap of faith. First of all, how we feel needs to become wa-ay less important than His WILL. He will lead us, He will guide us, He will show us where we can be His hands and feet.

Compassion includes action.Not just sympathetic remarks, kindly meant and said. Love actually looks like something! Now here is the rub, the Lord doesn’t just say, ‘have compassion and mercy’ — He said OVERFLOW WITH IT! Yeah! Good one. Overflowing means there is more than enough, not just a little bit kind of oozing out the edges. I often drive other people mad, because I take things in the book, so literally. I can tell you that this whole overflowing bit is supernatural – in other words you can’t manufacture that lot by yourself! And you can’t talk yourself into it either – you either got it or you don’t, and if you don’t ASK AND THEN ACT, using your faith, and then just keep on doing stuff.

We can get so tied up with ordinary everyday things taking away our valuable time, that we don’t think to ask Him in to help us with whatever is going on. He wants to be part of every bit of our lives, not just delegated to an hour every day and four on Sunday. He will show us His compassion as we learn to rely upon Him. We need to know that He is gracious and compassionate, personally. Our theories aren’t worth a kilo of bananas! To learn things like that we must LET Him help us through our own difficulties, by choice – on purpose! 

The bible tells us that our God is a compassionate God: “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” Psalm 103:8.  I just want to stop here, and say that the bible uses lots of effusive words. Like ‘over abundantly, abounding, overflowing’ … these are all greatly excessive words. They aren’t excessive words for nothing! Don’t just settle for a little dab will do ya! Go for the gold. Be like Joshua strong and courageous … and then stay and wait in the tent after everyone else has gone home! Press in. It doesn’t take a lot of words to press in, it just takes confidence in His loving nature and the ability to believe God is good.

Let Jesus be the One you run to, when stuff happens. He wants to be closer to us than a brother. That means we will give our time, it means using we will use our faith. It means giving out of the abundance of the knowledge that our God is in charge – so I will not diminish ME if I give something to YOU.I will care if your life is tough, not just in words but in deeds. If we want a pressed down and running over kind of life where we can spontaneously and generously give to others, we will have to change the way we live. 

It will not be comfortable. What part of Jesus’ life was comfortable? If I want ‘running over’ with compassion and mercy  I will have to stop thinking of my life as mine and start thinking about it as His. Bye. 👋

P 2920 Faith only.

/ DVH

“My beloved brothers and sisters, the passionate desire of my heart and constant prayer to God is for my fellow Israelites to experience salvation. For I know that although they are deeply devoted to God, they are unenlightened.And since they’ve ignored the righteousness God gives, wanting instead to be acceptable to God because of their own works, they’ve refused to submit to God’s faith-righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law. And because of Him, God has transferred His perfect righteousness to all who believe.”Romans 10:1-4 TPT

It is, unfortunately, a difficulty we all face, we can be deeply devoted to Jesus and still be living under the law and works. It is sadly quite easy to switch over from faith to works and not know you have done it. Engaging with works means you can almost immediately see something for your efforts, and it also gives us, as human beings, validation, because we want to take part in whatever the Lord is doing.

Engaging in works also means we can dismiss ‘spiritual-things’ as done for the day  — like when we tick off, prayer, bible reading and church. Actually that simply means we did what we ought to do. But is that all there is? Are we listening to, and paying attention to whatever the Lord is saying as we go through our day? Did we obey? Can we hear Him over this life’s cacophony of activities?? Have we wandered off into our own understanding?

Here’s an illustration from my life. When hubby and I go on the road, people financially support us, so we want to have results to show for the money they’ve generously donated. It becomes really easy to start counting things. Things like: we’ve had this many great conversations, or given away that many bibles, and bookmarks. It’s a very real temptation to try to account for spending other people’s money, whether they ask you about it, or not.

And to be utterly truthful, it is also a temptation to exaggerate what goes on out here … because sometimes, there ain’t nuthin’ happening here! Results don’t matter bupkis to the Lord. He simply loves to go on our journeys with us –  to work, or school, or on the road talking to people – that’s what matters to Him.

Jesus’ death paid the entire price for our sinful nature, and now we can talk to Him and we know we will be heard. Those are the things that need to matter more than anything else, to us too, if we want to walk with Him in the righteousness He died to give us. Enlightenment comes from trusting in what He did at Calvary, using our FAITH,  nothing more, nothing less. Automatic responses reduce Almighty God to a chore, a task, or yet another thing we need to remember. When all He wants is for us to be obedient to His ongoing instructions. As we keep acting in faith, He can and will correct and direct our course. He’s just that gracious.

Our minute by minute attitudes, are a whole other ballgame – those things are under our own personal control. That’s the place we learn to yield. We will all wrestle with walking in faith, because it is so much easier to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ’t’s and get validity from our actions and intentions instead. However, a truly authentic life rests on Him, and what He did, not on our actions. We are validated because what He did for us validated us! So on the road, we rest in the fact that He told us to do what we are doing, whether we see anything or not.  And sometimes, despite our best efforts … it’s …OR NOT! 

In that situation, hubby and I remind ourselves that planting seeds is a slow business. You gotta wait to see whether what you planted pops up after a while, plus harvest time can be a little while coming!! Even the disciples travelled all over the known world to spread the Gospel of God’s kingdom – and as they did it, they lived by faith, they were trusting Him to guide them.

At one time, Jesus Himself walked about 70kms, up and down tall mountains, for about 5 hours. He was going from one place to another. In this process the Lord met a Samaritan lady. Just in case you forgot, Jews don’t like Samaritans very much, but at the other end of the Lord’s enormous trek, HE FOUND A HARVEST. A whole bunch of Samaritans got saved. Whether the Lord knew what was going to happen or not, He perfectly illustrated what we have seen out here on the road. Unforeseen things happen! Stuff you could not possibly have planned.

Sadly, all of us can easily get lost in the every day ordinary things that need to be done. If you have a family then plenty of boring repetitive stuff daily has to happen. How do you do that kind of stuff in faith? I can only speak for myself – I GIVE UP a lot. When I find myself planning and using my own ideas, I repent and go back to trusting Him. Repentance is not just about moving away from sin – we also need to repent when we go back into works again. This truth has been the biggest blessing to us as we travel all over this country. We’ve put aside what we can do, and made it our priority to follow Him. We want His Presence more than we want results.

Continual enlightenment comes as we walk in what He already has done for us – it flows from our surrender, not from our own efforts. That’s what Paul is saying here. We don’t want our own righteousness, or our works, or our cleverly thought out activities – instead we want to live under, and give away to others the righteousness Jesus Himself totally paid for – for all of us. He voluntarily did what He did, to cover, direct, and comfort us. Every single bit of our lives needs to be lived in faith — waking, sleeping, walking, doing the washing up, servicing the car, playing with our kids…not legalistically … instead we simply include HIM in all things. 

 And if, or when, we run out of instructions, then we need to prayerfully go back to His book. Bye👋

P 2919 Go to the Source.

/ DVH

“And if anyone longs to be wise, ask God for wisdom and He will give it! He won’t see your lack of wisdom as an opportunity to scold you over your failures but He will overwhelm your failures with His generous grace.” James 1:5 TPT. Around about this time in our mission (day 6 of 12 days), Hubby and I have learnt that we can end up on a huge down-a-later…  right before our Heavenly Father is about to do something that will blow our socks off … again!

To be honest with you, I’m not sure we would choose to go on these trips purely for the people the Lord sets us up to met – although they are often fantastic people. But I strongly suspect we both do this because we can’t wait to see what He IS going to do next. He is always surprising us – He literally never does what we might imagine at all – nothing looks like you think it will! 

I think the reason that many Christians don’t often see the Holy Spirit working around them is because they won’t want take any risks. People who lay down their lives to follow Jesus, end up taking risks. Like walking on water, or feeding thousands of people with some kid’s lunch. Or waiting for the Holy Spirit to come – when no-one has any idea what that looks like!  We need to stop thinking He’s only present when we see miracles –  because the Lord promised never to leave us or forsake us. He will go with us, wherever we go in His Name, and He always keeps His promises.

However in those times when it seems as if hubby and I have run out of enthusiasm for moving around from one place to another, and we are slowly getting toward empty — then He just simply takes over, particularly when we confess that we are hopeless without Him and we need His wisdom …like brother James suggested in his book. That’s when wisdom flows everywhere, and we just stand back and watch Him move. I  love those times, they are the best. 

One of those fantastic times happened at the beginning of our journey, when we first arrived in Victoria, utterly exhausted. Hubby gave away a half a dozen bookmarks, and a block of chocolate to the cleaners. Their leader was so overjoyed she raced off to our cabin and hugged me – she said this: “Nobody ever thinks about the cleaners!” Hey guess what lady?? Jesus always does!! 

Another one happened because the TV and DVD in our cabin didn’t work. So two guys came to fix it and then one of them suggested we all watch some porn to see if it was working now. I laughed and said: “Boy, are you going to feel bad when you find out what WE do!” Then we told him, and we all laughed together! You just never know who the Lord is going to bring along next, like two rough Aussie blokes and 2 weak wobbly little missionaries.

Only a few days ago, hubby took bibles and bookmarks into yet another caravan park office, and after a few minutes talking, he gave the lady behind the desk, a bookmark. She burst into tears and started sobbing: “You just don’t know what this means to me,” she said through her tears. You know, that book mark was not that good, trust me! It’s the Lord!! Jesus wants people to know He loves them, and He’s not dead – He’s alive!

So far, and we are on day 6, we have given away nearly all our bibles, 341 things in 6 days and 3 of those days were hard travel days. And we, Mr and Mrs We-haven’t-got-a-clue, are simply doing whatever He tells us to do. We were able to give that sobbing receptionist one of our books that talks about knowing Jesus, as well as a heap of bibles for that park. Then somebody else came in, which kind of terminated the conversation and changed the atmosphere. The window of opportunity may be very small, but Hubby is brilliant he jumps right through it!

Travelling around by car is difficult, the roads aren’t great to start with! And it means we don’t see a lot of people in a day, as we have to cover a lot of ground between towns … where there are only emus, kangaroos, and deer – would you believe?  Australia is a land with lots of space, so that means a lot of driving. We have driven about 1500 kms, to places that often don’t even have churches. Places where faith is not a part of any conversation, so if you bring up Jesus it usually takes people by surprise. 

The Lord wants to be so much a part of our lives that we talk about Him quite naturally. Like I said to the man when he wanted to play a porn DVD – that we didn’t have (!!!) – “Sorry mate, HE wouldn’t like it.” And I pointed to the ceiling. We need to defer to the Source, first, last and always. Bye 👋.