Jesus

P 2858 No strength. No problem!

/ DVH

2 Corinthians 12:8-10: “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

My first thought is that we all need to read these verses at least a couple of times to absorb what Paul is saying. Then I want to ask all of us a question … ‘why do we try so hard to get everything right, when His strength is made perfect in weak people?’ Yeah I know… it seems dumb when you put it like that! Here’s a thought that has greatly benefitted me and I will pass it on to you — go straight into being a weak people! Yes, seriously. Don’t waste your time and energy trying hard to be a ‘good Christian.’ Give up and rely upon His strength. Learn to say: “I can’t do that.” And then step out and act on His word when He speaks to you, and watch and see what He will do.

I know it’s kind of a terrifying thought. Imagine what other people will say if you tell them you really can’t … do the flowers, or bring morning tea, or read the bible out loud from the pulpit, or do the work of 4 people! But when we make ourselves do something without waiting on the Lord and talking to Him about it, we are forming a religious habit that can last a lifetime. We know that whenever He asks us to do this or that, we will need to grab our courage in both hands and do it… but, in those moments we can have the confidence that He spoke to us, to back us up. We know He will complete what He said! 

Listen to what this man said about Jesus: “For I also am a man subject to authority [of a higher rank], with soldiers subject to me; and I say to one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Matthew 8:9. This man understood delegated authority. When we wander off quoting this or that, or something that someone else said, without first interacting with the Lord Himself, we have nothing to stand on. We are trying to borrow someone else’s authority. Each of us has been given His authority but we need to personally get something from the King Himself to stand on..

I am blessed, I know I am not strong at all. And according to Paul that’s a fantastic place to be!!  I have had to learn to rely upon His Grace and strength. All I do is turn up and do whatever He told me to do. At the same time, I am no longer scared to say ‘no!’ Because outside of what Jesus has told me to do, I definitely know I will fail. My strength physically, mentally, and spiritually can falter – but He does not. My faith is aways in Him. He will come to rescue me, even when I’ve done something dumb. I confess my error, and turn it back over to Him – then I stand still and wait for further instructions. I know I have a part in what He wants to do, but understanding authority and how it works helps me apply myself.

It is far better to appear to be weak, than it is to save face. ‘God hasn’t talked to me about that stuff, I’ll ask Him,’ is a valid reason. At the same time, it isn’t a cop-out either! In reality: ‘I don’t want to do whatever it is,’ is not a valid answer. I think that many of our church institutions need to revise what they keep on doing, over and over again, but unfortunately the people within them keep on doggedly filling roles, so all will appear to be well. The Lord is not interested in the appearance of good, He wants His good to prevail — only God is good! Mark 10:18. 

The best thing we can do is to start from, and finish with, whatever He has asked us to do, using our faith. I get so happy when I know can’t do something He asks me to do, because I know I’m about to see His supernatural strength in my life. Many people get burnt out and exhausted because God didn’t tell them to do what they are doing in the first place! It is the Lord Who will build His house. Our job is to ask Him how He wants us involved. I cannot begin to say how many times I have heard Him say: “Not yet. Wait.”

Actually, I think we often rush ahead of His timing. We want or need the Lord to do a quick work, so we try to sort-of hurry Him up with our own activities. The Holy Spirit will leave! And sadly, He leaves so quietly we won’t even know He is gone for a long time! One of the Lord’s favourite things is when He can see that people want to embrace His timing. His will His Way. Having no strength to do what He asks us to do is not a problem. It is actually an asset. His strength is made PERFECT in our weaknesses. So, the thing is – do we want ‘kind of good enough’, or perfect Answer? No strength is never a problem…👋

P 2857 Fads, and fancies.

/ DVH

Some clever person has decided, for whatever reason … pick one … WHO knows? … that if the Lord wakes you up at 3.00am, He wants to talk to you. O-k-ay. Maybe the Lord wakes them up at 3.00am to talk to them – I can’t speak to their experience, nor yours for that matter. But trust me … when I wake up at 3.00am I am not thrilled. All I wanna do is go back to sleep! I love to talk to Jesus, but not-quite-so-much at 3.00am. 3.00am means I’ve probably had just enough sleep to stay awake until I have to get out of bed. When I wake up at that hour, I quite often can’t go back to sleep again.

Meanwhile, imagine what an idea like that does to a young working mother, or a mum who has her hands full? Maybe she just got her baby/toddler back to sleep? Many a night I’ve sat in a rocking chair, soothing a cranky child, rocking away, praying for people. That’s why I can see these women at 3.00am, with toothpicks holding their bloodshot, sleep-deprived eyes open, saying … “Who the what now?? This kid is going to wake up again in a few hours… Go away … tell your nice theory to someone who gets plenty of sleep!” Sometimes human beings say the dumbest most thoughtless things. Never let anyone but Jesus write on your relationship with Him. You are you, and those other people who do things differently are not-you.

Meanwhile at 3.00am I have noticed that every single idea that pops into my sleep-addled brain is fantastic! I immediately know how to change my life, or save the world. I think I have a reason for that phenomenon – I am sleep deprived! Sleep deprivation does weird things to the brain. We all think we are a genius at that hour. Actually I woke up at 3.00am this morning and I wrote this blog. Yes, I talked to the Lord, and prayed for everyone I could think of, and I ended up even more awake trying to solve problems that weren’t mine in the first place! 

That’s when I remembered Samuel was once awake in the middle of the night because the Lord wanted to talk to him. He was a kid at the time and he woke up confused too – he didn’t know it was God talking to him. (See 1 Samuel 3.)  Eli had to straighten him out. You know, that nice man didn’t even ask the wide-awake kid to go and fetch him a glass of water … you always need one when you wake up early … he just gave the boy wise advice, and then he rolled over and went back to sleep. Smart guy Eli, grossly underestimated in the realm of wisdom. 

Sometimes, Christians can have FADS. In my lifetime I have seen lots of them, they come, they go, because eventually somebody throws more light on this theory or that revelation. The bible says: ”I will arise right early, I will awaken the dawn…” Psalm 57:8. But I’m left wondering if that is the same thing as making yourself wake up at 3.00am! If the Lord wants you, He will call you. It is my hope that this fad is short-lived. And yes, I know that we all need a quiet time with Him, but that’s for you and Him to work out. Just talk to Him. He’s always there.

It’s like fasting: the bible says that the Lord chooses the fast we are to participate in. (Isaiah 58:6-11.) I can still remember when fasting was a fad, people fasted to make God do things. Fasting is a supernatural event, we are led into it by the Holy Spirit – it is not a dietary or problem solving aid! Our Father loves us so very much, and we don’t have to make Him do anything. Sometimes I think people fast because they don’t like NO!

Just recently a doctor discovered that my bones are showing the effects of age, which doesn’t surprise me because I have had them for a while. He had three wonderful remedies to cure this problem, and they all had ghastly side-effects. The first one caused oesophageal spasms, the second gave flu-like symptoms because it is used in chemo-therapy and the third one causes necrosis of your jaw bone. Strangely …I said no thank-you to His interesting options. He was a bit miffed, BUT … not every suggestion or revelation  you hear about or receive, no matter how insightful, is actually helpful to your life.

Now, if the Lord happens to wake you at 3.00am to pray … DO IT. Please!! Some saints gladly give up their sleep time to intercede for the rest of this planet – they pray for His kingdom to come, and I personally praise the Lord for their diligence. But please do not join in this jamboree just because someone said it and it sounds like a deeply spiritual thing to do. Something that just might get you what or where you want to be.. Use your faith to believe that He loves you and loves to talk to you …at any time, instead. 

I know, there are people who are in desperate situations and they need the Lord and His input — but we must remember that He actually wants to talk to us. He is not a sadist thinking up ways for us to torment ourselves just so we can hear from Him! He does not require us to jump through hoops to impress Him. We need to use our faith, not performance. Let’s not blithely subscribe to every fad and fancy that floats on by. 

BTW the book also says this: “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for He grants sleep to those He loves.”Psalm 127:2. Amen. Bye. 👋

P 2855 He will give what we need to us.

/ DVH

You know, I hardly ever feel like forgiving people when they have hurt me. I’m usually too angry or wrestling with my  logical/illogical thoughts, plus my own personal justification. Our feelings are not the right resource for us to look at our reasons to choose to hold onto unforgiveness. Personal justification is anti-everything-that-Christ-died-to-give-us. 

By reading His word, and taking what I read as Him talking to me personally, I’ve learnt that deliberately cultivating forgiveness, plus responding with obedience, are two of the best ways we can keep our communication channel between us and the Lord, clear. In this new life as we live for His Kingdom – we definitely need to be able to hear Him.  I’ve also learnt that consistent choices to obey to what He has already said – opens our ears and eyes more and more. 

The Holy Spirit is far more willing to trust me, than I am willing to trust Him. He is incredibly generous, beyond what you and I can think or imagine. He will even take our heart effort to obey, and still steer us through every pitfall. Even if we fall off the wagon, He will help us back up! Because He is so generous and gentle-hearted, we must never misuse His generosity. Seriously, we must not treat such a precious Person carelessly. It isn’t that we simply respect Him and His wishes – we need to honour Him with our substance … which means all that we are, and do!

Deliberately planning on the Holy Spirit glossing over something we know that we intended to do, without being genuinely repentant, is not on. We are talking about SomeOne so special … He’s the One Who brooded over, and cared for this earth before it was ever formed, and then carefully designed each one us within our mother’s womb. We look the way He planned for us to look. He sees you and I as beautiful –  because we are people who have been made in God’s own image. The Holy Spirit is SomeOne Who knows and understands our weaknesses. He walked with Jesus, and He has an incredible depth of understanding of pain and suffering. 

I like to actively reflect upon what I read, and I know the bible says that our Heavenly Father could not look upon His dearest Son, Jesus, when He became sin.  We all know that when Jesus became our sin, that sin disfigured Him beyond our imagining. Yet our Heavenly Father IS a FATHER and that was His lovely Son, humanity deliberately and maliciously killed. Think about it, even if you knew one day your precious child would die for a good cause, right in front of you – do you think you could watch while He was being tortured? Our God has a bigger idea of good than we do! That’s why His goodness is the essence of all He does.

He needs to be more than a distant figure, too holy for the likes of us to look upon – even though that thought is true. He knows how to make hard, wise choices! He chose to enter into mankind’s existence. And in Isaiah 53:10 it says: “Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the LORD makes His life an offering for sin, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in His hand.” This shows us a great deal about God’s Ways. He can rejoice in things that are happening because they are for mankind’s greater good. We can get so wrapped up in our idea of what’s good – we can miss that our Heavenly Father has a bigger plan. We must learn to trust in His processes. 

When I choose to forgive you, I give my thoughts of who you are and what you do, and how I think you should treat me – back to Him. I put you under His Grace – a glory that is more powerful than anything this world has ever seen. This is not something I owe you because I am religious, it is my own hard choice to forgive you and that is what obedience looks like. We need an ever-deepening understanding of how His Grace works.

On a mountain long ago, when Jesus stood there with Moses, and Elijah – His glory was revealed to the disciples. His glory contained His chosen obedience to the Father and His will. Jesus only wrestled with being obedient once in His life and that was right before He went to the cross, and faced all that His death contained. But He did not flinch … He still went forward. He went forward ALONE and He did not defend Himself. The disciples lost their leader, their friend and teacher, but, it took the Holy Spirit’s intimate knowledge of what actually happened in those moments, to change their lives at Pentecost. They received a download of spiritual revelation that transformed them. 

Today, we continually need greater revelations of what was done for us, so that we will happily choose to live joyfully respecting and honouring Christ’s life and death. At this moment in time, it seems to me like, we are living like usurpers not children of the King. We never have to demand what we need, because if we truly need it, HE WILL GIVE IT TO US.  Bye.🕊️

P 2854 Set your heart.

/ DVH

Colossians 3:1-12: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

Praise God, living for Christ is now our new life! Our ONLY life. The thing to remember is this, when we surrendered our lives to Him we didn’t just give up sin – we gave up whatever we want in this life! Now we daily live for His purposes. Hello! That means goodbye to our own personal agendas. You and I were ransomed by what Christ did. SomeBody paid the most expensive price ever paid, so I can belong to Him and partake of His kingdom. This means I voluntarily gave my plans for my life away. Now let’s move along before everybody’s hair falls out, and find out what comes next.

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

Paul is explaining to us the things that we no longer have to indulge in. Meanwhile, I think it is fascinating that he calls greed – idolatry. This part of the above larger scripture today, makes it clear that these are the things we must no longer tolerate in ourselves. You know, sometimes people are so busy thinking about other people’s sins, against them, or life in general, they don’t pay attention to the stuff they are doing. Ignorance is not an excuse – we have His book! Instead people excuse themselves, and accuse others.

After this happy little list, Paul goes on from actions into attitudes – the kind of things we need to watch out for. Warning signs that show us we have wandered off our chosen pathway. Personally, I’ve found Colossians 3 has enough to keep me busy for plenty of lifetimes!  But here’s more …“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

We don’t just take off the stuff that will spoil our faith – we put on Godly things so that there is no room for ungodly things. Paul doesn’t just feature what not to do, he is telling us what we are to choose now, plus how to do it. He is talking about that word that we all know and love … CHOOSE. God chose us, now we choose HIM! The Lord will not do this work for us, however, He will help us overcome our reactions and attitudes. But without forgiveness, none of this stuff works!  

Why is it necessary to continue to persevere with people? The roots of the tree of unforgiveness go down very deep in all our lives. Continuing in love will expose the very roots of our own personal hurt. As we persevere and bear with each other, especially when we choose to love someone who jumps all over our stinky attitudes, we will learn more about how and why we have so much unforgiveness in the first place! Win, win!!

While we are still in this world we will have to deal with our own faults and fatal flaws etc., as well as other people’s sins against us. How we do that matters. I like to remember one of the last things Jesus said from the cross, while He was dying an agonising death: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34. Many people have no clue what effect their seemingly innocent defensive remarks have on others. What our Lord did at the very end of His earthly life is a good principle to follow – forgive and do it quickly. 

Releasing forgiveness seems to allow the other person to continue to do whatever they like, but the reality is – it puts that other person into His hands. When God deals with people, they cannot wriggle out of whatever they have done. Read the book! The bible teaches us that …”The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9. We must remember God’s AIM! Plus, changed people are about their Father’s business and sin has to go because it renders us blind and deaf.

Finally, here’s something I have learnt by living, I probably have no idea how abrasive I sound to someone else – only I know the turmoil in my heart – that other person is too busy dealing with their feelings to care about mine. Our God is thorough. Both parties benefit when forgiveness is allowed to reign.  We are in the voluntary process of learning to set our hearts. Bye for today 👋.

P 2853 Be real.

/ DVH

Hi! You know, there are times that we like to quote the verse “with God all things are possible …” especially when we need the Lord to do something impossible on our behalf! Being real means we see Him change impossible things in our lives, every single day. Yet, most of the time, we merrily roll along ignoring change, hoping the guy who annoys us will change instead! We only drag out our faith first thing in the morning and last thing at night, as well as on Sundays, and maybe for prayer meetings. OR we crank it up for those desperate times when the emergency bell is clanging away in our lives, and something has happened that we can’t fix!

Ticking off spiritual boxes is a way to appear to be spiritual. Many Christians seem to be totally unaware that we are knee-deep in practising living with the appearance of goodness – without embracing the substance of the kind of change that will transform us. And consequently, we affect the lives of every one else around us. Unfortunately living like that is like a great looking apple that’s been in the cool store too long. On the outside it looks fine but inside it is all brown and inedible. Real fruit is startling in its sweetness with every bite.

We can get by with hiding our faults from other people by going to church regularly, giving to the poor, never swearing, always being seen to do the right thing … but the truth is …if what we are doing is not coming from our hearts, then we actually need the kind of repentance that is followed up by change — not play-acting. Here’s an astonishing and amazing thought: GOD LOVED US WHEN WE WERE YET SINNERS! Pretending, or keeping up appearances, is a waste of whatever precious time we actually have on this earth. His love will never withdraw from us – actually most of the time, we withdraw from Him. Humbly admitting our faults to each other clears up the idea that we are somehow perfect. It is a much safer place to stand.

My point for today is that we always need to be real. Let’s not live our lives pretending to be something we aren’t just so we can fit in. Be yourself, warts and all. Let the One Who has changed men and women’s hearts since the dawn of time operate on your heart. One of the most valuable graces we can embrace – besides repentance, and obedience – is honesty with ourselves. The truth is, we don’t have to be afraid of sin anymore, because Jesus paid it all! So now there is no reason to hide. Hiding from His love is counterproductive – the power for us to change comes through receiving His unconditional love and forgiveness, and then giving it away to others. If we hide we short-circuit this process.

Today I want to briefly look at a woman who threw herself down on the floor at Jesus’ feet, at a dinner party. To start with – she wasn’t invited! And for her efforts the rest of the crowd judged her, plus they judged the Lord as well! But like I said before – HE looks at hearts! “She has been forgiven of all her many sins. This is why she has shown me such extravagant love. But those who assume they have very little to be forgiven will love me very little.”” Luke 7:47 TPT. The result of diminishing our sin is this: we miss out on understanding how much love HE gives us and how much worship He deserves!


Dismissing sin’s very real consequences produces ongoing bad results. To start with, we lose gratefulness. This dear woman did not care what others thought, she knew she needed to be right with God more than she needed their approval! She poured out all she had on His feet in repentance, and total adoration. And the Lord saw her and received her. Her honesty gained her an audience with the King and a chance to worship Him. Who doesn’t want that?

Here’s something I have learnt, over the years … Instead of spewing out my anger or withdrawing from people who hurt me …kindness, mercy and forgiveness opens amazing unseen new doors. Those doors lead to refreshing changes, and deeper relationships. Instead of minimising our faults, and accenting someone else’s sins against us – releasing loving forgiveness takes us out of any hot-headed drama and puts us squarely back into His kingdom.

It will cost us, of course. Worthwhile things are costly – just like that alabaster box. But our transformed attitudes in those moments become like that perfume that was released to the Lord. Jesus is not concerned with sin anymore – now He wants us all to move on into the freedom that flourishes in His Father’s kingdom. When I set you free, I get freedom too, whether you pick up your share or not! Learning to be real about who we are, plus who we are not —removes the weights and burdens we’ve tied on ourselves.

“Those whom the Son has set free, shall be free indeed.” These people will be free to enjoy who God made them to be. We can pick up a lot of dumb stuff in this life, and some of it comes from when we are too tiny to block it out. Let God Himself heal you and reveal how He sees you. Learn to be real. Nobody else can do YOU like YOU can! Bye. 👋

P 2851 Fruitless, but they didn’t know it.

/ DVH

Mark 11:11-17: “Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then He said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And His disciples heard Him say it.

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as He taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

The Lord once had a problem with a fruitless fig tree when he was hungry – He cursed its fruitlessness and moved on. And He and the disciples walked into the temple, where He became angry with the money changers etc. who were working in the temple courts. Those buyers and sellers were there out of necessity, to facilitate people’s sacrificial offerings  … but sadly they were doing what they did, purely to make a profit, not as an act of service to the community around them. Our perception of why we are here matters. Let’s always remember, we carry Love Himself with us everywhere we go. 

Today it struck me that the fig tree in this scripture is a spiritual example of the state of that temple back there in Jerusalem. Just like the empty fig tree, the temple itself was not bearing any fruit suitable for the place that was operating as God’s house. The temple was designed to be a place of prayer and worship not a market. Those money changers, animal and bird sellers etc. were supposed to be there to facilitate other people’s repentance and reconciliation before God – not to make a profit. 

The temple was established to be God’s house filled with the prayers of His people. And those now running it had made it all about gain. This clearly shows us that the intention of our hearts matters. The fruit of this activity did nothing but line pockets, and it cheated people who simply wanted to worship God. Just like the fig tree those merchants were producing nothing that people could spiritually eat. Or, even worse, they were taking advantage of the sincere participants. What they were doing appeared good, but just like that fig tree with lots of leaves – there was no fruit.

The buyers and sellers made it a costly hardship for ordinary people to get to God’s Grace. Well, there’s a huge warning right there! It seems to me that what enraged the Lord Jesus when He went inside was that people were making money off other people’s spiritual needs. Yet God had provided that temple for anyone and everyone. Even the desperate sinners and poor need a safe place to repent and worship! So that haggling had to go!

When the disciples saw the dead fig tree the next day they were astonished. Incredibly, Jesus turned that whole incident into a lesson about faith and how it works. Faith is meant to be productive – and bring us closer to God. It feeds our spiritual man. What the Lord taught constantly showed us was how to live by faith – what that looks like. He consistently used ordinary everyday illustrations to show us faith as a part of our everyday lives.  And on that particular day He was enraged about people taking advantage of others and their very real spiritual needs. 

God’s house is no longer a building, His home is now human hearts — Jesus Himself died to complete that transaction for us. The only things that can get in the way of our faith and spiritual development are our choices. We must choose to believe what Christ told us, and go on to live this life relying upon Him, every single day. We are not simply servants of the Lord. Now, today, at this very moment, we carry our King wherever we go. That ought to make us stop and think about where we are going, what we are doing and why! It would be tragic if, like the money lenders etc. we miss the point of what we are here to do.

There are times when we can easily end up running about raising money for this and that to improve the look of the building we use Sunday by Sunday. But sadly, the people who worship in that building sometimes remain vastly unchanged, simply because we are prioritising material things. The state of each of our hearts matters. His people can worship Him in a swamp or a wilderness, because we are now His temple as we gather together. Our aim is to be fruitful and feed people – unlike that fig tree!

It seems to me that sometimes we still regard a building as God’s house! Instead we need to pay attention to the needs of the people inside the building who are in reality, His house now. We glibly say: “My heart – His home,” and yet we act like God’s requirements are met within bricks and mortar. My final thought is this, nobody wants to be found fruitless when Jesus comes to do His fruit inspection! “… However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [this kind of persistent] faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8b. Let us never settle for tasks, let’s press on for a faith-filled fruitful life. Bye. 👋

P 2850 Risky living applied.

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 2849 Watch carefully for the new.

/ DVH

“Stop dwelling on the past. Don’t even remember these former things. I am doing something brand new, something unheard of. Even now it sprouts and grows and matures. Don’t you perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and open up flowing streams in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19 TPT.

Did you ever wonder what on earth God was doing in, and through your life …OR maybe even wonder IF He is doing anything at all? Well, that’s where this verse comes into its own. When God does something new, WE don’t always recognise it.

When Jesus was born as a baby and walked around Israel for 33+ years people had no idea what God was doing now! Even though they had had prophecies to say that new things were coming, they were still stuck in the rules and regulations of the past. The key to this verse is in the first line. “Stop dwelling on the past…” !!! When our eyes are filled with things that have happened before, we cannot see what He is doing today … in front of us.

The Lord exhorts us to not even remember those former things. That’s hard. Especially if the things we can see today seem quite minor in comparison to the things we once saw! The point is we cannot identify the NEW if we are looking through the OLD glasses of the past! We need to spend our time looking for what He is doing today — now, at our house, in our churches, in the Body of Christ worldwide. It won’t be the same as the things He has done before. He’s a creative God – He makes new things out of old ones, and I am not talking about recycling!

Seeing the new things our God is doing creates hope, but looking for the old ways can usher in despair. Move on … I don’t care how old you are, move on. Ask Him – if you already have a ministry – “how can I keep in step with what You are doing now, today?” God’s kingdom does not operate the way this world operates. In His world, older people are as important as the young. Even if you don’t have a recognised ministry, ask Him to highlight the things that you are doing that are from Him. We can’t see stuff sometimes because we have a preconceived idea of what spiritual things are supposed to look like. We are blinded by previous spiritual encounters.

Even when I read the bible, He keeps showing me new things from a book I have been carefully reading for over 50 years! It blows my mind daily. I’m reading the same words, but now they are saying something different to me. I can still see the old but the new things are like a giant flashing sign – almost blinding me with their brilliance. I must have said 4000 times last year “why did I not see this before?” BTW, in case you are thinking, “lucky you” – insight is part of our inheritance. It is not peculiar to a few people. It is God waving at us … saying… “Yoo-hoo, right here!”

Maybe you have been chasing the Lord and His wonders all your spiritual life – well, right now it is time to get new running shoes on, and start training again. In the Christian life, none of us arrive at some predesignated spot. There is no place where our ministry is perfect and we know we’ve been perfected in love. We simply keep pressing on while we can! The sign of a true believer is someone who falls down often and gets up again … one more time. 

Here’s a lovely testimony about something that has blown us away. We are rejoicing, even though we don’t know what comes next. One of our very elderly family members had an enormous heart attack followed by a horrendous fall. However he opened his eyes when people came and prayed for him around his hospital bed, and then he raised his hands when they sang his favourite hymns. The heart attack/fall should have taken his life. Even the staff at the hospital told the family, be prepared for the worst. Now he is also breathing a little on his own.

Who would bother to give a 93 year old, who has loved Jesus all his life, more time? Our God would. Why? I dunno. All I know is that it is a precedent, so we’ve made up our minds not to give up on anyone, no matter how old they are!  All because yesterday, this sweet old saint raised his old hands to Jesus, one more time again in this life, and he praised God. Maybe he is more there than here, we don’t know. The outcome does not matter, in the body or out of it, this dear precious old man is with the Lord. 

Our God keeps on doing brand new things, if we don’t take the time to see and celebrate them, we will find that regret over the loss of old things we have previously loved, will grab at us and pull us down. Watch carefully for the new. Bye. 👋

“I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what He will say to me, …” Habakkuk 2:1a

P 2848 Risky living.

/ DVH

To be a risk taker means that we choose to take hold of whatever courage we do have and use it. Jesus taught us that our faith needs to only be the size of a mustard seed – and a mustard seed as you can see, is a very little seed. ”For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20-21. I think a major flaw in the way we use our faith is we wait for some feelings, like confidence or assurance, to come first. And sometimes we need to work on our stinky attitude because that is the mountain we are currently facing! Risk takers put their feelings to one side and act on what the Lord told them to do regardless of the consequences.

A risk taker sees the bible as God’s instruction manual, complete with all sorts of interesting stories about Almighty God intervening in the lives of His kids. Take Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego … Meanwhile fancy calling your kid those names!! Teehee. Moving on … these three men’s faith changed the destiny of a king, and saved their lives. This is what they said to the king in Daniel 3:8:17-18 “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and He will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if He does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

Right there … “even if He does not…”…  that’s the tip of the spear of their faith. They threw that faith spear into the heart of a King and it pinned him to the wall. Look at what comes next:  “Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” These three men and their collective faith changed that king’s attitude, he was watching to see if they had been delivered!  The power of their testimony overcame the enemy and they released their faith through what they said, then they let God be God. At the same time they got to walk around in that fiery furnace with Jesus … well, it says a fourth man … but I think it was Him! They came out of there not even smelling of SMOKE.

Hubby has this saying, I love/hate it. “If you want to see a miracle you are going to have to need a miracle first.”Think about what that means. I love what he says because it is true, I hate it because I like life to be easy. Therein lies the problem. We all want to see miracles without getting chucked into a fiery furnace! You know if you put gold into a furnace, all the impurities trapped within the gold, come to the top and you can skim them off. That action produces pure gold. The impurities can be seen clearly when the gold is fluid, they float to the surface.

We can see what is really going on in our hearts by our reaction to difficult, awkward, dangerous, unsettling  circumstances. Just like the process of gold refining – our anxieties, fears, short-comings, and lousy, cranky attitudes come to the surface under the pressure of opposition and trouble. What we often do in those times is to wait out the trouble, or try to deal with it, so we can get to the end of whatever is going on, and exit the problem and go back to ?normal?. Instead, as much as we are able, we should take note of our impurities and give them to Him, and ask Him to deal with them. And yes, I do know that is hard when you are going through stuff, but confession is good for us!

Jesus, our primary example of faith in action, did it too. The Lord said this in the garden of Gethsemane:“And after going a little farther, He fell face down and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible [that is, consistent with Your will], let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” Matthew 26:39. He prayed the same kind of prayer that those three men prayed facing the furnace. Jesus exercised TRUST … to the death! Some people call this prayer the prayer of relinquishment. Actually, I pray it all the time. It is my “hands off” prayer. I give the situation to Him, like our three faith heroes did when faced with a fiery end, and then I leave the results to Him. 

That is why today’s blog is called risky living.  I would like to acknowledge that my title is also the title of one of the great-books-I’ve-read. “Risky living” by Jamie Buckingham. He is one of my all time favourite authors. Sadly don’t go looking for this book, because all his books are now out of print. That book would benefit this generation heaps.

Dear Jamie is with the Lord now but I loved his writing because he was so honest about his failings and his humanity, as well as being crystal clear about how good God is … despite how dumb we are! God is faithful, as I said yesterday, He has given us people who are gifts! Jamie Buckingham was such a gift to me. He taught me that when I gave my life to Jesus, now my life is about furthering His kingdom. not my own.

Even my personal comfort is subject to His will. It is an important truth and we should choose to learn not to be tossed about by fiery trials. “Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.” 1 Peter 4:12 MSG. Bye, 👋.

“Praise be to the LORD my Rock, Who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.” Psalm 144:1.

P 2847 God is long-suffering.

/ DVH

God puts up with a lot from us. That thought is how I began to see that we need to focus on walking in His love, instead of just gathering more and more knowledge. At the same time we can end up working hard to be somebody we are not, while we are trying to gain something from God that is already free, and belongs to every man, woman and child, ever born! 

When we read the Old Testament and study the Way He interacts with each individual person, we see that Almighty God loves our uniqueness and He is prepared to work with every person mentioned, personally. Inside their perceived limitations. The Holy Spirit is currently teaching me how to follow Him in ways that stretch my faith, while He is showing me how to love. He started me off with the most difficult person in my life, someone I could not relate to, at all. My natural response was to react at this person. Instead of pretending to manage the situation, I began admitting I was an abject failure, I could not possibly change myself  – plus I had absolutely no faith for it. I realised I could not live up to an impossible standard, by myself, and failing all the time was extremely discouraging. 

That is when I came to the conclusion that there is a strong possibility that we have been reading His book incorrectly for years! We’ve studied it like we might study Maths or English, instead of applying it so it becomes part of who we are.“Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:11-13. God wants us to know and experience Jesus in His fullness, for ourselves. The result is that we will do what He did – He lived to obey His Father.

If you happen to be a pastor, prophet, apostle, evangelist etc. then you are merely one of Christ’s gifts to His Body. You are a GIFT … you are not the star .. HE is the star! I’m so OVER people following other people who are supposedly more spiritual than we are! When we follow other people and their revelations, we begin to lose sight of our Saviour personally, and we start following man-made directives. That means that we start thinking like Pastor Rex or the Apostle George, and shape our lives around the way they think and preach. No wonder the Lord said it was a huge responsibility to be a teacher – people could end up following individuals instead of Him! The Lord Jesus is so kind, He does not want us to have second-hand faith – He wants us to have our own testimonies of His active grace in our lives. 

Meanwhile, I do wish that some leaders would tell me HOW to apply the scriptures into my life instead of merely explaining what it says. I think it is a leader’s job to teach us HOW. In 1 Corinthians11:1, Paul says: “Follow my example, AS I follow the example of Christ.” How did Paul follow Christ? Wholeheartedly to his death!!  If I choose to learn information from someone else and I do not personally learn how to let Jesus carry me through life’s impactful situations;  I will have nothing at all to stand on. I need to hear from God for myself, and follow Him, step by step. As I do that I will learn about HIM and His Ways for myself.

Leaders LEAD – they are not just there to pray for us when our prayers appear to be hitting the ceiling. They give direction, encouragement, they take the scriptures and make it plain to ordinary people, and we all add new believers to our churches. Sometimes they lead by example, showing their flocks how the scriptures have impacted their lives. They teach us obedience, and submission. 

Paul explained the teachings of Christ brilliantly and he lived that way, himself. Best advice ever … don’t follow anyone who does not live the way they speak, especially if they never ever share their missteps or mistakes. Our God is incredibly generous, He will share His wisdom and His power with anyone who has faith and seeks it – but that doesn’t necessarily mean that individual has a Godly character. Gifted people can usher in miracles and still live this life with an unredeemed character.

We cannot afford to follow everything Brother-I-seem-to-know-a-whole-lot-of-fancy-stuff-you-don’t-know says … that road can lead to huge disappointments. Keep on FOLLOWING JESUS, do what the bible says, and read God’s book for yourself. Do what the Lord Jesus Himself did, wait on God for answers personally. It is sad to say, but the love of many has grown cold – I think this is why there is often no power of God in our churches! Yet, we have access by the Holy Spirit’s Presence to all walk in His power, not just a select few. We can all participate in the miraculous, that should be normal not extraordinary. Our lack of devotion to Christ Himself has led to many of us being passengers on someone else’s bus, instead of soldiers, daily fighting to set captives free for His sake. 

Our God is long-suffering, He puts up with a lot in His great tender mercy and love,  —- so I think He deserves our total devotion.“For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain…” Philippians 1:21. Now there’s a good verse to live by this year. Bye. 👋