Joy

P 2771 The kingdom of God.

/ DVH

In Isaiah 55:8-9 the Lord said: “My plans aren’t your plans, nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My plans than your plans.” That kind of clinches it eh? Because it can’t get any plainer than that! We have not got a clue how God operates, and without the Holy Spirit’s help we never will … He is far too complex for us to understand. Aren’t we blessed that He reaches down to us, and shares how He wants us to participate? The Lord has plans for everyone’s good – not just mine. His plan is to save the world … one person at a time … and He wants to use us to do it.

Sadly, at least half of Christianity, at this moment in time, are not even trying to participate in His plans. We pray for His kingdom to come, and then we go out into the world and try to further our own kingdom instead! It is impossible for someone to live in two kingdoms. We are either living for His, or living for ours. And the sad fact is this – we postpone participation in His kingdom, in favour of organising our own. BTW, age does not factor in this reality, Moses was 80 when he started living the life God planned for Him. 

It seems like Almighty God is looking for “Onward Christian soldiers” but most of us want: “The Happy Song.” So, what do we do with the fact that we seem to like “The Happy Song” better? Here’s what I think — I think we can have the Happy Song AND Onward Christian soldiers, when we have learnt to stop allowing this world be the source of our happiness. And we make Jesus, together with obedience, our source of inspiration and action, instead. How do people know I am an Aussie? When I open my mouth! Kingdom people have a different focus in their conversations.

The bible says in Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Seek His kingdom first. That’s not hard to understand! There are apparently 46 scriptures that point out a facet of what God’s kingdom is like. Obviously I can’t list them here, but looking those verses up is worthwhile. If we are going to aim at something it will help us to know what it looks like! We are told to seek His Kingdom first, after that comes the righteousness that only Christ’s death and resurrection can give us. And after that we use our faith and believe what His book says … and …we step out using our faith. Participation in that process means we will get our needs met. 

Most of the time, I have observed when we pray, we feature our own needs. That’s backward. Start with the Kingdom. Seek the kingdom first. Pray like this: ‘Your kingdom come in me,’ OR… ‘I‘present my body as a living sacrifice.’ OR …’Your will, Your way, Lord.’ When we start with His kingdom, a whole lot of unnecessary stuff falls off instantly. It means we’ve put down our little list of needs and wants, and started to focus on Him and what He wants. We need to remember Christ’s position before His Father is now our position. So we live this life, the only one we have, like His kingdom is more important than ours … because it is. Our needs are temporal, His kingdom is eternal.

Here are a few examples of what His kingdom looks like in action: a/ righteousness, peace and joy. We can have these 3 things in the here and now, because they are part of living our new life IN Christ. b/ Being spiritually helpless and ignorant doesn’t cancel His kingdom – it gives us access to it. c/ His kingdom is activated by faith, not knowledge or wealth. d/ It’s a treasure and it’s often hidden. e/ The kingdom of God starts out small but then it grows. f/ It blossoms in us as we embrace it. g/ In His kingdom HE is the ruler. h/ This kingdom is not just a place per se, like heaven! His kingdom comes in a ‘people’ wrapping. You and I, we are kingdom carriers. i/ Final one for me, the kingdom of God is a treasure – it must be sought, dug for, paid for by surrendering every bit of our lives to the King.

Remember, His kingdom is now within us but it needs to be released through us by our obedience to His word. The Holy Spirit is our Helper, He will teach us which way we should go, and how to serve the King. So if we go to school, or work, or to the shops, etc. He goes there with us.  We carry the kingdom of God – what a privilege! Jesus wants to be wherever we are, because He loves us and…He wants to reach the people all around us.. Seeking His kingdom is like seeking the King – the rewards are out of this world. They are priceless. Bye. 👑

P 2757 Flowers ain’t fruit!

/ DVH

We have a large mango tree in our backyard, and it has grown heaps in the last couple of years. Now its taller than our house. However, last year there were hardly any flowers on it, and what was left were little nubs of potential fruit, that got blown off by some high winds. That large tree gave us about 12 mangoes. Boy were we disappointed. Especially after feeding it, watering it, and protecting the fruit from the birds of the air who think they have a right to eat anything and everything. Stupid noisy minas. Grrrr. 😖 Where was I again? Hah! Growing fruit … hmmm.

“BUT the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.”Galatians 5:22-23 TPT. Did you get that? The life and health of any tree is the reason we can produce good fruit. Our mango tree must have had a tummy ache last year or … it was a bad weather year for mangoes. Sadly we can’t use that excuse for spiritual fruit!

The thing is, this year I totally refuse to get excited about fruit any more, even though this year our tree is covered in mango flowers. So what happened? Where did my enthusiasm go? I learnt something. I learnt flowers ain’t fruit! Some fruit trees have masses of beautiful flowers everywhere, they smell so pretty … spring is in the air, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the bees are buzzing away around each little flower. and the whole idea, at that moment that there may be no fruit from that tree is far far away … 

The Lord Jesus had that happen to Him once. He was hungry and went to a fig tree that should have had fruit on it but it had none. (Read Mark 11:12-25) So the Lord used that tree as an object lesson for the disciples. We should pay careful attention to that little story. I’ve heard people speak about it in sermons — they said that this bit means that, and that means this, and the tree is the other thing … on and on…  Do you know what I think? I think if our trees/lives have no fruit of the Spirit, then we better look hard at our tree and find out what’s ailing it! 

Simply because fruit trees are meant to produce fruit. And we know that the Holy Spirit living within us will always want to produce His fruit. So what does no fruit mean? I think I’ll just leave you to think on that, I did. Long and hard!  You know we can comfort ourselves by the fact that our lives have produced pretty blossom flowers that smell so lovely – but! … Ya can’t eat the flowers! Well, you can … but I wouldn’t – there is not much nourishment there. 

There are many people living around us today who are eager to take ‘a bite’ out of us, just to see what our fruit will taste like, how we will react. Think about it. Some clown cuts in front of you and your precious kids in your car, in traffic, and you have to slam on the brakes and tell the kids to hold on. What kind of reaction does that invoke in us? Do we say unprintable things and curse the idiot who did it? Or do we bless the young man – let’s be fair, it is often a young man with little sense, who thinks he is a racing car driver … So. Do we bless him with wisdom and common sense so he won’t kill himself or someone else? Hmmm. Probably not.

Moo-ving on … Some pretty young thing pushes in front of us in the coffee shop and turns and gives us a dazzling smile and she says; “you don’t mind do you? I’m in an awful rush.” And you stand there, smile back and say .. “of course not.” Meanwhile you are thinking: ‘You are not the only one with a busy day lovey!’ Or other things I will not mention… 🤬 And there we are, wearing a fake pasted-on smile. That’s not real fruit by the way, its wish-fruit. We just made plastic fruit. That stuff falls off the minute you shake the tree and it tastes like plastic be-ca-use … it’s … plastic!

The point is – fruit can’t be faked. It’s either real or it isn’t. And the faked stuff is inedible. So what conclusion can we come to? We need to ask ourselves what actually comes out when I am under pressure? That is what is actually INSIDE my tree – it seems I lost my connection to the sap that flows from Jesus along the vine. Now, I can’t blame you for that, because no matter whatever is inside me, the truth is I let it stay until it got good and rotten and expressive. 

To bear good fruit we need to value the Holy Spirit and His ways and, as I said a minute ago, we can’t manufacture good fruit. Farmers grow fruit, and manufacturers churn out the plastic stuff! That’s why the bible says: “The fruit of the SPIRIT is …’ It’s His fruit in me, not mine. It is also what Jesus meant when He talked about abiding in the vine. Here’s the cruncher … without the sap of the Holy Spirit flowing through us, we can’t manufacture fruit at all … Our pretend, isn’t worth a hill of beans, and flowers ain’t fruit! 

We gotta go to the tree, our own tree, and see what is stopping us from letting the sap of the Holy Spirit flow through us. We need to ask ourselves questions. What are we hanging onto that grieves the Holy Spirit? It doesn’t have to be too much TV etc. it could just be a lousy attitude that we won’t let go of! Honest repentance starts the fruit growing again, and watering our lives with the knowledge of His unconditional love for us, plus feeding ourselves on the bible by doing what it says – all that grows fruit. Christianity is not a club, it’s a lifestyle, and fruit takes time to grow. Let’s get rid of any blockages to fruitfulness with His help — be-cau-se… …flowers ain’t fruit, they are simply po-ten-tial.  Bye.👋   

P 2752 Welcome banners for the lost.

/ DVH

I was somewhat concerned yesterday when I thought about linking something from YouTube to this page. Not because I am unhappy with the content I shared, but, because … guys …  … as Christians … we can be so religious! I am aware that if something dubious popped its head up from YouTube, that those people who do read my blog could miss the blessing in what I was sharing.

It’s a fact that there are people in this world who have evil lifestyles, that biblically speaking, put them in spiritual harm’s way. We all know that there are things that the bible clearly condemns. But, we can be so intent on getting across our disapproval of someone else’s lifestyle, we omit to pass on His LOVE to the very people Christ was sent to save. Those things are not mutually exclusive.  Love is a spiritual gift given to us by Jesus Himself, to disarm the lost and help the needy.

How can anyone know that God loves them while we are afraid of other people’s sin? We treat it like it is CoVid or something else highly contagious. Yet we are not exempt from sin ourselves, otherwise the Epistles are irrelevant and Paul was teaching and correcting people who were already perfected! Just because we are saved, that doesn’t mean we know everything. We need to be humble when we approach somebody else who has been caught in satan’s trap – and there are plenty of his traps about! Hands up those people who have never ever lost their tempers… I can’t put my hand up either. 

People, as in human beings, need to be loved. When love is in short supply, and hatred and disapproval flourish, they will find love wherever they can. Just like a thirsty man will drink filthy water. Maybe the reason we are afraid to associate with some people is because we are not walking closely with our King. Jesus wasn’t afraid of anything. because our God can deliver anyone from evil – even us! Once a man with many demons (2,000!) sat in his right mind, at Christ’s feet. Instead of ostracising or alienating people, we should be asking ourselves why the love and Presence of God is not convicting them through US – without us even having to say a word.

We have a responsibility for what is happening in this world – WE ARE HIS SALT. Sadly, I think the church has not loved others well. Instead we’ve condemned them, and made their sin more important than their spiritual well-being. There will always be some people who are given over to a reprobate mind – but God can snatch anyone from the fire. He saved me … and I had no idea what holiness looked like – I still struggle, how about you?

Almighty God IS going to snatch some people out of the fire. How? I dunno! But I think it is time we realise that Jesus touched the unclean, and made them clean because He, Himself was clean – inside and out. Plus I think it is a dumb idea as well as a poor game plan, to let FEAR rule our responses. We are running away from our first responsibility – to tell everyone that Jesus loves them – what they do about that piece of spiritual information is not up to us. And just to be clear, I am talking about living a life of love toward the people around us, as He leads us.

In the past, loving Christian families have been tormented and tortured by gossip and innuendo etc. because even though they raised their kids in the fear and the knowledge of the Lord, a member of their family has gone off into a lifestyle that the church feels we can’t approve of. So that entire family is held responsible for something that could happen to anyone. At this moment in time, the world we are living in has a tidal wave of positive reinforcement and approval toward those ungodly lifestyles. Those lifestyles come recommended by a society that loves to indulge the flesh.

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Instead of blaming families, we need to fall on our faces and repent that we have not modelled the love of Jesus clearly enough to those who were obviously searching. I know what it is like to commit yourself to something that you know is wrong – the further you walk down the wrong road the stronger your commitment to it gets, and the harder it gets to back up. People can get trapped by their choices. But our God is so much bigger than than our choices. To most people in this world, God’s love is a theory – we are the vehicles He has chosen to demonstrate that love.

It’s time for all of His children to come on home. We must hang up welcome home banners to the lost. Has any one of us been saved from our sins without God’s love reaching out to us, first?“You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Matthew 22:39. “God loved us while WE were yet sinners …” Romans 5:8 “Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”Jude 22,23.  Bye. 🙏

P 2750 Death. We can’t avoid it.

/ DVH

There is no greater privilege than walking with someone else to the end of their earthly journey.  But this life today seems to be more about convenience, and carefully portioning out our time to do relevant, useful, fun things, as well as ordinary, everyday, necessary things. Death is not a significant subject in our society at all. It is as though we think that if we even mention it, that robber of joy will turn up at our house – always uninvited. But this life starts on its own timetable and it finishes the same way.

Most babies are born into this world regardless of our busy lives. One of mine was a month late, another was 3 weeks overdue. I thought I had turned into an elephant both times and I’m not talking about my size! (Elephants can gestate for 18 -20 months). I thought 10 months for a whole human being was a bit excessive myself! Moo..ving on from birth…

… back to my point. Death is not a subject that fits into our timetables. Just like the beginning of this life can be quite unpredictable, we all know that we have an undisclosed appointment with death. Are you cheered up yet??  Me neither! But I serve at the pleasure of the King and today’s blog was His idea. Yay! Meanwhile what are you so gloomy about? I could be closer to that event than you are. 🤪

As Christians we happily announce to the world that death has been swallowed up in victory and then we spend our time here deliberately not thinking about the fact that we are all finite! This subject only comes up, if someone close to us dies, or we are faced with that particular door into the unknown ourselves. Even faith that is steadfast wobbles a bit. Then suddenly death is a spectre looming in our faces, that steals our joy and enthusiasm for living. It creates a gaping wound inside us, and our revisited losses leave us inconsolable. 

However, walking the last mile with someone who is on that particular journey is an honour and a privilege. Caring for a dying person … at a time when their own families may fail them … that is a pure gift of love. Helping others transition from this life to the next is an honour, chosen by very few people – yet we need them.

We must be grateful to the ones who chose this kind of career – they are special. Their palliative, loving care is invaluable to the person who may already be very afraid, as well as in great pain. These people have the privilege of guiding someone prayerfully, carefully, through all the emotional upheaval, the physical ramifications, and the practicalities of dying and leaving this world behind them. Dying often involves suffering – and nobody enjoys going through that — or watching someone else do it either.

Right now, this minute, 106 people are about to leave this world behind – and that happens every single minute of every day. For most of those people this last journey is a journey into the unknown. Only the most adventurous, or the most despairing amongst us anticipate this last adventure. The people who care for the terminally ill are literally called by God Himself, to hold the dying soul’s hand and comfort and care for them, physically and emotionally. It is an opportunity for Love Himself to reach out and touch us at our most vulnerable. Jesus was incredibly kind to anyone He met that was suffering or dying even while He was dying Himself. Remember the men next to Him on the cross?

Dying is a normal part of our lives here on earth. Our civilisation has estranged itself from this process because of our distaste for it. That often leaves the suffering person all alone to manage one of the hardest journeys of their existence. The people who work in palliative care with those who are dying, are heroes to me. They put aside their own inner feelings, fears, and comfort, to make sure that this person is cared for to the end.  

Christians are often looking for ‘spiritual’ careers, yet very few job seekers consider ministering to the lost, dying souls who no longer have hope in this world. As well as standing by to comfort the families that are facing the inevitable. We usually leave that kind of ministry to ministers, imams, monks, priests, chaplains and pastors – the so-called ‘experts’ about the important things of this life. 

I felt the Lord wanted me to remind us all about praying or caring for the desperately sick, dying and lost. Being someone’s carer, nurse, nurse’s aid, doctor, or even someone who looks after people in palliative care is an honour. Love always looks like something. To a dying person it looks like hope for what comes next. 😶

P 2741 Some suggestions.

/ DVH

Just to round out what I wrote yesterday, I wanted to talk about what we can actually take with us into the secret place —-NOTHING! We cannot take anything with us into this place. Our troubles, cares, woes, our sins, other people’s sins against us, all those things need to be dealt with as they occur, or as the word of God convicts us. Glory to God we have the blood of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit’s help with our repentance, and reparation. He will uncover our selfish, sinful ways! I have written some suggestions today to help anyone who needs some guidelines for walking with Him in their daily life. That is all they are …suggestions. 

I often pray the scriptures for myself. “Keep creating in me a clean heart. Fill me with pure thoughts and holy desires, ready to please You.” Psalms 51:10 TPT. I love the ongoing tense of this version. I can’t, by myself, manage to achieve this stuff, because I fall over, all the time. I get grumpy wa-ay too many times, and I want my own way because it seems far more convenient, so I need to ask the Holy Spirit to help me – over and over again.

To me, praying scriptures like this is useful. Here’s another great one to focus on: “Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell Him every detail of your life,”Philippians 4:6 TPT. I ask the Holy Spirit to show me my heart, and reveal my sin – your sin, anyone’s sin(!) and I deliberately and permanently forgive everyone – including ME. 

We aren’t just rubbing our noses in our sins, BTW, instead when we go to read the Word with the Holy Spirit’s help, we are washed and cleansed by the water of the Word. Then our hearts are ready to hear whatever He wants to tell us for today. My advice is always read the bible, looking for stuff to do, ready to receive today’s instructions. At the same time, I ask the Holy Spirit as I read, “do I do this?’ I look carefully for clues about what Almighty God loves, what He hates, and what the bible shows me about His ways and I take those things on board.

Next I pray about my peace. I can lose it in the impatience and argy-bargy of every day life. Wherever we have left our peace we need to go and get it and repent of losing it in the first place!  it is of no use to blame others – losing our peace is a sign that we valued something else above being with Him. We are peace-makers and you can’t make peace unless you have it in the first place and you know what it looks like!

Philippians 4 Verses 4-7. These verses, among many others, show us how to get our peace back. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again:Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Wise advice.

So I hand everything I am struggling with over to Him and thank Him for His peace. And then I focus on spending time with Him, expressing gratitude for Who He is and all He has done for me, and what He has given me. Most people underestimate the value of gratitude and worship – it lifts our spirits and helps us to focus ‘on the things that are above.’  Worship is about reminding ourselves of His great worth. I give Him all of me, every single day. “Presenting our bodies …” sacrificially, is another form of worship. All sorts of nasty stuff can simply fall off when we worship, and it helps us focus on Him.

The bible tells us that:“…in His Presence there is fullness of joy.” Psalm 16:11. So if you and I want joy we need to just BE with the Lord. This joy in us grows as we give our time, on purpose – to Him. However, there are days when the Lord has other ideas about our time together, and then I do whatever He says to do, because I’m not locked in to a system … they don’t hold water. I need His water and His fresh bread, every day, it is like my life blood. Ticking off prayer and bible study, repentance, etc. as a completed task, is a fruitless empty action. We need to let the Holy Spirit take our hands and guide us into an ongoing deeper relationship with God, by letting Him take control.

One of the best parts of walking with the Holy Spirit is that He knows what is going to happen today, and He will walk me around any relationship pot-holes and stop me from running into the often on-coming traffic of this life! All I need to do is cultivate a relationship with Him, and take note of what He likes and what He doesn’t – and keep right on listening and obeying.  The secret place is not a secret club for a few special individuals who have somehow been blessed more than you and I.  ‘Whosoever will may come.’   Bye for today, I hope these few suggestions are helpful to someone. 👋

P 2737 Wound management.

/ DVH

Resentment is like dirt in an open wound. The wound may close, but we our healing is circumvented because there is still bacteria inside. I just want to mention that the wound or the bacteria may not be our fault, it may have come from somewhere else, or even somebody else. But it’s what we do with that wound now we have it, that matters. Ignoring it, or even peering at it, poking it, and making sure it is still sore, will not promote healing.  

Healing comes from thoroughly cleaning out wounds  – with some sort of disinfectant. So it is going to sting! Then we apply soothing ointment, and cover that injury with the same blood we are covered in. Our ointment comes from the Presence of the Holy Spirit – He knows how to soothe every sore place. After dealing with it, we can leave the wound to repair itself, and get on with our lives.

Resentment will often remind us that we didn’t get what we asked for – because it loves to keep accounts of wrongs. Remember 1 Corinthians 13? “…Love keeps NO record of wrongs!” Resentment will take us out of love and chuck us into a side eddy, going round and round. It can swing our spiritual lives so we are now collecting bad dead stuff. It won’t let anything good in, but it twists and turns and shades our overall POV. Then it flings all that dead stuff out into the main stream to anybody who will stand still and listen, leading to gossip. This devilish trait will never satisfy us because it doesn’t produce anything but more suffering. And like a germ in a wound it leaves even more pus in its wake!

Human beings want INSTANT answers — but Almighty God loves constantly progressing relationships! This trait must be fostered by making painful choices. We deliberately leave behind the things that caused a wound and jump back into the fresh living water of the RIVER of God. Doing this optimises our healing. Our feelings can be overrated because they are often fed by stagnant water … plus they are addictive.

Father God wants a loving functioning relationship with each one of us – He lost everything He cherished through our forebears’ deliberate disobedience in the garden. Remember, man was made in His image – we are designed to be like Him, inside and out. The Lord Himself, plus Adam and Eve, all had sweet fellowship together in the cool of the evening – every single night! Right now, He is looking for sons and daughters, who will pay the price to walk with Him again. 

That means we will have to give up any and all hidden resentments, because those things can become an occupational enemy! The Lord is longing for true fellowship with people who value HIM – not for what He does but for Who He is – people who value Him so much they will lay aside every weight that slows them down. We were saved to walk with Him, daily, in the garden of our hearts. His heart is so BIG He has room for every human being that ever lived. But resentment will subvert His plan to love on us and consume our thoughts instead. 

Our God doesn’t just hand out assignments and stand back, waiting for us to complete them – He wants to come with us! Praise HIM, He will also lend us His glorious expertise, and a fresh POV when He does. The very best thing we can do is to go everywhere with HIM!  However resentment turns our heads and hearts away from what our Heavenly Father loves most  — PEOPLE! It grows in an atmosphere that does not include Him, plus it goes hand in hand with complaining. It narrows down any fresh possibilities so we become trapped in half-truths and animosity.

Resentment is also a thief. It comes knocking at the back door of our hearts supposedly to comfort us. It wants to have a cup of coffee or tea with us and then it will point out all the bad things other people have done to us – so we can sit and stew in them! It tells us it is protecting us from future pain so we must keep those hurtful people at a distance. This thing is an evil accountant and a collector, it will keep track of other people’s wrongs!  It produces the wrong sort of fellowship, including lying and distortion. Like every thief, resentment wants to steal — our hope, our peace, our joy, our worship and voluntary service for our King. That traitor wants to hide in dark corners and snipe at others. The solution is simple – don’t entertain it.

Here are some great scriptures to think on: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”Ephesians 4:29.“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”Ephesians 4:31. “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; …” Hebrews 12:15.

Resentment is best dealt with early, because it has the awful power to reproduce and multiply. So we need to break off any suckers like that springing up in our lives,  like we would break off a plant sucker as it grows on a living tree …Break that thing off at the root. Otherwise it will steal all our joy, hope, and colour in our lives with bleakness, because it produces nothing of any worth. I urge each one of us to become adept at wound management – before any wounds poison our system. Bye 👋

P 2719 Our faith is a faith of paradoxes.

/ DVH

“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”2 Corinthians 12:10. Paul gets happy when most of us would run away. Ya might want to think on that for a bit. 🤔  When is the last time you cheered when everything went wrong and you couldn’t fix it? …. Me neither!! When is the last time either of us remembered that the weaknesses we feel are a sign we are strong in Him? 

“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.” Matthew 5:11-13. When we suffer for righteousness sake, we are blessed! And if people hate us then we are even more blessed. Yeah… r-i-gh-t! “How enriched you are when persecuted for doing what is right! For then you experience the realm of heaven’s kingdom.” Matthew 5:10 TPT. So, in keeping with the theme of today’s blog — when is the last time you ran about shouting gleefully: ”I’m rich, I’m rich?” — simply because people were rude to you, or cursed you, or criticised or threw rocks at you or made your life difficult. Rocks can be words too! 

Here’s another one to chew on:  “As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed;…” 2 Corinthians 6:9. These are things nobody in their right mind would want to experience – yet when we chose to follow the Lord Jesus, that way of life became our portion. We have paradoxes by the bucket load:“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs in the kingdom of heaven.”Matthew 5:3. As Heidi Baker once said: “My poor in Mozambique know they are poor, in the Western world, you don’t know you are poor.” Here’s a big fat revelation … she’s not talking about money or goods, etc. She’s talking about us being spiritually poor… Having stuff can cause a huge pre-occupation with keeping stuff … or getting even better stuff. We can be so obsessed with keeping our routines and systems ticking over, that our spirits can be in abject poverty. 

One of the greatest paradoxes of all is putting what we can see or feel above what He has already said in the book! Or maybe it’s thinking we can live this life however we want, and still enter His kingdom…?  Here’s another interesting one: “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:3. Usually effort means we gain something!! But in this verse effort is secondary to something that is so ephemeral, so subjective – we need His book to define what it looks like!! And it looks like stuff we cannot naturally do – fancy God asking us to do stuff that we cannot do!

The real thing about paradoxes is that they run contrary to the way we want things to happen. Up becomes down;  in is out; and saved becomes a way of life, not just a ticket to heaven. The bible says that salvation needs to affect everything, especially the way we relate to others. If you find yourself getting snippy with someone, it’s time to do a spiritual check up, with His help. Just like you would check your temperature if you feel a bit off. Each time we say ‘yes’ to His Ways, we are saying ‘no’ to our own way, and that’s when we step into our own personal battle. 

The paradox of our faith is that it has no evidence until we act on it!  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1. It takes faith to say nothing when you feel provoked by circumstances or someone else. It takes faith to speak to another person about the Lord. It takes faith to be kind when someone else is unkind.  Ya might want to think on things like that today. The Christian life is filled with paradoxes that cannot be understood except through the eyes of faith. Bye👋  

P 2716 Let’s practise fixing our eyes.

/ DVH

”Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

Speaking of opportunities to lose heart …  hubby’s back has been just plain awful. Yet, off he went, a minute ago, to talk to the lady who took the booking for our accommodation. He will come back in a little while, cheered up no end! Like I said yesterday, we need to look for the joy. As His kids we need to continually pray for eyes to see whatever He is doing … because this funny old world is rapidly going down the plug hole – singing “we shall not be moved” all the way down!  And this world’s view of life can take over our vision. 

Almighty God hasn’t told us to “fix our eyes” on the unseen, just because He’s waiting to see if we pass a test or not! He told us that so we can have a way through whatever it is that is attacking us! Day by day we are seeing the things in this world that we thought were permanent, fall apart. It has become obvious that there is no hope in the temporal any more. Life is like a leaky sieve – it simply won’t hold water. But you and I have water, lots to drink and loads to give away. The Lord will always help us!  Perhaps there is a possibility of harder times coming, so that means these times that we are living in right now, are our training camp. However, we will lose heart if we look to the things of this world to comfort us.

Even the people that we love sometimes betray us, accidentally, or on purpose! My advice is – trust Jesus first, then let everybody else line up behind Him. We have been reborn, re-designed to have eternity in our minds and hearts. We are not the fictional mole people grubbing about in the dirt trying to eke out a living and survive. We are the people of God! When we look up we can see the sky, the birds, the butterflies, rainbows, sunshine and the beauty in each ordinary face that we speak to, or pass by ...  that is what Jesus did. And He died to change our focus.

The Lord cares deeply about ordinary people. And He went around taking the kingdom of God with Him wherever He went. That’s our job description, to daily take the kingdom with us wherever we go. To do that we need to focus on the love of God, first. I’ve looked long and hard at myself. Trust me … I was never worth what He willingly did for me! After that realisation it’s easy to be real, kind and generous with others.  His love is toward everyone. Our job is to let His love out, through the way we speak, whatever we do, and especially the way we think about others.

Our mouth can easily follow our thoughts! I have found that angry, grumpy, irritated thoughts are like a snowball rolling down hill, picking up additional bits of hopelessness, nastiness and anger. That stuff adds to its impetus and weight. The more we think those thoughts, the more we”ll add to our discontented pile. Renewing our minds, means we get to think like the Lord Himself thought. Jesus Christ never saw obstacles, He saw possibilities for Our Heavenly Father to be glorified.

Thank God we have a book filled with all kinds of God-interactions to cheer us on. Owning my thoughts, and revising them, helps me to keep my focus on ‘what is good right and profitable.’ When I ‘let my mind dwell on those things’ it is becomes easier to follow the Lord. I start to see Him everywhere. Jesus had such joy in serving His Father in the middle of this world’s chaos!! Joy is our portion. We will lose it when we fix our eyes on the things of this world. The Holy Spirit knows the way through anything, we just need to ‘lay aside those things that so easily weigh us down…”

My darling hubby can barely move when he wakes up – his back is not good sleeping in bad beds. And my arm is painful too, plus my body is tired of fighting all kinds of symptoms in this life – yet we just need to switch our focus and see the Lord Himself as our daily bread. Then I look at the person in front of me, and the cloudiness of discontent and my selfish fearful, painful attitudes, evaporate. I have a purpose. You have a purpose. Almighty God called US here. You and I probably won’t change the world, but we can bless it one person at a time. 

Here is my best advice for every single day you face:“LOOKING UNTO JESUS, the author and finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2. Look at Him, fix your eyes on Him, trust Him to order your steps, and learn to lean on Him. Bye 👋

P 2715 Learning to love means learning to obey.

/ DVH

“This is how we can be SURE that we love the children of God: by having a passionate love for God and by obedience to His commands. True love for God means obeying His commands, and His commands don’t weigh us down as heavy burdens.”1 John 5:2-3 TPT.

Because we love the Lord — we need to consistently remember that to Him, obedience is everything. Seriously, I know I flog this concept almost to death, but it is the truth. The way to show the Lord that we are utterly and totally HIS — despite any current circumstances — is to read His book and deliberately find the things that He has asked us to do, or not do – and then act accordingly. In His book God is imparting His heart and His will for our lives. I believe that we particularly need to pay special attention to those things we haven’t done before! Those things that we quickly read around, or glance at, hoping it doesn’t apply to us! 

While all this is going on — we simultaneously need to bear in mind one of the prerequisites to participating in everything the Lord has for us, is that we don’t care if we look like an idiot to other people! We will definitely die to self when self doesn’t get a say! Daily we understand that because we have chosen to follow Him, this way to live is part of the cost. Remember, He will not leave us, we have the joy of His Presence every minute of every day. Today and every day, our love for the Lord looks like obedience.. At the same time loving God also means we love His kids, in ways that they can see and experience. ‘Not just in words, but in deeds …’ 

Here’s a fun story from this trip. Hubby had toddled off to buy himself a pie in a country town we were passing through … when a much older lady walked by our car. She read the sign on the car door: ‘You are God’s happy thought.’ She smiled at me, then she carefully read the licence plate on our car. She waved, I waved, and she walked slowly back to her own car. Meanwhile hubby came back with his pie and the Lord said to me: “That licence plate says ‘Love looks like something.’ She read it. So what does love look like to her?”  🤪 Quick as a flash I told hubby what had happened, I held his pie for him and he chased after the older lady and he gave her a bookmark. She immediately wanted to pay for it and he said told her it was free. Love looked like a free bookmark to her. She waved happily at us as we left. Sometimes that’s all it takes.

That day was long and arduous but we kept on smiling as we remembered that dear lady. The Lord has taught me to look for the good. Basically what the Holy Spirit said to me was this — ‘This life IS difficult. And IF you only enjoy it when everything goes the way you want it, you will waste a lot of the time you have been given by being miserable. FIND THE JOY I send you in every day and you will win.” So now I’ve made it my quest to find the joy!

It’s good to remind ourselves that God’s kids aren’t just the people who go to our churches or attend other denominations. His kid can be an enemy who keeps on hurting you! He wants you and I to reach out to them – this is how we learn to love the unlovely. His kids are also people you and I have never met before. We met Steven, a former Chinese national who owns a motel. Hubby gave him a pen and a keyring for his lovely wife. The dear man was worried the keyring was too expensive, but hubby reassured him it was a gift. The result was Steven heard the gospel for the first time, ever. And we left him with gospels for his motel – we are hoping to see him on the way back home. 

When I think about it, I am not sure that we have taught our kids that following Jesus will probably mean that this life will have battles sent to destroy their faith. We cannot keep teaching the popular theology that says the Lord is supposed to make our lives happy all the time, and expect our kids to take our faith seriously. They will become disappointed when they discover it is not true. In our efforts to be fair and reasonable to all and sundry, we have lost the kind of absolutes that matter eternally. 

We can end up failing the Lord if we don’t take His command to love Him and others seriously. At the same time we need to love and tell the people in our particular corner of this world about Him! What we preach will never win popularity contests, and it will not lead us into a quiet life of ease. We will find our rest in Him, alone!  But when we said yes to Jesus we said yes to a different kind of life. A life of sacrifice and love for those who do not deserve it. It’s part of the cost of obedience.

Learning to love others through obedience is tough, but fruitful. However, if we have a part-time God there is a chance we will never know what shift He is on! Bye … 🤪 👋

P 2705 On being tested.

/ DVH

Jesus Christ, God’s precious Son, became a man. He respected and obeyed what His Father wanted above His own personal needs and ideas. He lived, and then He chose to die, in accordance with His Father’s will. He is our example of how to deal with temptations. Right at the very beginning of His ministry, the Lord Jesus was thoroughly tested, under extreme circumstances. FYI, that is recorded in Matthew 4:1-11, and Luke 4:1-13. Jesus came through it all, despite the incredible hardship He faced. But He met with the Holy Spirit and POWER on the other side of that test. This is a great place to stop, and think about what that means to ME. 🤔

The Lord personally demonstrated and proclaimed during this testing time, that the way for human beings to live – is primarily by the Word of God. He did this, under dire circumstances, live and in person, in front of His enemy. That is when He put a stamp on the scriptures as our primary source of spiritual food and defensive weapons..

After that, in the second temptation, His enemy offered Him physical well being, protection and personal safety – for the exorbitant fee of worshippinghim. Jesus refused to have anything to do with getting where He needed to go using His enemy’s help. He responded to this temptation with another scripture. Making it clear that He was not going to trust in anything but God’s Word to care for Him. The truth set Him free. Another good spot to stop and think about what that shows me! 🤔

The last and final temptation was that His enemy would give Him everything He came to do, without making the ultimate sacrifice. Our enemy tried to blind the Lord with success, which included the price tag of saving the world … without Him having to die. It looked like an easy answer, but it involved putting this world into satan’s hands permanently. 

I believe we all face temptations, often we face them daily. We are tempted to lose heart, and put our faith and hope down. Sometimes we are tempted to live by what Brother so and so says, and when we do that means we have put the Word of God second. We are taking another man’s interpretation of the scripture over what God wants to say to US, personally. The most valuable thing we have is our bible… obedience to what is commanded in that book is incredibly personally powerful. When we choose to live by His words — instead of our circumstances, or experiences, or what someone else thinks — we elevate Almighty God in our lives to His rightful place as GOD!

Secondly, there are times when we too are tempted and tested regarding our participation in whatever needs to be done in His kingdom, by methods other than FAITH. Things like clever marketing, slick presentations, and popularity without us having to make sacrifices. The Word of God is powerful all by itself, it does not need to be marketed! In the hands of someone who is obedient to the Holy Spirit, His Word will cut between human thoughts and intentions and go right into the heart of any matter. On that day in Christ’s life – it cut the enemy to pieces! When we rely upon our own skills and energies we are succumbing to the temptation to help God out, and so the accolades may go to a person, instead of the One Who made us and deserves our worship.

I think Father God is very particular about where our worship goes, because: a/ He is a jealous God. And: b/ our frame is not strong enough to be able to manage the kind of praise and worship that belongs to Him – alone. However, His power will flow quite naturally through our lives as we learn to resist temptation and live in obedience. There is always a way through whatever is going on, we just ask Him for His help! Christ was led into the wilderness, by the Holy Spirit — but He came out IN THE POWER of the Holy Spirit. Facing temptation and overcoming it, is part of our growth process – it is meant to test and stretch our faith and resolve to rely upon God and His Word. That means it will hurt!

The bible says this about being tested:“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.”1 Peter 4:12&13. And in James 1:2&3: “My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties, see it as a valuable opportunity to experience the greatest joy you can! For you know that when your faith is tested, it stirs in you the power of endurance.”

Let’s reflect for a minute – in Jesus, Father God finally had a man He could talk to and trust. Just imagine the depth and breadth of the Lord Jesus’ faith!! God’s will was His only aim! In this world we will face trials and tests, but we do not face them alone. Praise God, our knowledge of His Word is our personal shield of faith. Jesus Himself overcame our enemy, and because of what He did on the cross, we can too. Now we can walk forward like Sons and Daughters of the Most High God. Bye. 👋

“Let me emphasize this: As you yield to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life.”Galatians 5:16 TPT.