Keep

P3499 Remind yourself of who you are now.

/ DVH

“And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God. So if while we were still enemies, God fully reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son, then something greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, and because we share in His resurrection life, how much more we will be rescued from sin’s dominion! And even more than that, we overflow with triumphant joy in our new relationship of living reconciled to God—all because of Jesus Christ!” Romans 5:9-11 TPT.

These are the things we need to remind ourselves about every single day, otherwise the distractions of this life will chase us into despair. Let’s remember that what the Lord wants, is not an afterthought, it’s the point. At the same time, the thief tries to steal away our blood-bought days of victory in Christ from us. Applying any section of scripture into our lives means we will need to stop telling ourselves we can’t help doing this or that – because we know if He said it, then there is a way to do it. So then we ask the Lord how, where, when, what and why the bible applies to our situation.

We simply can’t afford to skip over His instructions. They are there for a purpose, and it isn’t just to fill in the space! I don’t know if you have ever bought something from a foreign country only to find the instructions are teeny tiny, and illegible and or even in a language we don’t recognise. I have. Trying to figure out how to make the item work stretches the old brain box!

Meanwhile, I have a fun story about how the Holy Spirit will help you in all kinds of situations. Many many years ago, we went on an overseas trip, and we included Liverpool, England, because hubby is a huge ‘beautiful game,’ fan. So, we arrived at the stadium and he wanted to look at the museum … of course … and I would rather eat my hat. So he toddled off to look at memorabilia and I went to wait in Maccas.

I stepped up to buy a cup of coffee and I told the sweet young lady behind the counter: “one cup of coffee please.” And then she uttered some words I have never ever heard in my life before. I sort of cleared my throat, and said, in my politest tone: “I’m terribly sorry I didn’t quite catch that, would you mind repeating it please?” So she smiled cheerfully, and said the same thing again. I was utterly stumped. I did not understand one word. A queue began to form behind me …

For the second time I repeated: “No, I am sorry I still did not quite get that.” By now the young lady was probably wondering if I had left my hearing aids at home. I started to pray inside my head, and instantly I thought of the verse about speaking in an unknown tongue. I remembered we can ask the Lord for an interpretation of the tongue, so I prayed “help” and asked if the Lord would please tell me what she said.

At the same time that queue continued to grow, and then the Lord said … I actually felt like He had a twinkle in His eye … “She wants to know, if you want milk and sugar.” Phew! So I said yes please, I needed milk and sugar and then went quickly off with my cup of coffee to a discreet little hidey hole and shook with laughter for about ten minutes. Apparently the Liverpudlian accent is not an unknown tongue, it’s just unknown to me!

My point, apart from a bit of humour, is this – there is no situation we can get ourselves into, that the Lord can’t get us out of! Think-about-it … the bible says, my righteousness is like filthy rags, but Jesus’ righteousness is now ours. We have His resurrection life in us. On days when I feel less than fighting fit, I ask for “a bigger dose of resurrection life please?” No matter how I feel, I know I have peace with God. I may not have peace with you, for instance, but my peace with Him is always undisturbed. I am no bunny rabbit … I know where my peace comes from, and it is not from ME! My peace is in Him, and the minute I align myself with Him, I have my peace back no matter who pinched it!

I live ready to overflow with all kinds of joy simply because I belong to Him. Even if someone were to try very hard, they can hurt me but they can’t kill me. They can damage or exterminate my body, but as my body is old and creaky, I don’t much care about that. However! My inner self is safe, forever. Sin can’t boss me around, it has nowhere it can land! I live in true reconciliation with our Heavenly Father and He knows how to protect, keep and guide me — so nothing else matters.

I don’t have borrowed righteousness, peace or forgiveness – I have what my Heavenly Father gave me – and I’m not going to be tricked into giving it up! Jesus fought our common enemy to give me the opportunity to fulfil my potential in this life. Plus I am the recipient of God’s unfailing love, forever. Sometimes I forget those things when life gets hard, but the Holy Spirit is my Companion, and He reminds me of who I am now, because of the incredible Grace of God. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31.

Daily remind yourself of who you are now, and praise God that redemption is not just a promise, it is a reality! Live in it. You and I don’t have to live in condemnation, our personhood has a new purpose – I live, and daily die for Jesus now! Bye 👋.

P 3179 What does love look like?

/ DVH

If you have been reading this blog on and off for a while you will already know my answer to that question. Real love looks like an innocent man hanging from a cross – suffering willingly and terribly, for every rotten, evil thought and deed humanity has accidentally and purposefully perpetrated against themselves and others.

At the same time love looks like 1 Corinthians 13, 1 John 4:18, 1 Peter 4:8, 1 Corinthians 16:14, Colossians 3:14 just to name after few verses. Every single time I read that chapter in Corinthians, I know I do not have it in me to be that person – I’m going to need truckloads of supernatural help! But God Himself wants to transform my own personal experience into His kingdom experiences, as I learn to walk in His Love. However, I will need to remember that His love is not permission to do whatever I want. It has aims for my life. But the Holy Spirit will always help me.

God’s kind of love does not in any way resemble our modern world, which shouts and jumps up and down at everyone else and says:‘ If you love me you will give me what I want!’ God’s love is founded on, and maintained, through sacrifice. His love is so real, deep and comprehensive it will not rest until it brings out the very best in His beloved. Read the book. Start with the Old Testament and watch our Heavenly Father work with a rebellious, cantankerous, wilful people. The Israelites wanted a god who would smite their enemies, and leave them alone to do absolutely anything they wanted to do, and who cares about the consequences?

Now listen to what the Lord God Almighty says about Himself: “I am the LORD, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed.” Malachi 3:6. Did you get that bit? He does not change – you and I might have wanted to do some smiting and biting because of the Israelites horrible attitudes, but our God does not change – His Holiness is fixed. Self-centredness has nothing in common with God’s pure and holy love. Amazingly, Father God does not want to destroy the man He made, that’s why Jesus came. “But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8.

If God had not sent His Son to die for us then the devil would have destroyed all of us. We were sitting ducks! Jesus thwarted our enemy’s attempt to subvert the ways of God so we can walk with Him ourselves. Jesus not only saved us all from hell – He saved us from our own choices. Then He took us out of satan’s kingdom, paid our debt, so we can live in His Father’s kingdom – LOVE’S KINGDOM. Love’s kingdom has parameters.

“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light.”  1 Peter 2:9. It is way too easy to skip over some bits of verses, and just kind of go for the sweet bits we like, that are often in the middle.”The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by EVERY word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4. Let’s go back to the words we often don’t see …1 Peter 2:9 …”As a result you can show others the goodness of God… OR “…you are not like that …” 

If we are not careful we can easily skip right by those few words, to the ones that tell us what we want to hear.… You are ‘a royal priesthood, a chosen people, God’s very own possession’…those bits. But if we are to live this life as the Father’s royal priests. We are not meant to be the Levites or Pharisees – there is a new order of priests – we are priests who live like Jesus did! We cannot afford to live like everyone else around us. Jesus is ultimate royalty and His life and teaching are our example. God’s Love corrects us and disciplines us, to transform us into royalty.

Human beings don’t think of love as correction, however, correction and discipline are definitely a part of His love! God Himself allowed US to punish HIS SON for OUR own ultimate good. That’s how much He loves us and that’s what love looks like to Him! The devil will quibble, question and defer to our so-called right to be indulged, on the basis of “poor me’ until we are DEAD! However, our Father guides and corrects us because He utterly and unreservedly loves us. Our Father does not discipline us because He wants to spoil our fun… He does so because the stuff we wander into is like treacle or quick-sand – we wander in and we can’t get out!

Trapped in sin is a very bad look for human beings! We were made to worship the Lord, and enjoy Him all the days of our lives… and beyond! But sin, when it is embraced, colours everything around it. Colour goes out of this world when we leave God out. However, living for Jesus and others, as He leads us, is the most delightful thing anyone can aim at. It brings out God’s purpose in our lives, and we learn to live aware of Him. Living a life of faith means we know who we are, and why we are here. That changes the way we see everything else around us.

Let’s briefly go back to the Israelites. They could not see LOVE leading them, and so they felt deprived when they couldn’t do what they wanted to do. Love Himself was talking to them and they couldn’t hear a word He said, because all their complaining and whining blocked His words out! But living this life as a totally surrendered lover of Jesus will transform us to look like Him. It isn’t always FUN, but ‘afterward we reap the peaceable fruits of righteousness.’ Hebrews 12:11. Love looks like Jesus. Bye. 👋

P 2984 I haven’t got time for what you think of me.

/ DVH

Yeah, I know, cheeky eh? I’ve learnt that there are huge blessings in getting older — it’s like the biggest secret ever. Your bones may snap, crackle and pop, and your brain can’t always find the file you need in your head. But  I try not to concentrate too hard on the fact that my cheese is slowly sliding off my cracker! Mainly because I also run out of energy easily, so I have had to learn to prioritise.

I think that’s why some older people go doodle-lally as they age – they think they need to keep desperately trying to do the things they’ve done all their lives …  Old bodies aren’t designed to do the things young ones can do. I think of it like this – I’ve had my turn on the stage of life, it is time to stand in the wings and encourage the younger players. You don’t have to bow out, just be a mentor to someone else! You could start by teaching grandchildren to cook, most mums are too busy juggling a hundred things and trying not to drop one of them.

Meanwhile, brain cells dying off are actually a real thing! Don’t feel bad about it, or try to stretch yourself so you look like you are still 21, or 44, or some made-up end-figure. If you are older, you have other benefits to replace the instant clarity you enjoyed when you were younger. Things like this: you don’t feel the urge to constantly rush about, because you’ve learnt things have a way of taking care of themselves. You also hopefully learnt it’s OK to make mistakes, mainly because nowadays you can’t help doing it! 

Moses made a huge mistake at the end of his life… let’s just leave that out there, and say no more. After all He WAS Moses! Abraham kept playing pass the parcel with his poor dear wife Sarah – who was a very patient woman if you think about it.  And let’s not go into Job either … yet that old man ended up wiser in the end than he was when he started out. Just don’t ever give up on learning about, and from, the Lord!

And … here comes another benefit … when you get older, meditation comes more easily. At least once a day I end up meditating on the back of my eyelids – it’s really productive. I feel refreshed afterwards. It’s OK, by the way, my eyelids are both still there and functioning, I just can’t control when I close them as well as I used to. When I was younger I was always busy, but I also remember that being younger and having a family, you are often too busy facilitating other people’s lives. The only thing you end up meditating on is the rapidly growing pile of unpaid bills.

So, here is my text for today:“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. 

And here’s my observation. If there is a time for everything, then God has His eye on everything and we don’t have to worry about it. Which is why: “Oh well,” is rapidly becoming my new favourite saying. I know that  rich king, Solomon, who wrote this book said … ‘there is a time’ a lot.  He was a bit repetitive, but I find his sayings strangely reassuring. It means we need to take a breath when one of the aforementioned tough things land on us. When you get older you have time to sort stuff out and pray over it. There are lots of advantages to being older! Some of those things make me feel better about not being able to cash in on: “there’s a time to dance. ” I grew wa-ay past that place … ages ago!

Hallelujah! I am so glad there’s a time for everything and anything – even opposite things. Some Christians act like some of these ugly things aren’t in the bible. We all feel hate, just don’t camp there. Jesus would not have told us what to do about hatred etc. if we didn’t need to know it! My advice is don’t build a village around your feelings … move on. It’s OK to cry, just don’t let it be your lifestyle. There are so many sides to life’s spectrum – enjoy them all. The bad things make the good things even sweeter.  

Jesus had wa-ay more wisdom than Solomon anyway. Check out what He said about these negative things. However banning things, and making rules, usually encourages people to hide what’s going on when they can’t seem to avoid how they feel! This collection of verses totally reassures me that God knows about everything that goes on down here on planet Earth, and He has a plan, a purpose, an end-game for each one of them. YAAAAAAAY! SomeBody Else is in charge and it doesn’t have to be me! Remember, our God understands ‘old.’ He’s not called the Ancient of Days for nothing! 

In this later season of my life I am learning that bad things are total time wasters that can leave you feeling unfulfilled, ashamed and guilty. You wish you had never stuck your head down whatever rabbit hole that popped up in front of you, because your head can get stuck in there. Reflection comes easier with age. But, the truth is, I haven’t got time for what you think of me, because you probably DON’T! You are way too busy, and you have better things on your mind —- good for you. Bye. 👋