Kindness

P 3314 Galatians 5:16-26.

/ DVH

“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.      The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.        But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

Let’s reflect on this scripture for a little bit — the Holy Spirit is always moving. This means we will need to keep in step with Him. He is always doing something, going somewhere, reaching out, calling out and blessing someone. He can’t help it, it’s His nature. He is so saturated and filled to overflowing with the Love of God for each and every human being on the planet – that He simply oozes love, compassion, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness etc.… everywhere He goes. 

The Holy Spirit is a beautiful Companion. He is compassionate, impartial, non-biased, and non-discriminatory toward each one of us – individually. He knows how to teach us to avoid sin, by staying close to Jesus. The Lord Jesus beautifully illustrated incredible qualities in the Gospels. His teaching was very clear, the people who choose to follow Him, walk, sit, stand, laugh, eat, pray with the same heart He had. A lover’s heart. SomeOne Who can tell us how to walk through the mire of this life without getting soiled.

Like the scripture above says: bad things aren’t hard to see, most of the time they stand out like a sore thumb! And before you and I start excusing ourselves by saying ‘I wouldn’t do that,’ My advice is to ask His opinion and then take a closer look in the mirror of the Word. Some of that icky stuff presents with other symptoms. Like sneaking looks at some chick or guy in the train …and wondering stuff we shouldn’t be wondering. Of course nobody who says they are a ‘Christian’ ever does that stuff – do they? These thoughts fly through everyone’s heads, you just don’t have to throw them a party! 

Hubby told me that he had to look at the ground for years, because so many women today were so poorly dressed. His problem with skimpy outer wear, that was more like underwear, got easier after he began to see everyone through the Lord’s eyes instead of his own. That’s the secret to staying in the river. Walking with the Holy Spirit changes the way we see other people, things, and situations. Allow Him to correct your path with His eye upon you. Simply give Him permission to interrupt you. He never, ever, takes His eyes off us – that’s because YOU and I are ‘the apple of His eye.’

We treat the Lord’s book like a precious Friend Who sits with us, showing us daily who He is, and how to walk with Him. We need this ongoing course correction and the Holy Spirit provides it. God’s book is a book of wonder — things you thought you knew one day, suddenly open up like a beautiful flower and we find ourselves glimpsing Who He is in a new way, through the same words we read yesterday! His book is like a kaleidoscope, the slightest movement changes the view. 

‘Walking with the Holy Spirit’ means we are choosing to walk with Him aware of His Presence, all the time. Whether things are busy or not. If He calls, then we stop and listen, because we know His voice in our lives is a great privilege. If we can’t find Him, then we go and look for Him in the book. Because, just like the Shulammite in Song of Songs — lovers of God feel His absence very keenly. Walking with the Holy Spirit means walking through this life seeing everything that happens through His eyes, doing things the way He wants them done. And we have purposed in our hearts to learn to love other people like He does. 

Being with Him is the pleasure of pleasing SomeOne so dear to our hearts …we live for His joy-filled responses! They are even greater than we can imagine. Falling in love with SomeOne does that to you.  It has nothing to do with us being perfect people — instead we know and love SomeOne Whose POV is so precious, we don’t want to go anywhere, or do anything without HIM. We like listening to His voice.  

The result of the Lord’s sacrificial death is that we now own His legacy. All the Godly qualities He gave to His vast family. Now our inheritance is the ability to live in this world like He did, walking in fellowship with the Holy Spirit.  And Galatians 5:16-26 sums it up!  Bye 👋.

P 3308 Living for Jesus, daily.

/ DVH

Colossians 3:12-17: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

These few verses give a comprehensive overview of what our new life in Christ looks like, every single day. To be honest, we can’t say Almighty God hasn’t told us what He expects – He has told us right here! If you like memorising verses, I’d like to suggest that these five verses are worthy of any effort you might make. This new life must be embraced personally —using our individual faith. By engaging with the Holy Spirit. 

He will help us to follow the Lord’s instructions, and at the same time He will expose all the damaging, misleading, useless things we have embraced. None of us in the Body of Christ can do these things alone! Let’s thank the good Lord He has given us SomeOne Who is so personal – He lives inside us. Learning to listen and obey Him is essential. We need to learn how to host Him, in our lives. That means somebody will have to change. He’s holy, and we aren’t — so you do the math! I know I can easily be polluted and distracted by the things of this world and arrogantly dismiss the Holy Spirit’s promptings as “something I made up.” 

So my responsibility is to check the thing I think I have heard from Him, as I am reading the bible. I read carefully, and then I jump in and obey. Some things are obvious. We know what God thinks about generosity, or forgiveness, or helping others. We ask for Him for a scripture and then go and do those things. I have many times when I need to pray and ask Him to redeem any mess I made. Then I choose to embrace the bible’s idea of what faith is, and how it works. I’m personally grateful that Jonah ended up in the bible. He shows me my ideas and thoughts are much too small. He ended up whale mail. In the end he still did what the Lord told him to do – grumbling all the way. Haven’t we all been there?

In the course of writing this blog I have written many pages that I have subsequently deleted because the Holy Spirit didn’t like them. I wrote them in faith and He told me to throw it out. Plus I cannot remember how much re-writing I have had to do along the way! I’ve given groceries to ungrateful people who didn’t need them, spoken to people about Jesus who promptly showed me the door — but the amount of individuals impacted by God Himself far outweighed the risk of me looking like an idiot! I will be a fool for Christ, even though I probably won’t much like it! But I will do it, because for me, taking risks is part of the cost. If I already know that something will turn out alright at the beginning, then I am not exercising my faith.

The bible clearly tells us that we need to change. (Malachi 3:6) Almighty God won’t ever change because He is already perfectly holy and wise. Jesus said this to help us:“And everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in Me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in Me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!”” John 16:33 TPT. 

God’s peace inside us, is our pathway into confidence in Him and His Ways. If the Holy Spirit says ‘repent’ and we don’t – then our peace will slowly disappear. We will get caught up in the very thing we can’t seem to let go of.  The Holy Spirit Himself IS our peace, and because He is perfect love, He and fear can’t occupy the same space.  So fear has to go, as we make room for more of His perfect love to be shed abroad into our hearts. It isn’t about getting this stuff right, it is about being willing to enter His processes, and co-operating with Him. To do that we   believe what He has already said, in the book. We show Him we are willing to change by operating in things like repentance— not by what we say … but by what we do! “You must prove your repentance by a changed life.” Matthew 3:8.

All this teaching and preaching we have today, isn’t about gaining more knowledge —it is about the speaker prayerfully allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to the listeners. Boredom is irrelevant. Just because a speaker may be boring, that does not mean we cannot be changed. We need to listen to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to ME. Pressing in despite how we feel about things, shows God we are serious about change, we are willing to pay the cost. Not everything that is said from a book, pulpit, podcast etc. is a pearl from God for you. But we can enter God’s processes by voluntarily co-operating with what we hear and read, and then applying it into our lives, daily. If something seems hard to do, then it is probably right! 

BTW, I am as prone to panic as anybody else is, and if the ceiling falls in I can easily fall apart without His Grace helping me. The great part about that, is that over time, I have learnt to recognise His Grace in action. Walking with Jesus daily, is allowing Him to lead and guide me. This means I am prepared to step into the unknown when it is convenient, and when it is not. We can’t fail, He’s holding us tightly. Bye. 👋

P 3306 Learning to yield.

/ DVH

“You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a spell on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, FOR IT’S OBVIOUS THAT YOU NO LONGER HAVE THE CRUCIFIED JESUS IN CLEAR FOCUS IN YOUR LIVES. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough. Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God.                                                  

If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up! Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with His own Presence, His Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does He do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust Him to do them in you?” Galatians 3:1-6 MSG bible.

You might want to sit a while and think about those 6 verses. Then if you dare, ask yourself some questions … ‘Do I act from day to day like the Galatians did? Does what I think and how I behave, seem more powerful than the Holy Spirit — Who was specifically sent TO ME, to help me? Am I excusing myself from the things I know He doesn’t want me to do and saying: ‘I can’t help it?’ “Our help comes in the Name of the Lord Who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:2. Our own welfare depends on forgiving others. We need to surrender and yield.

Does anybody reading this have a toddler? You will probably be well acquainted with the: “me do it” stage! It’s a healthy, but annoying sign of independence in a toddler – but it is less than healthy in a grown person. When it comes to spiritual matters, giving up quickly and asking for help is the way to go. Those people who work hard at ‘being Christian,’ are trying to BE what God already says they ARE. I’ve learnt that trying harder without Jesus, leads to even more fruitless effort. Expending all that effort can result in despair. Or even arrogance. Especially when we are dealing with other people who do not have the same strength of will we have. We can end up in judgment quicker than a bee sting hurts!

The Holy Spirit has helped me to manage my feelings and responses on countless occasions when I was interacting with someone who was difficult. I had persevered and anguished over them in my prayers, with loads of tears, anger, frustration and lots of effort. At times, I actually made myself go and see them and I’d tell myself: “It’s the right thing to do.” I dunno why! You would think that bumping into that brick wall would have registered on my Richter scale … but no! I just kept trying harder and falling flat on my face. I not only came up with bruises, I came up angry.  After all, I was doing my best! 

Here is the solution the Holy Spirit gave me within seconds, when I stopped pouting, and complaining, and asked Him for His help: “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,…” Philippians 3:13. I was holding on to the way they had treated me in the past, and the past could easily have been last week! I had to forget the past. What they had done, what I had done, and the things I felt. Then yield to Him and move on. I was stuck because I wasn’t forgetting what lay behind me. 

‘You don’t know what they did to me blah blah blah.’ In my life there were many people who had damaged me to the core. So how do you forget that stuff? DELIBERATELY … that’s how. No, I am not kidding. This is a war about our spiritual well-being and the wrong result means our feelings will interfere with our ability to hear the Holy Spirit. BTW forgiving is not the same as trusting the other person. Jesus knew what was in men’s hearts, and the bible says He didn’t entrust Himself to them. (John 2:24).You don’t have to trust those people who hurt you, just forgive them, and start renewing your mind. We have to be Kingdom of God thinkers, not just ‘immediate comfort’ ones.

Then, whenever what happened, pops into your mind, shove it straight out — don’t even entertain it for a minute— and whack at that thought with scripture. The Holy Spirit will give you something. Learning to yield to the Holy Spirit is so necessary as we go about our day. He is our Guide, and He’s the One Who leads us into good works that God Himself has prepared for each one of us. Everything is about making a choice. Drag your feelings and thoughts back to the centre … Jesus. When we treat people consistently differently, they act differently. His mercy is new to everyone every morning.

The Lord suffered so we could have the right to choose to ask for His help — not just be forced into doing it by rules, fear, or obligation. Over a period of time it transpired that yielding my will to His, had enormous benefits in my daily walk. I stopped listening to my feelings, which were kind of ‘over-developed’ and learnt to refer to what the Lord said in His word. My feelings needed to be tamed and replaced by grace, peace and love in what God says about me. Our feelings lie to us, they tell us we can’t, when we have Almighty God resident inside us! And His Son, Who came and died for everyone’s sins. Yours, mine, and theirs.

Once I made up my mind that I wanted to choose His Way over my way, because His way was far far better than mine!! I realised the Lord wanted to do something  deeper inside me. Back then, in my past, my trust had been betrayed as a child, so my idea of HIS goodness, kindness and unfailing love was all messed up.  That was healed as I decided to yield to Him, instead of trying to fix it by myself. I simply surrendered my perceived right to be angry with others, and the Lord proved Himself faithful! Bye. 👋

P 3295 What becomes of the broken-hearted?

/ DVH

Now here’s a question we need to be asking ourselves daily! Many Christians, our very own brothers and sisters in the faith, have wandered off into the wilderness like Hagar did, and sat down under a bush, hoping death will come quickly. Very few have done this by personal choice. Sadly, they know a part of the truth, but not the whole truth. A lot of them gave up on God, because what we told them He wanted was too hard for them to do.

The Lord is re-grouping together the Body of Christ to comfort, support and uphold one another. He always goes after the lost sheep!  We were never meant to be islands. Most of us, despite what we’ve been told, were not meant to be seen, either. I dunno about you but my body has loads of place that are better off unseen, but those unseen parts, do an incredible job helping my entire body to function. 

What we aim at, and want to do as His kids, is difficult. This is why we can’t do anything without Him! But we can’t do anything without each other either. We need to learn from the Merciful One Himself the kind of mercy that will never judge, but instead, it will come alongside and lift up someone who is stumbling or falling. Here’s something from Job 6:14: “For the despairing man there should be kindness from his friend; So that he does not abandon (turn away from) the fear of the Almighty.”   

We have so many broken-hearted people in our midst. People who were taught one thing, only to find out later that the scriptures they were taught didn’t mean what they thought they did! Disappointment grows in that kind of atmosphere. In God’s kingdom there are no failures, or screw-ups – we’ve all been made acceptable by the blood of Jesus! The strength of His blood’s efficacy is not measured by our sin …it is measured by what He did and Who He is!

Sometimes people get stuck and it is not their fault. They’ve suffered much at the hands of many! We have no excuse to remain in sin, but I can well understand that if there is a slight inclination toward judgment in a church, some people may not feel free to confess their faults, because it will label them. Minding one’s own business is a good thing, but not when we can see another person struggling to keep their head above water. 

Jesus is a Man of compassion. He doesn’t throw people away because of their mistakes, the only person He lost, refused to repent. Judas trusted his own judgment, when he was given opportunities to turn around and stop doing what he intended. Listen to this in Matthew 26:25: “Then Judas, the one who would betray Him, said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?” Jesus answered, “You have said so.”

We need to get it firmly fixed in our heads that we are not the judge and jury of anyone. He is. Let’s move on past judgment to better things. Stuff happens in people’s lives and it shapes and warps their way of thinking. These precious people, after they become Christians, often go round and round, and never seem to be getting anywhere. Our part in their progress is to love them. And at times, kindly, and reverently point out any sin that could be holding them back from the freedom Christ came to give them. It says this in Isaiah 42:3:

“Take a good look at My Servant. I’m backing Him to the hilt. He’s the one I chose, and I couldn’t be more pleased with Him. I’ve bathed Him with My Spirit, My life. He’ll set everything right among the nations. He won’t call attention to what He does with loud speeches or gaudy parades. He won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt and He won’t disregard the small and insignificant, but He’ll steadily and firmly set things right. He won’t tire out and quit. He won’t be stopped until He’s finished His work—to set things right on earth. Far-flung ocean islands wait expectantly for His teaching.”

The broken-hearted are the people Jesus came to save. Their hearts can be broken by what they’ve done, or what someone else has done to them. Loving one another means we have an agreement — ‘you put my sin against you under the blood of Jesus, and forgive me, and I will do the same for you.‘ It’s mutual. If we see a brother or sister struggling then we come alongside them and ask them quietly, and gently: “How can I help you bear that burden you are carrying?” We need to pray for them like they are US. There is no room for grudges or spite in God’s kingdom. 

In Luke 9:55, Jesus once said to a couple of His disciples: “ You don’t know what kind of spirit you belong to.”  At that moment they weren’t walking in Grace, they were walking in judgment. Our Heavenly Father, doesn’t batter us into holiness or submission – He wants us to want what He wants because we love Him! We need to treat the broken, the wounded, the wandering, the bewildered, and the lost, all the same way .. with love, compassion and kindness. Because next time it could be our turn! 

Compassion is limitless – Jesus Himself proved that. He prayed for the very people who were killing Him. His compassion leads us into choosing to help the broken-hearted, wherever we find them. We have the privilege of carrying  God’s Love, and it is a love that brings out the best in the loved one without indulging their weaknesses. When my shoulder was broken, I didn’t throw it away, I did things to help it mend – because I need that arm! The broken-hearted need our kindness, and support and we need them. Bye. 👋 

P 3290 Choose your weapons.

/ DVH

2 Corinthians 10:3-5  “For though we live in the world, WE DO NOT WAGE WAR AS THE WORLD DOES. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  This scripture always evokes the same thought in me, ‘so why on earth are WE acting like everyone else does?’ Like brother James says: “this ought not to be so…”

We quite simply can’t use this world’s weapons in our daily ongoing battles that we fight. Let’s always remember we aren’t fighting people – we are fighting those things, spiritual forces, that people have embraced to protect themselves and often they are deceived. BTW, this immediately makes me wonder why we think talking aboutstuff will fix it!  2 Corinthians tells us His Word is meant to demolish arguments and pretensions. We definitely need to know what that looks like. To me: it looks like knowing God is always good. Plus we live this life knowing our side WON … but sometimes, we have momentary afflictions. However, our Saviour and our Comforter will never leave us. 

We need DIVINE weapons. The armour of God, the fruit of the Spirit, plus His Wisdom and spiritual gifts to combat whatever comes at us. Let’s look at that statement for a minute  …  because our weapons are divine, then they are weapons from the Lord. So our next question is – what do they look like? Do some research in Ephesians 4&6, or 1 Corinthians 12&13, or Romans 12. But let’s start with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control those are Jesus’ kind of weapons. I recommend using them liberally under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Start by showing the Lord you love Him … by LOVING AND OBEYING HIS WORD.

Here’s something that could raise your hair and your eyebrows! Almighty God used the weapon of His own Son’s obedient death, to defeat sin and death. We don’t use normal weapons, we don’t have to … HE WON! Hmmm. Those particular weapons don’t look like the stuff you buy in your local gun-shop. You will probably hardly ever see a bible lying side by side with a gun. Why not? Be-ca-use … Jesus said: “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].” John 10:10. We simply can’t get to abundant life using carnal weapons! Those things diminish and destroy it. Carnal weapons are motivated by “look after me and mine.” Abundant life is motivated by “what did Jesus say?” 

Prayer is another one of God’s most potent weapons. It takes you and I out of the equation, and puts the Holy Spirit in charge. Ain’t nobody out there that wants to mess with Him! He made the world and everything in it!  Do that stuff at your own peril. The Spirit of God will love us and help us, until we feel so-oo-oo full, we will wonder why any of us went the wrong way in the first place! This is why Jesus said: “Love your enemies!”  He inhabits that kind of outwardly looking passion. Jesus has passionate eyes of fire in the book of Revelation.

Love will set captives free, and do even more things that we haven’t personally discovered, yet.  When it is carefully uncovered and digested, loving people is a revelation of Universal proportions and a weapon of mass destruction! It destroys the work of the evil one. If we try to use our own love, we will probably run out fairly quickly and come up short. But God’s love is endless. It is shameless in its passion. It smashes any stronghold of unbelief, fear, mortification, spite, anger etc. and restores and heals everything it touches. This is why love is the best weapon ever – it simply can’t be defeated. You can stuff love into a tomb, and 3 days later it will come bursting out, destroying every one of your theories and theologies!                                                                     

We need to cultivate love in even the smallest things, because it doesn’t come naturally to us. We are far more used to self-preservation. We often end up using our tongues like swords and knives and cut people up into little bits because they have somehow threatened us “…These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that reflects our fear of God and profound respect for His precepts]. James 3:10 sure has a handle on humanity and the way it thinks and acts!

Let’s choose our weapons carefully – we can’t possibly live this new life well, unless the Holy Spirit helps us. He is pure love in action. And He can love both sides!  We need His weapons that cut people free, not maim them.  I think we should always start by applying love first. When love is uppermost, there is no room for hatred.   Learning to love others transforms our minds. Bye 👋

P 3286 Cling to Him

/ DVH

Jeremiah 9:23: “This is what the Lord says:“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know Me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.” V25-26: “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh— Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the wilderness in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

This is the Lord’s pronouncement over Israel, He is throughly sick and tired of these people who say ‘yes’ but do ‘no.’  He makes it perfectly clear that being rich, popular, strong, and wise in this world’s ways, is not for His kids. What He is looking for is a people who know Him, and know His ways, and love Him so much they will follow Him wherever He goes.  And because of those deliberate choices then His ways will show up in every attitude and action they take. First of all let’s look at what delights God and what is His benchmark, because the Holy Spirit very kindly gave us a list!

He loves kindness, righteousness and justice. He operates from those things. It will never be enough to read the words and nod and smile, or even wipe away a tear. Crying is easy, changing is not! However, whenever  God speaks, He is telling us about Himself and we need to listen to Him. The Jewish people were not wrong in their desire to please Him but pleasing quickly turned into placating. They carefully implemented 613 laws to make sure everyone did what He wanted – and woe betide any Wally that tried to do anything else! They were punished by the religious. These dear people put Almighty God into a box of His own design. The glorious box He called Mercy and Grace, they misused the Mercy Seat and then they walked away from personally knowing Him. The Mercy Seat is a place of meeting, not just dropping off your sins like a dry cleaner! The thing that is heartbreaking is, He is so easy to know. He told us what He likes and doesn’t like. 

 
Where His chosen people missed what He was saying, was that they legislated something that was meant to flow out of willing obedience, compassion and a desire to honour Him. He wanted the Jewish people to love His Ways —not just salute the flag and run back into their old habits. Only to front up at Yom Kippur and pay the set price for their disobedience, lack of loyalty etc… once a year!  He is saying that lovingly, and willingly honouring His ways is the way we love Him. “But He’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbour, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.” Micah 6:8.  

You might want to pause and think on that.  Almighty God isn’t just looking for a transitory relationship— a sometimes on, sometimes off again, depending on their mood — a girlfriend. He wants a pure and holy wife for His Son! Father God is a parent. He wants someone worthy of His Son Jesus, and all Jesus has done for us — to be His Son’s precious Bride. Someone who is willing to have the Lord cut away everything that has taken up residence in our hearts that can defile us. Sadly, sometimes those things also define us – yet we are proud of them. His people back then were circumcised to show to the world around them that they were His children, but their hearts remained unaltered. The question I want to ask today is this: has our heart, life and attitude been altered by following the Lord Jesus? Or do we settle for the outward appearance of being ‘church people’ without any inner conviction and subsequent changes to our lives.

 
Do you want to truly delight God? Then let Him circumcise your heart. Not just fill you up with more information, more rules, or sadly, even more failure. Instead, surrender your whole life to Him, like Jesus surrendered His whole life for you – willingly, joyfully, devotedly. Falling in love cannot ever be a set of rules, it is a process of choosing to get to know each other, enjoying the other person’s ways. The Lord Jesus is totally acquainted with each one of us, who we really are. He already knows every single thing there is to know about us — and yet He picked us anyway! Amazing. Next time you sing: “Amazing Love, how can it be?” Please remember that. Gratitude is our only response. 

When we meditate and act on His words, HE becomes our focus. This is a lovely side-effect of loving the Lord that will improve our view of His kingdom, this world, and other people. We will lose all of our judgment and gain compassion in this process. But at the same time we cannot circumcise ourselves. That’s why we have the New Testament, to explain to us that He has, in fact, already done that. Praise God that He knows exactly the right time and place to put His loving finger on something that is holding us captive to our old way of thinking. The Holy Spirit longs to help us as we cling to Him and get to know His Ways. Bye. 👋

P 3283 This is our destiny …

/ DVH

“Now, this is the goal: to live in harmony with one another and demonstrate affectionate love, sympathy, and kindness toward other believers. Let humility describe who you are as you dearly love one another. Never retaliate when someone treats you wrongly, nor insult those who insult you, but instead, respond by speaking a blessing over them—because a blessing is what God promised to give you. For the Scriptures tell us: Whoever wants to embrace true life and find beauty in each day must stop speaking evil, hurtful words and never deceive in what they say. Always turn from what is wrong and cultivate what is good; eagerly pursue peace in every relationship, making it your prize.” 1 Peter 3:8-11 TPT.

Yes, it’s the same scripture again! More to think on. First point to remember … um… not sure how to say this nicely, so I will just say it!  Watch what you say. This is hard for me, mainly because I find out what I’m thinking by talking! However I found a way to do it – I let the Holy Spirit help me – and I’ve learnt to give up quickly, and repent a lot. Boy that last one smarts! I’m pretty sure I haven’t hit humility yet. I think Peter has a wonderful way of describing how to walk in the Spirit. Especially the bit about pursuing peace in every relationship. Pursue BTW, means: go after it …like… chase it!

…And this is how Jesus makes it possible for anyone of us to live like this:  ““And I will send you the Divine Encourager from the very presence of My Father. He will come to you, the Spirit of Truth, emanating from the Father, and He will speak to you about Me. And you will tell everyone the truth about Me, for you have walked with Me from the start.””John 15:26-27. The Holy Spirit has already been sent to us! One of His Names is ‘the One called alongside us to help us!’ … He came to earth at Pentecost and He never left! Now let me list His other qualities. Hang on to your socks it’s a big list.  

Helper / Comforter / Advocate (Paraclete): (John 14:16, 15:26, 16:7);  Spirit of Truth: (John 14:17, 16:13); Spirit of Christ / Spirit of Jesus: (Romans 8:9, 1 Peter 1:11);  Holy Spirit / Holy Ghost: (Matthew 1:18, Psalm 51:11);  Breath of the Almighty / Breath of God: (Job 33:4, Genesis 1:2);  Spirit of Adoption: (Romans 8:15);  Spirit of Grace: (Hebrews 10:29); Spirit of Wisdom/Understanding/Counsel/Might/Knowledge/Fear of the Lord: (Isaiah 11:2);  Eternal Spirit: (Hebrews 9:14);  Spirit of Glory: (1 Peter 4:14);  Spirit of Life: (Romans 8:2);  Spirit of Burning / Judgment: (Isaiah 4:4);  The Promise of the Father: (Acts 1:4);  The Anointing: (1 John 2:27);  Intercessor: (Romans 8:26,27).

You can take a breath now!  Yeah. And He is here with us, right here, right now as you are reading this — and He walks with us to help us be all that God designed us to be. We simply cannot transform ourselves, it doesn’t work! Human beings become proud because we are doing it right, or lose hope because we are lousy at it! We need His transformation – WE NEED A HELPER. And this beautiful Person is here to assist us at any time, in any place, anywhere. Ya might want to just meditate on that!

We can short-circuit His help etc. by choosing to stay in and cultivate, sinful attitudes. The fear of the Lord is with those who are humble. They weep at the very thought of losing His sweet Presence. He has a way of looking at this tattered and torn old world that is beyond our imagination. He sees hope in hopelessness, freedom in captivity, beauty in heartache. He knows the way through anything that is plaguing you. And He will show us God’s way, one step at a time. Why one step at a time? Because He LOVES to walk with us. We are His passion and He is the same Person Who helped Jesus complete His mission … He saw every pain, all the suffering, all the hopelessness, and yet He flowed out through Christ to the needy – endlessly. 

He was so present with Jesus, one woman just touched the Lord’s clothes and she was healed of an ailment she had had for twelve years! He loves 💕TOGETHER — it is His greatest joy, to be one with us. When we begin to function as a Body under His guidance, we will also begin to understand a little bit of what it is like for the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit’s union and unity. They simply never disagree because They all have the same goal.

Jesus clearly told us we were better off with the Holy Spirit, when He left here and went back home to the Father, because the Holy Spirit can be everywhere. We are better off because the One Who lived within Christ, in Him and through Him, can be IN us, and work THROUGH us to bring forth the Father’s will for others.This is why we are called sons and daughters, we now have our Father’s DNA and that DNA brings forth fruit that is good and sweet – it will bring life all around it. This is our destiny, to learn to walk with the Holy Spirit, all the time, everywhere we go. Bye. 👋

P 3280 It seems like the ‘impossible dream.’

/ DVH

“Now, this is the goal: to live in harmony with one another and demonstrate affectionate love, sympathy, and kindness toward other believers. Let humility describe who you are as you dearly love one another. Never retaliate when someone treats you wrongly, nor insult those who insult you, but instead, respond by speaking a blessing over them—because a blessing is what God promised to give you. For the Scriptures tell us: Whoever wants to embrace true life and find beauty in each day must stop speaking evil, hurtful words and never deceive in what they say. Always turn from what is wrong and cultivate what is good; eagerly pursue peace in every relationship, making it your prize.” 1 Peter 3:8-11 TPT.

Don’t worry, I am not about to break into a chorus from the musical: “Man from La Mancha.” Even though the above verses from Peter seem like the impossible dream! Here, briefly, is the story from that musical: ’It is a funny story of mad but kind and chivalrous elderly nobleman Don Quixote who, aided by his squire Sancho Panza, fights windmills that are seen as dragons to save prostitute Dulcinea who is seen as a noblewoman.’ 

I chose this musical as an illustration today, because we can miss out on God’s blessings, when we discount some tasks as not worthy of our attention. Who would treat a prostitute like a noblewoman? Jesus did on a couple of occasions! And Don Quixote, the addle-pated fictional old guy did too. Many people thought his character was delusional, but others saw it as an illustration of complete saneness in a mad world. You decide. 

We can all have false value systems that are nothing like the Lord’s. It’s important to remind ourselves, that Jesus loved sinners. He loved the people, not what they did! Those people who “fessed up” to their failings out of love, respect and honour for the Lord’s holiness. All of us have sinned, and one sin is not worse than another. Anything that offends God’s holiness is sin. Plus anything that doesn’t come from faith is also sin. (Romans 14:23). 

At one time, Jesus went to a tax collector’s house for dinner and many people were really angry with Him for doing it. Yet the Lord said on another occasion: “I did not come to call the [self-proclaimed] righteous [who see no need to repent], but sinners to repentance [to change their old way of thinking, to turn from sin and to seek God and HIS righteousness].” Luke 5:32. God’s ways are not like ours. His Grace and Righteousness have been given to us purely through His Son’s death. Given for free, but at immeasurable cost.

Here is the point I want to make today – we can sin with our mouths far more than most people do with their actions! We need to remember that our mouths follow our inner attitudes.“Whoever wants to embrace true life and find beauty in each day must stop speaking evil, hurtful words and never deceive in what they say.”  The thing about God’s Word is that it couldn’t be clearer. There is no wiggle room. Anything else is disobedience. We’ve all mouthed off at one time or another, and, hopefully, repented from it. What Peter is saying is this:  if you can control your mouth, your whole body will follow along behind it. It seems to me like James said that too! 

Two things help in this deceitful, sometimes hypocritical battle we all experience. First of all: Renewing our minds. Our thinking needs to change. However, please don’t feel condemned about it. That’s an endless way of thinking that is hard to escape from. Condemnation is not like conviction. Conviction leads to fresh life — condemnation leads to fruitless, self-flagellation. Jesus paid for all our sins. Repent, and then deliberately repair things, and then move on. 

Here’s something that helps me …I do this out of obedience and reverence for Him, feelings don’t come into it.

That is the first step in a process that changes the way we think about other people, ourselves and sin. ‘…repentance is a profound, inward change of mind and attitude toward sin, resulting in a 180-degree turn in direction—away from wrong doing and toward God. It involves sincere remorse (godly sorrow), confession, and an inward commitment to change actions and behaviours.’ 

Secondly: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”  Ephesians 4:29. That little word “let” shows us that we actually are able to monitor what we say, and edit out inappropriate responses. We will need the Holy Spirit’s help, but this gets easier with practice. However, I think that the ‘monitoring’ process starts with what we take in. If we put garbage in, then garbage will come out. For example: I’ve noticed that if I am around someone who swears a lot, my first thought when something goes wrong is not a good one! This is not that  other person’s fault – I didn’t take the time to rewire my brain with what God says.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8. And that brings me to this conclusion:  I will always need to find what’s good in the things that happen to me. God’s good, and He’s in charge of me, so GOOD will be there. I can always ask Him to help me see it because anger, frustration, self-pity etc. can get in the way. Living like this isn’t an ‘impossible dream’ and I am not “tilting at windmills…!” Jesus also once said this: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26. Bye 👋.

P 3276 Jesus is our life now.

/ DVH

We live “… in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;  through glory and dishonour, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors;  known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” 1 Corinthians 6:6-10.

Paul carefully describes the way we are to live …from our core … out. I know the immediate response to reading something like this is to distance ourselves from it, by making excuses for our private, secret personhood, or past  circumstances. But our lack of obedience, cannot excuse us — nor does our inbuilt ineptitude for spiritual things. That’s because all transformation takes, is surrender. This is a quality decision you refuse to back out of. The thing is we can’t keep any sin like a pet, feeding it, sheltering it, and making room for it. 

We have given the Lord our lives, so we don’t belong to us now. We died! So we do not have to have those things imprisoning us anymore. We have gained His life and it has been designed to flourish in us. No matter what mess we have made of our lives – nothing is too difficult for Him. Meanwhile it is dangerous to project how we feel NOW, into the future …because feelings shift and change. God Himself and His Ways are the only certain things we can afford to embrace, because they are written down in His book!

We can try to live in both worlds but that pathway of self-control is an illusion. The truth is everybody is “fine” until something incredibly hard happens. We simply can’t hold onto the things Christ is offering us, and still have this world at the centre of our attention. We need empty hands! Grace is free but it was incredibly costly. Our love for the One Who paid such a price, demands a response — and our response needs to be total surrender. Partial surrender does not work. Trust me, I’ve tried it. You will make yourself a target with so much time-wasting guff, you can barely keep your head up above water.

Jesus has taken every single sin and burden off us, when He embraced those things upon Himself on the cross and took our punishment for them. We cannot atone for our own sin, now we live as grateful recipients of His Grace. Praise Him over and over again for the incredible Grace His death released that day. It was over abundantly more than we could ever hope or dream. Yet we cannot begin to attain anything like 1 Corinthians 6 without the Grace of God thundering through our lives, transforming the way we think, act, and speak. And we need to allow Him to do it.

Let’s choose to be all in, now and forever. That’s a quality decision that we will choose to honour for His sake. Not because Christ will reject us – He won’t – this side of judgment day. But because sin is slippery, uncontrollable stuff that seeps into our very thinking. It will come out of our mouths when life squeezes us tightly. It will slowly but surely lead us away from the very Person Who saved us.  The bible says in Galatians 2:20:“I have been crucified with Christ [that is, in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith [by adhering to, relying on, and completely trusting] in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

The reality is, we simply must choose to become alive to Father God’s Ways. And then start by using our faith  and acting on those choices. It’s a done deal —Jesus took us all to the cross with Him. Now we choose to live — daily, minute by minute, honouring that decision by following His Ways with all of our substance. If He wants us to give, then we give. If He wants us to pray for others, then we pray for them. If He wants us to go live somewhere else, then we do that. If He wants us to speak, we speak. And if He wants us to be silent, then we are silent. His Grace is available to those who want Him to help them. We are ruled by what we embrace.

Our God promises to meet all our needs … so we don’t want to go about demanding our rights. We gave them away when we said ‘yes’ to Jesus! Now, we choose to submit to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ God’s Holy Son. And WE CAN TRUST HIM. We will never ever deserve what He did for us, even for a nano-second. Our grateful, obedient response means that we choose to follow His instructions in the Bible, because we have ingested the way He thinks, rather than the way this world does. 

He has becomes our reference point — not our own comfort. How can we do this? We choose to live with forever in mind, as we honour God Himself with our obedience. Jesus is our life now. We are still in this world, but we are no longer a product of what this world thinks and does. Now we follow the One Who produced life, life, and more life. Bye. 👋 

“So then, prepare your hearts and minds for action! Stay alert and fix your hope firmly on the marvellous grace that is coming to you. For when Jesus Christ is unveiled, a greater measure of grace will be released to you. As God’s obedient children, never again shape your lives by the desires that you followed when you didn’t know better. Instead, shape your lives to become like the Holy One who called you. For Scripture says: “You are to be holy, because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:13-16 TPT.

P 3275 On being an arrow …

/ DVH

“These heroes all died still clinging to their faith, not even receiving all that had been promised them. But they saw beyond the horizon the fulfilment of their promises and gladly embraced it from afar. They all lived their lives on earth as those who belonged to another realm. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11:13.

The people who are spoken about here in Hebrews … are our illustrations. That is a long list – which could definitely surprise you, if you take the time to read the whole chapter! Those people lived this life, their only life– looking forward to forever … instead of living for here and now! They did not have fun, fun, happy, happy lives. Instead they chose to live using their faith in the God Who said He would save them. They took Him at His Word. Plus these people in Hebrews kept themselves open to correction and they just kept pressing on. Their faith in Him filled their vision. These people saw this life as something they would pass through to something better. 

They were often isolated from their family, or friends because of their beliefs – and they suffered all sorts of hardships along the way. They were misunderstood, some of them almost daily! All of them were Jewish, except for Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute — her obedience and faith saved her and her family. These men and women were identified as God’s own Chosen people. Simply because of their witness.

We should not be surprised when life gets difficult and we think we can’t cope. It can be deadly to our faith if we forget to keep our eyes on eternity. We can become so used to maintaining the here and now, that forever seems like a dream, and today’s worries entangle our feet and root us into the immediate! But that is not the way these folks lived. Eternity was realer to them than this daily grind.

Actually, forever is a part of what we believe. We will have the joy of being with the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit endlessly. None of this floating in and out business, like the good and bad times we stagger through  sometimes is in this life – in heaven we will be living totally aware of the Trinity, and the saints who have gone on before us. We will be changed. Oh I feel such gratitude for the fact that we will ALL be changed to be like Jesus I know I need changing. 

At the same time we have not been asked to simply put up with this life, while we wait for the end of it. Father God has asked us to spend the time we have, using our minds and hearts to become a highly interactive and well defined arrow. Day by day, the way we live, and the way we interact with others, needs to point to Jesus. Arrows point to other things! 

We are not undercover brothers and sisters, we are His family. Love is now our primary language. We are purpose-built to enjoy living for Jesus right here. Heaven is not just available for a select few …. anymore than hell was made for people!  It is God’s desire is for ALL to be saved. And we are His chosen arrows pointing the way to salvation. It’s impossible for me to ever choose one of my children, or grandchildren, that I don’t want to see, or be a part of their lives. And Almighty God’s a much better parent than I am!

Meanwhile, do remember to spare a thought for mothers. Children can be difficult, trust me!! Daily there are more and more criticisms of parenting that seem to pile up. And many adults don’t seem to remember that somebody fed us, sheltered us, rocked us to sleep, and made sure we didn’t fall off a cliff! There is so much criticism about, it is far too easy to focus on what parents did wrong. If you are still here then someone did something right! 

Arrows choose to point to the good in things around them, or in the best thoughts about bad situations.They don’t point out other people’s faults, or sins – these ‘arrow’ people know they are here to help others become more acquainted with the Love of God. They have made it their mission to be a source of that Love, while they are still in this world. When you fire an arrow the idea is to hit what you are aiming at! Those long-forgotten saints in Hebrews 10 made it their business to aim at following God and honouring Him with their substance and their lives. 

Those people did not miss the mark. Their faith was firmly fixed on God and what He said, not on this life going on around them and their part in it. Here’s something I have found useful. If I am focussed on what is going around me, then I am probably not giving my faith in His love and kindness toward me, the attention it deserves. The “arrow” of our lives gets turned away from our destiny a little bit at a time, as we allow the imposing confounding things of this world to turn our eyes away from Jesus. We simply can’t look at those two things at the same time, we will end up cross-eyed! 

Which is another word for not seeing anything clearly. When your vision becomes cloudy, stop and ask the Lord to show you what has inserted itself between you and Himself. Following, by its very nature, means we are looking at the Leader. And arrows have a purpose. They give us direction and show us where we move onto next. Bye👋