KIngdom

P 2285 Ambassadors for His kingdom.

/ DVH

We all know this song, some of us probably learnt it way back in children’s church…“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33. 

So what does it mean to seek His kingdom first? In most instances, it means when His kingdom comes, that means MY kingdom will GO!  We are Jesus’ delegated ambassadors in this world of ours. We are here, in this time, and in this place, to be living examples of the kingdom of God in action. In effect, any sort of ambassador is a walking, talking, active representative from somewhere else.

And if you find that thought daunting, or even a little bit overpowering, then you are in exactly the right place. It is not in us, as human beings, to bring His kingdom everywhere we go, by ourselves, but when we walk with the Holy Spirit, we go, wherever HE goes. The Holy Spirit takes the kingdom of God everywhere. He simply cannot help it. It is His nature.

Some earthly ambassadors serve abroad, and they take advantage of their power and position in their new community. This can also be true in the kingdom of God too. It is up to us how, where, and IF we serve His kingdom wherever He has called us to be. Our King is not a despot, He does not demand that we must serve Him, that choice is always ours. But we owe it to the King of Kings not to forget for a minute Who we re-present – and to keep in mind how we represent Him. 

It is a tragedy when we see salvation as the end point of our interaction with Almighty God, and put aside the reason we were saved – we were saved to serve Him, and others. If all we do with what we have been given, is use it to serve ourselves and our own agendas, then we have not understood the gospel. So who do we serve? The people around us, families, friends, strangers, whoever comes across our path. 

Jesus told a large number of parables about servants serving their Master – either well, or badly. And the point of each one was that when their Master was missing, there were some servants who did not carry out His wishes. How we carry out what He has given us to do, hinges on the talents, gifts and abilities the Lord has given to each one of us. But it is up to us to activate them and use them for the good of the rest of mankind. 

In effect, we should not treat the check-out girl in the supermarket any differently than we treat Brother ‘Everybody-knows-his-name!’ We should be the same person in our homes, even under pressure, that we are in our churches when we are smiling and saying ‘good morning’ to each other. God did not promise us a safe life, but He did promise to protect us. The lack of perceived safety in situations, is a poor excuse for disobedience. He promises all of us wisdom, guidance and provision among other things.

Jesus also spent a great deal of time teaching: ”the kingdom of God is like …” So we cannot say we do not know what His kingdom looks like because Christ described it over and over again. Read the book! If we miss doing what He asks us to do, then we need to repent before Him and others, and that’s what keeps us humble. In the past we have spent way too much time trying to make ourselves feel comfortable, trying to fix our past, and organise the future so we will be fit to serve Him. We work hard to be fit for the Master’s use but never actually get around to doing something.

It is the Holy Spirit’s role to equip us, along with His gifts operating in our churches. This demonstrates to me, that in the main we have not comprehended our role in His kingdom. Every single gift is important because each gift facilitates others. Our role is to obey Him as He leads us through His word, His inner voice and our circumstances. The bible doesn’t come with an opt out button if it doesn’t suit us. Not applying it to our lives is rebellion. 

When we look at Moses, Gideon, Samson, Ezekiel, Amos, Jeremiah and other prominent figures from His book, we can quickly see that obedience puts us in a position to succeed in our earthly role for His kingdom. We cannot pick and choose what we want to obey and what we don’t, because that is like standing with one foot in His kingdom, and one foot in the enemy’s kingdom. That will divide our mind and hearts, and blur our God-appointed roles.

It is a privilege to be an ambassador for Christ wherever we serve. Our main aim should be to seek and serve His kingdom, not build our own. Bye 👋🏻

P 2272 The Lord will fight for you.

/ DVH

Exodus 14:13&14  “Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

These verses from Exodus 14 talk about the sort of commitment the Lord has toward our own personal situations. The Israelites are our illustration. They have escaped from Pharaoh and now he is in pursuit, so they complained at Moses and told him to reorganise God because they didn’t like their current circumstances. 😳

First of all I think their responses are quite normal for a people who have no real faith – or for anyone whose God is a concept and not a reality. The very essence of the story of the Israelites and the Promised Land is they were constantly wanting God to prove Himself to them. These people had grown up on the stories about how they came to be in Egypt in the first place. They called Abraham their father, yet none of what they had learnt and memorised was a comfort to them. 

They did what many of us do, they thought following the chosen leader was going to be enough and while they were being delivered, God was brilliant, He was wonderful, let’s all sing and have happy dances together. 🥳 Have a party. But at the first sign of trouble because their faith had no root, they were like the stuff you see blowing around in Western movies … tumbleweed. 

In the ninth and tenth plagues, it was obvious that God was making an exception for them, it was pitch black for the Egyptians when it was broad daylight for the Israelites. The Egyptian firstborn died and theirs didn’t. It was made clear to these people, by signs and wonders, that God was on their side. He had a purpose in mind, and He was going to perform it. Sometimes we can think if we can only see a miracle, if only something spectacular changed, then it could increase our faith. That doesn’t seem to have worked out very well for these people! Here in these 2 verses, God is promising to fight for them but the fear in their hearts was greater than anything He said. 

The truth is, seeing the miraculous and the extraordinary can be a wonderful way to boost your faith, but only if you have a mustard seed of faith inside you in the first place! Faith doesn’t fall on us from the outside, it’s our hearts that need to be changed – we need to learn to trust Him, no matter what. These people’s hearts need to be softened toward Almighty God. It is all too easy to be crazy about Jesus when we first meet Him, but then the trials and tribulations of this life erode that faith to a point where we almost become skeptical, hardened against the very God we profess to love. 

Sometimes bad things happen, so we pray, we get other people praying, we find a bunch of scriptures that express our needs and hold them up to heaven, but the real problem is inside us. Our faith is not strong and steady. HE wants us to grow in our own personal knowledge of how much He cares for us. But we just want the pain to go away, or we need a rest, and we need an answer. Every unmet disappointment, every time our hope is deferred, our heart gets sicker and sicker. 

I believe God fights for us all the time and most of the time we don’t see Him at work because the only answer that is acceptable to us is: ‘I need this fixed, I need it right here and right now.’  One of the best ways to pray is also the hardest – ‘Thy kingdom come Thy will be done ‘ etc. ‘and please give me the strength and courage to wait for YOUR answer.’ Yet despite what the Israelites felt and thought, God’s plans for them never changed, they simply needed to learn to TRUST HIM! He was always there, sometimes working out of their view, paving a way into a new life for them. A glorious revelation of Himself. 

Christ in us IS the hope of glory. The way to make our faith deeper isn’t always to be snatched out of problems, the way to make our faith deeper is to exercise it when it looks like there is no hope. Hanging onto the fact that He is good! Our faith should always be in Him. Who He is – not what He does. 

“I know what it means to lack, and I know what it means to experience overwhelming abundance. For I’m trained in the secret of overcoming all things, whether in fullness or in hunger. And I find that the strength of Christ’s explosive power infuses me to conquer every difficulty.” Philippians 4:12-13 TPT

P 2266 The Ever-expanding Kingdom of God.

/ DVH

Have you ever been to a Chinese restaurant and ordered Chrysanthemum tea? I have. I’ve seen little nubs of dried flowers put inside a glass vessel and boiling water poured over the top. You have to be patient. But eventually the leaves, the petals start to move like they are alive, and they start to expand. The end result is that the dried flower is rehydrated. 

Today I want to use that picture to remind us that the kingdom of God is designed to expand. In the book of Acts, we see one type of expansion. “Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.” Acts 2:41. Now that is definitely expansion. However, when the water of the Holy Spirit enters our lives He makes us bigger inside … just like that flower expands and unfolds in Chrysanthemum tea. 

In other words, expanding your life and heart can sometimes entail hot water or difficulties. Getting into trouble, getting out of it, getting into trouble, getting out of it … that’s why we rely on Him for all our help. Our enemy creates lots of opportunities and distractions for us to resist, or back away from the inner expansion we actually need. Today I want to talk about the kingdom of God expanding within us. The following verses show us how that expansion takes place. 

“Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, …”  Ephesians 1: 18,19a. When our eyes become enlightened, through His word, and our response to His instructions, we start to actually see the kingdom of God being formed within us and around us. It is the same with our  ears, we need to learn to expand our hearing so we recognise His still, small voice .. even when it is a whisper. “Whoever has ears, let him hear..” Matthew 11:15. The way to expand our hearing is to find something to do in whatever He tells us, through the bible, through the still small voice, and do it. The more we trust Him, the more we act on what He tells us, the bigger our capacity to be steered by His Grace becomes. 

At the same time, the Holy Spirit is always at work softening our hearts. Over the years, human beings learnt to harden them in hard situations, or when we are dealing with difficult people. We must allow Him to expand our ability to deal with hardship, as well as joy. The fabric of our character needs to be attentive and flexible – like a trampoline – rather than a brick wall.

“For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance…” Matthew 25: 29a. Be a good steward over what you have already been given. This is the reason we watch over our hearts, eyes, minds and bodies. Not for legalistic reasons, but for the ever growing expansion that leads to knowing Him and His ways better than we know anything else. 

The wonderful thing about extending and enlarging the boundaries of our inner man is that as we obey the Holy Spirit, we get glimpses of Who He is and what He is like. Those personal glimpses utterly change the relationship from religion into intimacy. I have been known to say on some occasions, ‘no, our God would not do that, that is not His character.’ Having eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart that wants to develop stops us from just forming routines. It takes any kind of dogged obedience and kisses it with life and insight. 

Expanding the kingdom within is equally, if not more important, than expanding the kingdom without. Let’s remember whatever we receive will be exactly what we will give away. If we want to serve Him with all our hearts and serve our fellow man, we need to submit to the stripping away of layers of self-defence, self-entitlement and self-interest. We don’t just arrive at the place of total surrender without making choices, and some of them aren’t going to be fun. 👋🏻

P 2265 Praise is a heavenly language.

/ DVH

Previously, there was a trend in Christianity to use the word “praise” almost like we would use a comma or a full stop. I don’t mean people weren’t genuine when they said praise the Lord etc., what I mean is the use of that phrase was tacked on the end of everything. as it can be. Praising God is not a punctuation mark. It’s joining in with His already established kingdom, by worshipping Him, and praising God for Who He is.

Praise comes easily when you are living aware of God simply because of Who He is. Who He is literally pulls out a response from us. But what happens when He’s not around and we are not aware of Him. Maybe instead we have had a lousy morning preparing to come to church. How do we praise him then? The Bible says that we can bring a sacrifice of praise into God’s house. This means we take our eyes off our suffering, pain and circumstances and deliberately focus on Who He is.

Praise is a way to enter the throne room. The bible says,  “enter His gates with thanksgiving, into His courts with praise.” Thanksgiving and praise are key to preparing our hearts for worship. Thanksgiving is thanking Him for what He has already done, including saving us, and praise focuses on Who He is. I think we’ve become tangled up about the way thanksgiving, praise and worship work. I don’t want to speak about worship today and thanksgiving is fairly self explanatory.  Today I want to focus on praise. I think praise is essential. It shifts our focus away from ourselves and onto the Lord and His kingdom.

The point of praise is to make ourselves aware of Who He is. If my husband only loved me for what I did, I’d be sunk right now. I’m in bed with a broken shoulder and I can’t even pull my own pants up. Praise is ‘other’ person centred. And in this case, it is God-centred.

Praise is about proximity and focus. We move away from our earthly circumstances toward Him. Many of the Psalms were written as prompts for praise. I truly believe in reading out loud the bible so your own ears can hear it. We need to come out of our minds and thoughts into our spirits and shift our focus onto Who He is. I’m reminded of an old Wesleyan hymn – “And can it be that I should gain? An int’rest in the Saviour’s blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me?”

I am also aware that praise is not just singing, although we do have some lovely songs nowadays that open our hearts toward Him. However, I personally think there are way too many modern songs with ‘I, Me and Mine’ in them. Praise is where I choose to shift my focus away from ‘I, Me and Mine’ onto Him and Who He is. To do that we need to study the bible with a deliberate awareness of Who He is. Praise is also a faith statement – it tells our enemy that no matter what he threw at us before we arrived at church – our God is on His throne!

Father God does not need our praise, we praise Him to prepare our hearts to focus heavenward. I switch my focus from my needs onto Him. There is an often unseen benefit in doing this, my problems get smaller ‘and the things of earth shall grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.’ For a short while we stop being earthbound people having this battle and this difficulty and become children of the King and His greatness and grace enfolds. We must remember the Holy Spirit loves to praise God. So did Jesus!

Praise puts me on a journey that takes me outside of the influence and attack of the enemy.  The ‘hooks’ of despair, discouragement and fear weaken their hold on me because I have deliberately turned away from them and am walking towards the Greater One. Praise is a heavenly language. It bursts forth from hearts that know this life is not just about all the humdrum, awkward, difficult and unpleasant things we have to endure, our praise comes from a people who have fixed their eyes upon a goal, and that goal is to give Him what He deserves.

BTW for Spirit-filled people, praise is our new residential address. Our greatest power lies in our ability to focus on His kingdom more than the earthly one around us. 👋🏻

P 2260 Kingdom farming!

/ DVH

Matthew 13:31-32 “He (Jesus) told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

The kingdom of God it is described by the Lord, as being like many things: a treasure, a pearl, many seeds, family treasure, leaven, sprouting seeds, a net, and for today’s blog – a mustard seed. The more we tend to His kingdom in our lives, the bigger it grows. The more we cultivate, acknowledge, and obediently interact with His kingdom in our lives, the more we will grow. This means that other people can come to our little ‘kingdom of God mustard tree’ and shelter in its safety.

We don’t make this tree grow by ourselves – the ground it is planted in does. A whole lot of people move around from one church to another in Christian circles, because they decide they don’t like the soil they were planted in! Imagine a tree that moves around?? In His kingdom we do not grow because of the soil – we grow as we accept that it is our destiny to grow, and dry ground or rocks provide us with the opportunity to adapt and grow stronger. 

Every time you and I do whatever the Lord says in the book, on purpose, His way … we are nourishing the kingdom of God within us. Just like we would fertilise and water a mustard seed plant. That seed inside us is nurtured by  obedience and by us choosing to abide where we were planted. Saying ‘no’ to yourself in difficult moments, and ‘yes’ to God’s way, can seem very insignificant, but when we live that way, we are providing the right atmosphere for the Kingdom of God to grow inside us. We are abiding!

Sadly, we can’t just speak about growth and claim it, and hope it will magically appear. Like I said a tree when it has been planted – does not pull up its roots if it doesn’t like the spot it is in and go walk-about. It yields to and adapts to its circumstances. This means WE will need to change. The major point of this parable is that this particular seed is destined for greater things. It is there to grow and provide safety for others. When we have deep roots, our ‘tree’ won’t just flop over when a storm hits. Storms, I have decided, are inevitable. We cannot prevent them. Despite all our efforts to the contrary, we can’t control much of anything. Sadly, in some circumstances, we can’t even control ourselves!

It is also important to take the time to meditate on the fact that His kingdom has no end. So every time we co-operate with His kingdom coming into our lives, we are touching the eternal… and the eternal is touching us. Like I said before, we are providing for others when we live this way. I’ve watched this happen through my husband’s attitude toward strangers. He believes in the kingdom of God within Him and He knows God wants to touch others! 

Recently our bank changed its system. Yay! We were told if we did thus and thus all would be well. Naturally, we promptly did thus and thus – BUT … all was not well! The bank had provided for this time of change by listing a number we could call. Hubby called the number. But as he was talking with the bank operator, he empathised with her about what a tough day she must be having, because she had to deal with so many calls. Hubby cared for her, instead of getting grumpy because this new system inconvenienced us. She opened up to him like a sunflower. The young lady came into his mustard tree’s shade and was able to rest. For a few minutes she was free from having to explain her work’s policy and she was able to be herself. They had a great chat and in the end, all was finally well!

Matthew 13:10-12 says this: “The disciples came to Him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance…”

The way to get an abundance of His love to give away, and provide shelter for others, is to cherish and nurture His kingdom within us. His kingdom must go deep inside us – this means it will challenge and expose flaws and hindrances to growth. But many many people will find rest, comfort, encouragement, healing and a greater knowledge of God Himself in our own personal mustard tree. This is why we need to be good Kingdom farmers – so people can personally, “…taste and see that the Lord is good!” 🌳 Bye 👋🏻

P 2259 My own personal kryptonite.

/ DVH

I have found, over the years, there is at least one person in my life that is like kryptonite to me. I trust the Lord and lean on His strength in many, many places … but, unfortunately, this one person weakens me instantly with just one sentence or look. That person is a very close relative. The night before last, I spent part of the evening dreaming I was shrieking and screaming at them for what seemed like hours. I woke up, agitated, still inwardly reciting everything they ever did against me, as well as mentally telling them what an awful person I think they are.

I realise I am not responsible for my dreams, but I am aware that in my heart, whenever this person hurts me … there is this continual, resounding phrase. “They did it again!” Now Jesus was very clear, people get 490 opportunities to shoot us down every single day. Because of our new heart, which we have been given, our response is to be forgiveness. Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure the Lord wasn’t saying that when we get to 491 offences we can let ‘er rip! 😳 There are 1440 minutes in a day – this means that somebody has to hurt us regularly every 2.9 minutes to qualify for us to quit! OK we can see that ain’t gunna happen, anyway, most of us sleep some of that time! 

However, I personally know that there are some people who go out of their way to push that number as far as they can! In my life this person is one of those. They can pole axe me with a sentence. This morning I realised that despite the fact that I practice forgiveness toward them, over and over again! I am still inwardly angry with them because they are disturbing the nice picture of who I am inside my head. Plus I’m mad because they don’t seem to try to understand me at all. We just keep bumping heads. They consistently tread all over my feelings, and I have to wrangle with myself so I can calm down again. 

Now, I know that God put this person in my life.  Their presence is not an accident, they are a relative – and we definitely do not choose our relatives! But I can also see clearly that I am not coming from the kingdom of God when I am around them. Instead I am coming from a defensive position. Fight or flight. I have gone so far over into offence, despite forgiving them over and over again, I actually anticipate trouble whenever I am around them! In other words, I live expecting them to sin against me … mainly because their track record ain’t great.

BTW I don’t think this person is doing any better in our relationship than I am – they too are puzzled, hurt, and betrayed by the fact that we do not get along. I decided that although I understand the principle of forgiveness – I was failing in the prac! The Lord told us to forgive others over and over again, so let’s assume that you and I probably have more than one person who drives us crazy. That’s a whole lot of ongoing forgiveness we need to participate in … every single day.

I came to the conclusion that somehow I was missing a key point in what Jesus told us to do. Here’s what I think, I think the Lord’s greatly exaggerated number means that I am meant to live a life of forgiveness toward everyone I interact with. This is great news … and no, I haven’t lost my mind! First of all, I know that I cannot possibly do that stuff all the time in my own strength. So, there must be a way for me to live like that … after all, Jesus is my physical, emotional and spiritual example. He lived that way – He lived a life full of forgiveness. 

After praying and thinking about it I realised sometimes scriptures need to be digested and acted upon in some sort of  order. EG: “I need to seek His kingdom FIRST… and then… all these (other) things (like true forgiveness) will be added unto me.” It’s simple. ‘Other things’ include forgiveness. My primary focus was wrong. I was seeking to give away forgiveness before seeking His kingdom. In His kingdom there IS pure forgiveness. So I started praying that I will seek His kingdom before everything else from now on! Living with His kingdom inside me changes everything.To start with, forgiveness, love and purity are part of that kingdom. Not to mention healing and transformation!

In conclusion I just want to mention something else I’ve noticed about ‘kryptonite.’  Anyone else who looks, sounds, or acts like this person I struggle with, can often provoke a reaction from me, toward them. Maybe not even outwardly, but definitely inwardly. That is another sign-post that I have not truly forgiven this primary person who hurts me.  I can see that I am holding onto any hurt or wounding as a defensive weapon, because of the fear of exposing my inner self around unsafe people. Trying to protect myself against further ‘attacks.’  BUT – in God’s kingdom the bible says: … “My God is my protection and with HIM I am safe.”

As I’ve said before, fear and love are mutually opposed, one excludes the other. To deflect satan’s kryptonite in our lives – we need to be hidden in Christ, living in His kingdom, not our own. Food for thought. 👋🏻

P 2252 Trust is more than a word!

/ DVH

Genesis 15:6 “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” I think this is one of the most important verses in the Old Testament.  Paul says this about Abraham in Galatians 3:6-9 TPT:“Abraham, our father of faith, believed God, and the substance of his faith released God’s righteousness to him. So the true children of Abraham have the same faith as their father! And the Scripture prophesied that on the basis of faith God would declare Gentiles to be righteous. God announced the good news ahead of time to Abraham: ““Through your example of faith, all the nations will be blessed!” And so the blessing of Abraham’s faith is now our blessing too!”

Abraham’s example of faith and trust is an illustration of our new place of freedom in Christ. We accept that what Christ did for us, was complete. Being subject or powerless to avoid any kind of sin is living in slavery!  Christ set us free to choose to follow Him and the Holy Spirit leads us into a new way to live. Just like Abraham chose to follow God to a new land – we choose to follow Christ into our eternal destination – living in His kingdom right here, right now. We use our faith to live this life differently, as the Holy Spirit leads us.

Abraham’s decision to follow God’s instructions, implicitly, even to the point of sacrificing his only son, Isaac, shows us the focus of this man’s heart. He utterly trusted God. In conversation with Isaac about where they would find a lamb for the sacrifice – Abraham said this: “…“God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”And the two of them went on together.” That was a faith statement and it also pointed toward Christ, 4,000 years later! Jesus is our Lamb of provision – He is our way out of serving sin… His Spirit leads us into serving God.

We need to actively learn, day by day, to trust our God … and that means we will do some dying to self along the way! To live in Christ’s freedom means we leave our old life behind, and we use our faith to live the life that God has prepared for us. Sin is not our main focus – what He wants for our lives is. We know that God Himself has provided the sacrifice for our sin, just like He did, on Mount Moriah, with Abraham and Isaac. So we press on, following in the footsteps of Christ, denying ourselves the things we want, in favour of the things HE wants. We’ve decided, once and for all, that what He said He did, He did. It’s finished. It’s done. 

Now it is our responsibility to live our lives, every single day, for love’s sake. Because of our devotion and allegiance to Jesus we accept that the things that happen to us, around us, and in us, are opportunities for change. That change consists of finding out what Jesus wants us to do in any kind of situation, for His kingdom to come. That’s the way we live now – we choose Him. He chose us, and now we choose Him right back. 

Sometimes that may mean that our days pass uneventfully, but those are the days that we need to stay focussed. Because we’ve learnt, that when we least expect it, we are going to need our faith … in the heat of sudden battle. We’ve learnt that our faith is developed by the everyday choices we make. It is strengthened every time we use it. Our faith will be tested, just like it was for Abraham! And he is called the father of our faith – he did it first. This is why we need to practice letting go of what we want, and learn to trust God instead. True freedom comes when we live in that trust because we are not driven about by our own sinful desires.

However, there is no real working faith if we simply let life happen to us. Instead we need to purpose in our hearts to rely upon God’s Grace to only do those things we need to do – and some of those things will involve sacrifices. That is part of our new life, our commitment to Christ. We cannot serve our God part-time or half-heartedly. We will end up disappointed and we will miss out on the freedom Christ died to give us. As Christians we need to pay attention to developing our trust in His ways. 👋🏻

Titus 2:11-12,14.“God’s marvellous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone. This same grace teaches us how to live each day as we turn our backs on ungodliness and indulgent lifestyles, and it equips us to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age.”…  … “He sacrificed Himself for us that He might purchase our freedom from every lawless deed and to purify for Himself a people who are His very own, passionate to do what is beautiful in His eyes.”

P 2227 Off we go…..again!!

/ DVH

Well, our travelling gypsy show is off again on our next trip – we are hoping to make 3 trips this year by God’s grace. We will be giving out blankets, bibles, bookmarks, groceries, grocery cards …telling stories ...all that PLUS giving away His enormous LOVE for the people-who-don’t-know-Him yet. Every time we go, I like to read about the sower in the parable that Jesus told, especially when I think of us trundling about from town to town in our car. 

Luke 8:4-10a MSG “As they went from town to town, a lot of people joined in and traveled along. He addressed them, using this story: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. Some of it fell on the road; it was tramped down and the birds ate it. Other seed fell in the gravel; it sprouted, but withered because it didn’t have good roots. Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it. Other seed fell in rich earth and produced a bumper crop.“Are you listening to this? Really listening?” His disciples asked, “Why did you tell this story?” He said, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom—you know how it works. There are others who need stories. But even with stories some of them aren’t going to get it: …”

That’s us, BTW, God’s people are to be seed sowers – Father God invested in us, and now He wants us to invest His seed in others. The Lord told us years ago: “You can’t have a harvest if you don’t sow seeds!” So, we chuck out seed in every direction just like that farmer. What if they don’t keep what we give them? That bit is not our problem – our bit is to sow seeds. Meanwhile it’s great fun to be a seed sower, you should try it, you meet a lot of lovely people – and you get a bigger view of this world.  We also pray for the churches we pass as we drive along. Plus we pray those people the Lord will send along behind us, one day soon, to harvest the crop we’ve sowed everywhere we’ve been. We want a bumper harvest for Jesus! 

Hubby and I have given away a whole lot of stuff in faith, over the past 17 years. We’ve driven more than 200,000 kms – not including the plane flights! This time we’ve had to leave a bit early because the journey on the first day was too long for some people – namely me!  So, we found somewhere to break the journey and now we get to meet some more people we’ve never ever met before. 

The sad thing we have found out over the years is that many Christians don’t sow any seeds. However this next bit of that parable has a great point: V13,14: “The seeds in the gravel are those who hear with enthusiasm, but the enthusiasm doesn’t go very deep. It’s only another fad, and the moment there’s trouble it’s gone. “And the seed that fell in the weeds—well, these are the ones who hear, but then the seed is crowded out and nothing comes of it as they go about their lives worrying about tomorrow, making money, and having fun.”(Yeah I know, bring THAT up! – God sows seeds into our lives too!)

HOW we HEAR and respond to WHAT GOD SAYS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT – as you can see for yourself. This life is very crowd-y and so many things take over our time. Suddenly we are busy about the things that make this life work for us and we forget we are not here for us anymore – our time is HIS TIME. Tick tock! ⏰ Despite the fact that from day to day, time often appears to pass slowly – that’s an illusion. Just ask any parents whose grown up child is finally leaving home – talk about an express train! Suddenly it seems like ten minutes ago you were wiping noses and now you are getting the church ready for a wedding or someone is calling you Grandma or Grandpa! 

I write about what happens to us on our journeys to encourage  …our faith, your faith, anybody’s faith! Please sow seeds. The more New Testaments you buy the cheaper they are. And the people in this world love free stuff. You know: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” (Benjamin Franklin) Jesus is counting on our obedience. 😳Ya might want to think on that one. Catch you in the next town … 👋🏻

P 2221 Watch out, or judgment will get ya!

/ DVH

“For we reach the goal of fulfilling all the commandments when we love others deeply with a pure heart, a clean conscience, and sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5 TPT. If we ever wanted a simple answer to every situation – this scripture is it. Love others deeply. Yeah, I wonder how we might try and wiggle out of that one?  Fat chance, BTW. Jesus died to give us a pure heart and a clean conscience – so if we don’t have those things then we need to seriously start to revise our theology. Read the book.

If you are even a little like me, you could look at that verse and think – ‘well that’s not easy!’ Then several people who really bother the daylights out of you, might instantly pop into your head. I’ve asked the Lord to help me with all those people that I want to love … but they drive me crazy instead. He said this. “You need a wider view of them. A kingdom view.” Up until then I was madly praying for more love and scrabbling about in my feelings to find it, plus I prayed for lots more wisdom. It had never occurred to me that to see them differently, I need to see those people through His eyes. God has the widest view of humanity ever – He saw all of US as redeemable. I like HIS view!

Here’s another big thought to add to the first one: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39. If we really ARE convinced that nothing, including death, can separate us from Him – then why do we live this life in a defeated fashion. Or even half-heartedly? What are we so afraid of? Why are we so easily satisfied with religion and its rituals? 

Here’s my answer. It is all about control. Religion is a BOX. It is sometimes a really BIG box full of big thoughts – but it is still a box! And human beings love to categorise things so we can make them easier to handle. Stuff like this: ‘He’s a murderer. That person is a trans person. That one is a liar. Those people aren’t married, they are living in adultery. That person is homosexual. This nationality are all thieves. Those people are gossips. Those people, over there, don’t believe in Jesus so they are going to hell.’ 

We comfort ourselves with the thought that if we identify the other person’s sin – it is OK not to love them, be-cau-se God doesn’t like those things and we’ve got the scriptures to prove it! Hmmmm.  God saved you and I when we were DEAD in our sins, why can’t HE save them? You know if you go fishing you don’t clean the fish before you’ve caught them! Selah. 

If the Body of Christ is going to truly love other people like Timothy said, and if His love is available for everyone – then we will have to chuck away our boxes and suspend judgment. Which BTW, is a really good plan… be-ca-use … JESUS said in Matthew 7. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Now, just hang on a minute lady …WE are the good guys, the bible says WE are the beloved of God, the head not the tail, the blessed ones! We go to church every single Sunday! Plus we have the righteousness of Christ!  HOWEVER … surprise surprise! … It doesn’t much sound like we have LOVE… Clang clang clang.

The above judgmental thinking shows us that our personal theology is prejudiced against the very people Jesus came to save! Now, we have an opportunity. We can comfort ourselves and hide from the truth, or face it square on and confess our lack of love. We don’t have to like what people do to love them. When Lord Jesus chose His disciples – He chose a thief who was a betrayer, a doubter, a person with no self-control, a man who was boastful, two revengeful and ambitious men, and a TAX-collector to follow Him. He was looking for people who were spiritually hungry and thirsty, not morally sound ones! HE STILL IS. Maybe some of the people I mentioned above are trapped by their sins and they don’t know how to get out … and perhaps our lack of love keeps them away from our churches! We need His wisdom.

And if we truly want to love others we are going to have to  suspend, and make sure we get rid of judgment toward everyone else and leave that bit up to Him. Let’s get on with our bit instead, shall we? Our bit is to love them with His unconditional wide, deep, love, into His kingdom. (Romans 8) Our other bit is to be personally transformed by His love so we become like Him. HIS BRIDE IS MEANT TO BE MORE LIKE A HOSPITAL than a bunch of pious people congratulating themselves on what they think they know. Well, that’s enough to think on for one morning. Bye.. 👋🏻

P 2220 Choose the things you want to be rich in, carefully.

/ DVH

Ephesians 2: 6-10 “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,  in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”Giving away Grace to the undeserving is part of our good works.

The first part of these verses above explain clearly how we can do whatever He wants us to do, using His Grace. But we also do whatever we do, from heavenly places (it’s in the book!) – not from earthly wisdom or effort. Father God did what He did for us all through Christ’s sacrifice, because now WE are designed to be part of His display of GRACE to the rulers of this world and the next! Not to mention satan and his cohorts! Our presence here in this world – our Grace-inspired faith-filled works – show this world and all that follows from here, what His GRACE looks like and how bountiful and glorious it is. That is what we do.  We are living illustrations of His GRACE in action. Ya might want to think long and hard on that one. 🧐

Now because it is GRACE … then people won’t deserve it.  We give Grace to others because that is part of the new way we have chosen to live. That means, sooner or later, that somebody is probably gunna get clobbered and treated badly. And then the clobber-ee will have to forgive the clobber-ER! That process is His GRACE on display, through us. At that moment HE gets all the glory. Grace is the coin of His kingdom.

I know, personally, that this kind of stuff has nothing whatsoever to do with who I am – and everything to do with His power at work in me. I don’t have the desire in me to be that altruistic and forgiving about some of the stuff that went down in my life! How about you? We cannot live our lives for His sake and not live supernatural Grace-filled lives – otherwise we are open to deception from the other guy. Living in His Grace is not optional – it is essential. I talked about His fruit a few blogs ago – Grace sets the fruit in our lives. Blossom trees get lots of flowers but many of those flowers are fruitless.

The thing is, these riches in Ephesians are a testimony to what our Heavenly Father did and how God’s Ways work. The word Grace means – (my translation) – ‘nobody deserves it!’ That includes you, or I, or the person who hurt us! Humanity has a distinct lack of deserving Grace in common – we ALL NEED IT. Sin is sin and His Grace levels the playing field. The only Person Who ever deserved these kind of riches is Christ, and Jesus left everything behind in heaven, to come here and pay for our sins so we can have these Godly traits as part of our inheritance and witness!! So let’s not hold grudges – let’s go after reconciliation!

The amazing thing is, God is rich in things that human beings don’t value much. Think about it. In the main people value material things – food, comfort, safety, somewhere warm and dry to sleep  … material things. Father God regards the things mankind goes to war about, as our needs. He promises to supply them, but the non-material things, that last eternally, matter more to Him. He used things like gold, jewels etc as building materials. (Read Revelation – the streets are paved with gold – not to mention the gates and walls!) WOW!! 

Here’s a fun thing to do while reading the Word. Go through your bible and highlight, or select all the things it says God is RICH in. It will blow your mind. And there is not a diamond, or a ruby, or even piles of gold on that list! That’s because He doesn’t value what we value. He knows we all need stuff … but we need Him more. It seems to me to be the spirit of stupid on steroids, to want to serve and follow Him, and not use our faith to ask for those non-material things, we actually desperately need every single day. Who doesn’t need patience, or kindness, or love, or long-suffering every single day? I know I do!

Now, to my final point: these eternal non-material things are the essence of Who Father God is. When we love and embrace those qualities, we are loving Him. We dare not say we truly love Him, if we do not value what He values. And boy, does HE value PEOPLE! There is no need to ask Him for the material practical things we need down here, because He has already promised “to supply every need according to His riches in Christ Jesus.” We need to learn to ask, and keep on asking, for all of the eternal things we lack. Let’s choose our riches carefully. 👋🏻