Labor

P 3175 Piece of cake!

/ DVH

“Christ is our message! We preach to awaken hearts and bring every person into the full understanding of truth. It has become my inspiration and passion in ministry to labor with a tireless intensity, with His power flowing through me, to present to every believer the revelation of being His perfect one in Jesus Christ.” Colossians 1:28-29 TPT. 

“Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honor, and authority! Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm.” Colossians 3:1-2 TPT.

We can waste a lot of our God-given time reflecting on where we’ve missed it, and end up living in the land of regret. It is good to be aware of where you’ve fallen short of the mark, but not to the point where you can’t even see the mark anymore! That mark is this – Jesus’ sacrifice and His wonderful love for mankind. We have all been given a priceless gift …total reconciliation with God. Yes, He knows what we are like;  yes He knows we fail;  but our wonderful Father, God, is far greater than we can ever imagine. Right here. Right now. He sees us complete in Christ. That’s because of Who He is, His nature – not our spirituality.   

The best news ever, is this… Jesus did not fail. He was tempted in every aspect of this life, just like we are, He got tired, just like we do, He had responsibilities, just like we do. Listen to this particular responsibility!  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18&19. Howzat for hard? 

Yet Jesus quite naturally walked and lived with SomeOne that we need to learn to walk with, minute by minute, day by day — the precious Holy Spirit.The good news is this – I don’t have to be all that – Jesus already did it for me. Our hearts need to be awakened all the time, to the reality of His truth – by reading and acting on the stuff that is written down in His book.

For instance, the bible says: ‘agree with your adversary quickly.’  Matthew 5:25. We’ve been lied to by our enemy who told us: ‘There is no way you can ever be like Jesus. After all, you did this and that. And something much worse, yesterday!!’ So I agree with the enemy when he accuses me, but then I refer him to the bible, because that is what Jesus did when He was tempted.  I point to the cross because I know I have nothing else but His Grace to commend me.

Sometimes I think we’d rather hide in the wine press, like Gideon did, than be seen! The bible says the people recorded in the Old Testament are there ‘…as an example to us.’ 1 Corinthians 10:11. Let’s not hide like that young man did. Instead let’s remember God has a plan and we are already in it! Our problem is we need to maintain our faith in His goodness, His promises … not just focus on our sins. We have weak wobbly faith in a tiger-pouncing world! It’s time to get up off the mat and get back into doing what we’ve been destined to do …telling and showing everyone around us how much Jesus loves them! 

A lady came here yesterday and in the course of our conversation she mentioned that she didn’t go to church but she did talk to God. She said this like she thought it was a bad thing. Like somehow she was sneaking into a rock concert without a ticket! We assured her she didn’t need a ticket, because God heard every word she said. Then we went on to reassure her that Christianity is not a club you join, it’s a Person you meet, so we don’t have to shout out our number as we go through the door! She laughed, and said: “You should tell people that more often!”  We need to remember …’it is the kindness of God that leads people into repentance.’  Romans 2:4. The-people-who-haven’t-met-Him-yet are often more happy to hear the truth than we are to give it to them!

However, we all know that sometimes witnesses can be quite reluctant. Cop shows on TV taught me that!! There is no such thing as getting it right, there is only obeying Him, or not. He’s a Redeemer! He can take the mess we’ve made of our lives, and turn it into something more wonderful than we can imagine. At the same time the Holy Spirit knows our frame. He also knows our weaknesses …but when we give them to Him, He will give us His strength in exchange. We don’t have to give someone else a 20 course dinner about what the bible says, in our testimony – we just give them the fresh bread He gave us this morning when we read the bible! 

There is the saddest parable told by Jesus Himself, about a rich man and a beggar. Luke 16:19-31. As the beggar talks to the rich man he says: “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” Let’s choose to take the time to tell others that–SomeOne, God Himself!–came here and made Himself that bridge between what people think they know about Him and Who He really is. Tell them Jesus is everyone’s bridge back to God.  Our testimonies are powerful, because the Holy Spirit handpicks the people He sends us to.

Revelation 12:11 –“And they overcame him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”  You and I don’t have to be the whole band – but … you can be the banjo Jesus plays on… OK!… Let’s not be picky … you can be the flute instead! Piece of cake. Bye.👋

P 2872 Let go of bad stuff, quickly.

/ DVH

Our relationship with the Lord God Almighty, gives us greatly needed assurance. “So now, beloved ones, stand firm, stable, and enduring. Live your lives with an unshakable confidence. We know that we prosper and excel in every season by serving the Lord, because we are assured that our union with the Lord makes our labor productive with fruit that endures.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 TPT. What a mighty, loving God we serve! He has already made provision for us to be stable, and to stand firmly upon what Jesus has already done! I love that “unshakeable confidence” bit in these verses.  

You know sometimes it is good to just pause and think about a particular phrase in the bible, and think about what it  means to you. When I think about these verses they remind me of some poor sod on a ladder, and down the bottom someone else is shaking the daylights out of the ladder to dislodge the person at the top who is helpless to stop them because they are at the top! Life is sometimes like that. Things happen that shake us so badly we aren’t sure where UP and DOWN are anymore!

But at other times, nasty distractions come along that gnaw at our faith like squirrels chewing on electric wiring. The difference between those two circumstances is that in a severe trial we cry out to the Lord for help almost immediately, but the giggly things that nag and gnaw at us, can be easily overlooked … they pile up around us like snow drifts. Yet surprisingly those little things can do a great deal more damage to our faith.

Years ago, when we were overseas, we heard stories about how cute little fluffy-tailed squirrels are a right-rotten pest, because they love to gnaw on things. Apparently they particularly enjoy chewing on electrical cables — you’d think the little blighters would get electrocuted!  Maybe they do. Dumb critters. You know when I was thinking about those pesky squirrels, the thought occurred to me that there is also a parallel for all of us there, because there are times that our lives feel like they are being chewed on by circumstances. 

This kind of stuff is probably not one BIG thing, but a whole lot of little things that are besieging us. Night and day, without any mercy, threatening to cut off our air supply! One thing seems to rapidly follow another, and you begin to feel like that tormented ladder guy I mentioned above. You are holding on for dear life, afraid of what will happen if you let go. Big things, small things, terrifying things or things that simply annoy the life out of you – I believe every single one of those things have the same solution.  LET GO AND FALL DOWN. Just plan to fall at His feet! … But … let go!

Trying harder to manage uses up whatever energy you have when this life is battering you. And mentally stressed people often make truly terrible decisions based upon how they feel. God says what I just said like this in Psalm 46:1-5 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall;  God will help her at break of day.” Because we know He will always catch us, our faith needs to give us confidence to let go and let Him be God.

In verse 10 of that Psalm, it says,“Be still, and know that I am God;…” That’s great advice, I would advise anyone – including ME – to hold onto it. Even if that dreadful storm of events is not breaking when you need it to, just keep telling yourself that … “He’s got this.”  That’s how faith grows. Meanwhile, resisting things will hurt even more. It is better to lie back and float on His Word and keep reminding yourself that He loves you, than to flail about against the circumstances, increasing your blood pressure and losing your peace. Don’t give in to the enemy’s threats of worse  – trust in the One Who will always love you!

This BTW IS THE REAL REST. It’s that stuff Paul talks about in Hebrews 4. The stuff that the Lord says we must learn to enter into. When we enter into it, we become spectators of what He is doing and we just sit back and watch. Let go of bad stuff quickly, resist the enemy and deliberately choose to trust the Lord to get you through whatever it is -and don’t give in to a pity party or entertain fear … those things are from our enemy. Bye 👋

P 2831 The place of satisfaction.

/ DVH

The Christmas season can bring family time sharply into focus, because Christmas itself came into being from what appears to be a perfect family unit. Let’s briefly look at Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Mary was pregnant-before-marriage, so she had to hide her pregnancy from her neighbours. Joseph, her soon-to-be husband was instantly installed as a step-parent to SomeOne else’s child – imagine how much Almighty God trusted that man! The tiny family were poverty-stricken, instantaneously homeless because of targeted persecution, and refugees to boot. God placed His precious Son into an ordinary family with its share of harsh difficulties.

My point is chasing perfection is a thankless task. Perfection does not exist outside of Christ Himself. Satisfaction comes from the Lord. However, as we are daily being perfected inwardly by what Christ did for us, I’ve noticed that everybody else changed along the way! Except they didn’t. Now I’ve woken up to the fact that my personal view of other people has changed, because I have started to see others through His eyes, and boy are His eyes kinder than mine!

The absence of loved ones in this season can make Christmas a very hard time. I have a grown daughter who lives 1800 kms away from me, and I don’t see her or her family, including my eldest grandchild at all. Hubby rarely sees his family either … we’ve chosen to live in another state! We try to make the effort to bridge the gap so we can see both sides of the family, but even when we do, there never seems to be enough time to catch up. Sometimes it seems like you’ve barely said “hello” and you have to say “goodbye” again.

This situation has given us an opportunity to be inventive about how hubby and I share His love and our love with our resident families. At the same time,  we are very acquainted with the kind of sadness that sits on you when you miss people who are so special to you. There is also the yearly fight about whose parents should we visit this year? Whose turn is it this year? Not to mention those people who will face Christmas alone. At the same time, a number of important people in our lives have died, and Christmas definitely seems to be the time of year when you think of them and miss them. One day God Himself will wipe away all our tears.

Here’s what I’ve managed to learn about this season as life has rolled along —“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for He gives to His beloved sleep.”Psalm 127:1-2. Boy I wish I had taken those two verses to heart every Christmas for most of my adult life!! In my efforts to see everyone years ago, and do the right thing, I just did whatever my hand found to do, but I didn’t ask the Lord what He thought about my ideas! Dumb.

Inverted logic is a really stupid way to live one’s life. By that I mean thinking … “Well, I can’t see any harm in me working hard to make sure everyone’s Christmas is great. Other people are going to be blessed, so this can’t be a bad idea, God will like it.” Like I said – it’s dumb! It can quickly lead to exhaustion! Today, more than ever before, we need to be doing whatever we see Him doing. So my advice to others is this: skip that turkey, ham, Christmas pudding and cranberry sauce if cooking them means your Christmas is frustrating. Before you jump down the very deep, labour intense hole of making everyone’s idea of Christmas appear – ask Him what He thinks instead!! Otherwise you will end up exhausted and in no shape to share your faith, hope and love with the people you love dearly.

So today, here’s my testimony about how I’ve learnt not to do Christmas. For us now all that fancy specialised food is no longer important. We are just grateful for the opportunity to see the people we love and take the time to bless them. I’ve learnt if you are going to labour then make sure you labour over something God Himself is building, not just something that upholds the kind of stuff that doesn’t last. In years gone by, I know I tried desperately to bring a child’s idea of a fairy-tale dream about a perfect family to life. Like that worked!! I alternatively tried harder, year after year, and so I constantly had a lousy Christmas! At the same time, I got annoyed at the people who didn’t help me.

Christmas is a celebration – it needs to be shared by all, from the youngest to the oldest, otherwise we are over- stressing some people and exhausting them, as well as perpetuating problems that are not necessary. If you had asked me all those years ago I probably would have said: ‘I like doing all this work, I love blessing people’  More fool me — because, to be truthful, I actually didn’t. Other people’s thank-yous never seemed to scratch the itch of my enormous need for appreciation. I worked so hard, yet I couldn’t wait for it to be over!

Instead I badly wanted to be sitting with everyone else chatting like they were, while they were waiting for me to get all that food ready. The lies we sometimes tell ourselves!  You know, some pain is unconsciously self-inflicted, and it can lead us into anger toward the very people we are meant to be serving. And, at the same time, that pain will steal away our PEACE! Take the time to ask the Lord what He wants you to do this Christmas. To be brutally honest, I’ve learnt that I need to stop being so proud that I can’t ask for help.

I loved my kids so much, I wanted them to have a happier life than the one I had. It took me years to see that even that statement was judgmental toward the people who had cared for me and raised me. If we want to bring about real change in our lives we will need to target the root of the tree of dissatisfaction, not just the leaves. The leaves on that tree can easily be the inconsiderate, sometimes selfish and self-centred sinful people around us. 

Most people cannot love us the way we want to be loved. They are busy trying to manage their own lives – so catering to our needs  will not register on their richter scale. Without Christ and His Way of living, this world is doomed to continue to seek out something that is not real. This life is depicted over and over again by the media as an over- idealised, irrational dream. Perfect love simply does not exist outside of what Christ did for us. We must start with Him, not our feelings or needs, and throw away the pretty fairy-tale dream of what family is supposed to look like.

Family are the people who voluntarily stay when the world falls on you, whether they are relatives or not! Christmas can be a time of pain, unless we are prepared to throw away our own unrealistic plans and take the time to discover His. The Holy Spirit will carry us through every single bit of the loss, suffering and disappointment we face, into a brand new place, the place where whatever He wants — we want. That’s the place of satisfaction. Bye 🌲.

P 2487 The power of God is for the persistent.

/ DVH

The Lord Jesus went out into the wilderness and He was led there by the Holy Spirit, but, when He comes out of that place — He comes outin the POWERof the Holy Spirit. So this is what I want to say for today … some times when I am tempted to fight I think to myself – just one more time! The power to overcome comes with perseverance. Therefore, I will say that soft word that turns away wrath, one more time, I will turn the other cheek, one more time – I will forgive… one more time. Our enemy defeats us by projection – he projects a future that is not there, and he uses our past to do it. he says: “It has always been this way, and so it will always be this way. You have to fight or you will lose something valuable.” 

If God has not spoken to you, it is not over!  STAND. Sometimes we give up and quit fighting our enemy too early – we give in to our baser nature. Christ fought His battle through until His enemy was defeated. (Read Matthew 4:1-11) He stayed the course until the end! The power of God came and empowered the Lord in the middle of His weakness as He stood firmly on what the Holy Spirit gave Him to say, in this incredible fight. In those moments, it could have become a battle of wills, but Jesus was too spiritually attuned to play satan’s little game, He used God’s wisdom to bring about God’s purposes.

We cannot fight our enemy by ourselves! We too, need to be too smart to be pulled into “if only” and “what if.” It is what it is. A battle. Quitting early means we are letting our flesh win. Keep fighting until you hit His peace. Without His peace we can easily be sidetracked into places we were not meant to go. Seek God for a word, (or three) … and then WAIT. Let the Holy Spirit pick your battle ground – sometimes the battle is not ours. Whatever the circumstances, let the Holy Spirit guide you through them.

It was the verses with the POWER of the Holy Spirit on them in this incredible battle that WON! After the Lord was tested 3 times, the enemy had to leave. Jesus did not buy into satan’s ?logic? Remember the introductory verse to Matthew 4 says,  it was God’s idea for Jesus to be tested. The Holy Spirit led Him into that battleground. My advice is this – don’t be led into a battle you cannot win. When it comes to someone else’s will, or mind attitude – you and I cannot change it. We need to step back and let the Holy Spirit have His way … by letting love for the other person reign, the Holy Spirit knows the way through. Sometimes we fight, sometimes we die to self, sometimes we stand. But we always aim at maintaining LOVE for the other person.

In the first two of the three temptations mentioned in this scripture, satan says “if.” What is he doing? he knows the weaknesses of human flesh and he plays upon those weaknesses – he’s trying to get Jesus to accomplish what He was sent to do, in the flesh. Christ’s flesh was weakened by that fast. But Jesus had the One Who wrote the bible, with Him. (He is with US too!) We cannot fight without the Holy Spirit’s help.

In the end satan drops his pretence of helping, and blatantly goes for what he really wants … Christ’s worship. he wants the throne … satan has always wanted the throne.  he is jealous and he wants power. But because of what Christ did, we can sit, stand and walk with Jesus Christ daily. Never forget, that in times of trouble WE can walk right up to the throne of Grace and GRACE WILL MEET US. 

The Holy Spirit knows the perfect word of God to make our enemy flee. You and I may end up using more than one verse, but as the Holy Spirit hands them to us, we fling them at the things that are assailing us. Blame is useless in this place of battle – we are fighting the devil, not a human being. Stop fighting the person – resist the devil. Don’t be tempted to think up some snappy reply … the other guy has heard them all!  Just like Christ’s ministry belonged to Him, whatever we are fighting for belongs to us. But the way to win, is to lay whatever it is down at His feet, keep walking in Love, and use the scriptures that the Holy Spirit gives us to defeat our enemy. 

Lastly, Jesus had to fight the enemy in His weakened flesh – He was hungry and thirsty he needed food. The enemy is a snake, he will come at you when you are already weak. Then in Christ’s mind – He was offered everything He came to earth to buy back, without the cross. He saw those cities. Just one word and they were His … because satan owns them. The cities of this earth are corrupted. The power of God is the only true, permanent vehicle for change. There are no short-cuts. The only way up is down, the only way to live is to die, and the only way to do what He sent you here to do, is to lay it all down. Let the dream die. Maybe God gave you that dream … now, lay it down at His feet. Remember, this is one of the purest forms of worship. 

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for He gives to His beloved sleep.” Psalm 127:1&2. The power of God is for the persistent, those who will do whatever it takes, and give up everything, for His sake. Doing that will not be comfortable! “If we perish, we perish …” Esther 4:16. God’s will be done. His will, His way. Bye 👋🏻