Life

P 2492 The power in our choices.

/ DVH

Someone recently challenged me about how anybody can continue to do kind, loving things for people who are deliberately not sweet to us. To start with, if we do not tackle this kind of situation with our faith, we will fail. This scenario needs the Lord’s supernatural power, not willpower. This person asked me if I was asking them to lie – because they did not feel kindly toward the people involved, and they would be lying if they took the path I indicated. At the same time they thought that perhaps they were giving the person/s involved permission to stay the same, and keep on being horrible to them. First of all, we need to remember our flesh will complain at us – it doesn’t want to die.

Mine complained at me, yesterday, at 4.00 am! I couldn’t sleep because I needed to get up and make some notes about my thoughts. Hubby chose to get up with me, and I felt very guilty for depriving him of sleep. But he said something really interesting regarding the very early hour. He reminded me of this story: Jesus came walking on the water to the disciples while they were rowing their arms off in the middle of a huge storm, in the fourth watch of the night. Apparently Jesus doesn’t think 4.00am is too early!

The Lord actively encouraged me then, through my husband, despite my tired body, and despite my feelings of guilt – hubby is as tired as I am most of the time! He could easily have been grumpy at me for waking him up way too early, but he chose to respond lovingly, to support me. Feelings can be grossly overrated and motivated by other circumstances, or previous attitudes that are yet to be redeemed. I think that God wanted to teach me something. When I talk about choosing to love others who are unkind to us, I am simply repeating what the bible says. Actually, I personally hardly ever want to … “do good to those who despitefully use me!’  I do those things and follow His word as a choice. We are challenged daily with choices.

Christianity is full of these seemingly ordinary choices, to say no to ourselves and yes to Him. I love walking around with Jesus helping me, so, for me, it is not a hard choice. Hubby chose to walk with the Lord at 4.00am and that led to him reassuring me from the bible. He was blessed and so was I. If we make the wrong choices, it definitely becomes much harder to step away from those choices and go back to following Him. In those moments we will have to fight our own feelings and thoughts.

We may have to choose to suffer by making those hard choices … SO GRACE CAN BE RELEASED. Grace is undeserved by its nature, so releasing it must be motivated by our Love for Jesus and His Ways. However,His Grace changes everything! It enables us to see things that were not seen before. When you or I get into a bad situation with someone else, somebody is going to have to release grace – which is undeserved favour – in order to de-escalate that situation. We cannot do this kind of thing without the Holy Spirit helping us, and giving us His Word and His Grace. The thing is we will often feel nothing – OR still be very angry at the other person. It’s a sacrifice – you will die to self when you do it.

When we choose to love the people who aren’t loving us, we are entering into the Kingdom of God, and living by His edicts – instead of by this world’s ideas. That choice ushers us into a different arena. Now the things of this earth fade into the background, because something far more wise and powerful has come on the scene. I have found when God explains Himself it blows my mind. For example, for years I have looked at those two men hanging beside Jesus, dying on their own crosses and thought – ‘ Well, at least one of them was saved.’ But then the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said: “TWO men were saved but only ONE responded to Christ.” 🤯 God thinks differently than we do!

I was also reminded by the Holy Spirit that Jesus did not want to go through with His sacrifice. (Dare I say He did not feel good about what was going to happen?) We have an example in the garden of Gethsemane where He makes it very clear He did not want to go ahead with His appointed assignment. But He carried it out, and He let other people do to Him what they did, because of the greater good. Love was going to win – it always wins! This was, quite simply, the only way to redeem us. The innocent had to suffer.

We are given opportunities every single day to suffer for LOVE’S SAKE. Life is about those daily choices! We can enter into transformation in those moments, as we choose to believe what the bible says, over how we feel or what we think. Here’s what I’ve  learnt — 4.00am feels way too early to be awake …but when God is in it, suddenly it is not too early. Continuing to love others when they are spiteful or mean to me, often feels wrong. But the reality is, it is a CUE to release the Grace God gave me when Christ died in my place. That choice changes our view of what is really going on. Bye.👋

P 2486 It’s the everyday things that drive you crazy …

/ DVH

… and then, bingo bongo – there went your happy day! There is a grevillea right outside our front door, and I sit near that door, typing this blog. A noisy miner bird also sits there on said grevillea, and chirps it’s little heart out, day after day after day … endlessly! It is always there – right when I am typing, and it is not there – when I am not! These birds are permanent, persistent, utterly piercing, bossy boot-type natives, and they are not easily dissuaded from harassing one of my favourite native birds — the lorikeet. 

The local lorikeets also love our grevillea. This means we often have a bird-sponsored turf war in our front yard. It’s like ‘ringside-with-the-wrestlers’ only with birds!! Now, you might perhaps think that a dear little bird singing sweetly to me daily is a cheery thing. It’s NOT! Actually I’m pretty sure this bird would be in with a chance to play the didgeridoo – it can chirp and breathe all at the same time! On and on and on and on, for hours!!  I wish I had a great BIG gun! I’d shoot the blasted noisy miner stone dead. OK, OK – that’s a wish thought! Please don’t climb on your ecologically-sound, avian high-horse!  Despite my wishing this bird would drop dead … Hmmm… no.

My dear trusty, loving, helpful husband … who totally understands how strident and interrupting to my thought processes this bird’s chirp is … … mainly because it annoys the living daylights out of him too (!!!) … My dear Hubby stealth-walks outside. He sidles along the edge of the door and he sneaks up on the little darling and shoots at it with a … (wait for it) …water pistol! 🐦🔫!!  BTW, in case you are concerned we are hurting it, it quite easily chirps it’s head off in the rain undeterred, so it does not, ap-par-ently (!) dissolve in water … More’s the pity.

Instead it simply flies away to return to annoy me yet another day. It may seem like a dumb bird, but once it has been squirted, boy can it learn! The minute hubby’s hand hits that front door again, all pistoled up and ready to fire away… off it flies …And then it comes back quite quickly when he goes back inside, to recommence it’s torment. Yaaay. Meanwhile, it also successfully chases away my real-true-fav-friend, the lorikeet. Yes, I know the aptly named noisy-(I’ll-say)-miner, is not as pretty as the lorikeet. It’s call is definitely right in there with whiny little kids who want an icecream 🍦 …  but I totally refuse to feel sorry for it – ordinary-looking or not. Instead, I quite often feel provoked into bird-icidal thoughts about it!

My not-friend, the miner bird, reminds me of how easy it is to lose one’s cool. Everything is fine and dandy and suddenly … you are on your last nerve ready to thump the next human being who innocently says ...”Good morning!” cheerfully. Hmmm…. apparently today is going to be …complain about the wild life day … and once commenced on my current totally irritated course I cannot escape.🏃 Run for your life!

Perhaps I have been slightly brain-damaged by a rampant noisy miner. So now, let’s move on to my next least-fav indigenous thing, possums. One paid a visit to us last night, plus the night before. It’s a sociable little furry thing …it comes over to practise it’s high jumps for the Olympics at 2.00am. Apparently it is possum hoe-down season again. Wretched little monsters. They are either ON your roof or IN it – either way … grrrrr!. Way over in New Zealand, our southern cousins have more sense than we do – they kill possums. THEY actually think they are a pest. In Australia, of course WE must not harm the little darlings. But our friends, across the ditch, the New Zealanders, are very clever, sensible people. They make wool and knit socks out of their fur. (True story!) 

Back to my critter rant … presently, in our semi-tropic summer, we currently have millions of mosquitos the size of a small dog and they are more aggressive than a black-mamba. My dear hubby has to take our normal-sized dog outside regularly, to do what a dog’s gotta do. To get this mission accomplished, he has to wear even more clothes over his normal clothing – it IS over 30o here! Then he sprays himself with 3 different repellants and puts on his trusty mosquito repellant wrist band … and yet!! …don’t’cha know … Those nasty legalistic little blighters still manage to bite him…Somewhere the repellant wasn’t! 

While we are briefly on about things that irritate the living daylights out of me – I also hate, loathe and despise spell-check … it does not like my informal way of writing, so it yells at me, and bullies me all the time. I’ve yet to figure out a way to yell back at it … but I’m working on it! Now, in case you haven’t already guessed, I thought I might write about a blog about whiny irritations today, because, in the anti-climatical aftermath of Christmas, I’ve very cleverly found some. Actually, I found them when I wasn’t even looking! Meanwhile that stupid bird is ba-ack doing it’s thing.

Have you ever noticed that once you are irritated it is hard to escape from it? Me too! It’s kind of like a whirlpool, and you go round and round and round – gathering in even more stuff … while you are going under. Aha! I think I’ve worked out where I was amiss … I let sin reign. So now, I will depart, before I get totally sucked under and ruin this entire day. I pray you are more successful than I am in fighting off irritations. I just gotta go and find that water-pistol … bye ..👋🏻

Romans 2:12 ESV “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to MAKE YOU obey its passions.” … Now there’s good advice. 😂

P 2485 God’s word is made visible through us.

/ DVH

Ephesians 3:16-20: “I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen! 🙌 Please note: the Apostle Paul just prayed for US!

This ability to comprehend and obey God, that Paul is speaking about in Ephesians, makes God’s word visible.  However, a piece of paper in a book only has one dimension. When what God said is on a page in the bible, it is simply a collection of words on a piece of paper! BUT, because HE SAID IT, when we OBEY what it says, because we love Him and others:  we give it height, depth, width, and length. It is no longer a collection of words on a page – we bring it to life! Those Words become living words not just a theory on a page. It then becomes ‘seeable or visible” to us and anyone else. “The word of God is living …” Hebrews 4:12a. We bring it to life when we love others and obey what He said.

That’s what the bible is about, it is not just about stories, or nice sayings, it comes alive when we act. It is to be experienced as the Lord leads us, and that means other people can see and experience it, too. What we have been given by God through Christ’s sacrifice, is not theory, it is highly practical – other people experience the love of God and see Him loving them! When Jesus walked this earth as a man, (Who was just like us), the Kingdom of God exploded all around Him. He took what God said and acted on it. (John 5:19)

God’s Word became real: it fed people, it diagnosed and healed what was wrong with them, it healed physical illnesses for others, it even challenged those who were stuck focussing on those pieces of PAPER, trying to analyse their meaning. Plus it got rid of evil just by the Lord turning up! The kingdom of God is more than a piece of paper in a largish book with great promises written on it – it comes alive when God Himself flows out from INSIDE YOU AND I. We are carriers of His Loving Presence. That’s why His kind of LOVE is important! Ya might want to pause and think on that! 🧐

I love this scripture: Philippians 2:13: “[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energising and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.”  We can’t do anything lasting without Him, but when Christians act on what He said in the book, His love is released and the world around us transformed.

We need to stop living the same-old, same-old life we had before we met Him, and simply take the instructions we read in His book seriously. Start by forgiving everyone you can think of … teachers, friends, work mates, spouse/s, children. Forgiveness is powerful. Ask Him and them to forgive you for holding grudges etc. as well. Christ’s death proves to all of us that forgiveness is powerful. We are all saved from hell because of what He did as a pure, loving, blameless, obedient human being. Then after we forgive others, we need to move on into doing good to those who despitefully use you. That just means you ask the Holy Spirit for ways to bless the people you used to curse, or try to avoid!

God always has a better plan than we do. It’s that simple. When horrible things happen, tell Him that you know that even this … awful thing … can be transformed by His Grace for good. That’s the hope we carry, we know that trouble is not fruitless, it bears astonishing fruit when we water it with love, faith and hope. We can transform evil into good by holding fast to our belief system, if we hold on tight to Jesus and refuse to give up our hope …”And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”Romans 8:28. His purpose is for us to obey Him and love others. Our inner attitude matters – it needs to be transformed by obedience and His Grace.

It never even occurred to Jesus that whatever He was doing wouldn’t work. Jesus Christ had incredible faith in His Father’s goodness and He remained true to His Father’s Words. That’s why we need to pay attention to, and use God’s book to renew our minds, so we can always have, and give away, a heavenly perspective! What we give away to others, using our faith – is not a theory – it is life-changing. The words on the page become living realities when we use our faith.

Our God is way more than just approximately 1500 pages full of nice sayings and interesting stories. We have the privilege of bringing His multi-dimensional glory into this ordinary realm, by acting on what it says, for ourselves and others. We make His Word visible to everyone around us by letting that Word transform us. Bye. 👋🏻

“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT

P 2480 Empty cups!

/ DVH

We have all been born, broken. There was sin in this world before we arrived here, and it will still be here … when we die. Someone once said that we come into this world with our little cups that need love, empty. Yet we all need love – some of us need it so badly we steal it!  The sad fact is we often wander around with our little empty cups from person to person, looking for someone that gets us … someone who sees us. Someone who will understand us, especially in our best or worst moments.

We may be fortunate to find a selfless person who gives freely, but for every selfless person there will be many many others who drain the cup of our hope and provision. So we need spiritual help and provision. Jesus never felt the lack of His Father’s Love, until He was in Gethsemane and He went on to die on that cross. That’s where He suffered that awful loneliness for us — if we need understanding we need to remind ourselves that the Lord Jesus understands. He entered into the human condition. We were designed to LIVE in the Presence of God. Go back to Eden, look at Moses, or Abraham … human beings were not designed to live without God and still flourish. Life batters everyone.

Sadly, many of the people around us that we choose to fill that cup, either leave, or they damage us further. Sometimes we even get married, with that huge thirsty need in the back of our emotions. We badly want to be fixed, but …. often so does the other person!!  And they too, see US as their answer. Human beings have a deep need to be loved … and those other people cannot fix you or I, because they have empty cups too. The ability to love others freely without limits, even the vile and the profane, is not found in people… that ability is only found in God Himself. We need His love to fill us and overflow in us and through us, then we will be giving away from abundance. If someone hurts us, most of the time they are not doing it for spite … it may well be that they are also hurting. I know this is trite – hurt people hurt people. But when we actively apply the truth into our lives it will set us free.

I believe the answer to filling this cup to overflowing is found in the 23rd Psalm. He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. Even at our lowest moments that cup is there to be drunk, using our faith. Don’t search your feelings, simply remember God’s realm operates through faith. Sit with Him, discern your need for love in the middle of the chaos, and ask for Him to overflow in you. When we are tormented by the pain of lovelessness, loneliness and emptiness we also need to ask to be able to discern His cup, which is always available. We must take our eyes off the problem and fix them on Jesus.“He is the Author and Finisher of our faith …” Hebrews 12:2. Faith is always the source of provision. 

Other people cannot fill that void. Only Jesus can. He 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].” Human beings were designed to be loved and accepted for who they are and Jesus is the only Person I ever met Who does that!  We simply need to go directly to the source. Jesus did. He got alone with His Father in the midst of a busy schedule. We must stop badgering God for answers, answers are a temporary patch. Tomorrow you will need more! Just go and sit and be with Him. He is LOVE, and all the acceptance we will ever need.

Jesus  also said:“I am the way the truth and the life …” Did you get that? Our new life is in Him now – He is the way into that new life and He always speaks the truth. He is more alive than anyone else that has ever been on this planet! He has that vibrant life in HIMSELF – He paid an enormous price to get it, and He gives us His life for free. Our faith is the key to unlocking the door to love’s provision. Only our Heavenly Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit can love human beings the way they need to be loved. Why? Because the Trinity are not needy. They have Each Other. Love is the language that flourishes between Them and They all love to share.

Just to remind you that He is our help with the empty cup pain that no-one else but He can fill: “… my cup overflows …”(Psalm 23:5) Remember this cup is to be found in the presence of our enemies … We need to take our focus off our feelings of emptiness, or the lack we feel, or even the people tormenting us—and focus on the overflowing cup …“The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup … “Psalm 16:5. We are the people who never have to live this life with an empty cup – we have a Saviour. 🙌

P 2466 Get soaked, and stay soaking wet!

/ DVH

“Now may God, the fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in Him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with His super-abundance until you RADIATE with hope!” Romans 15:13. Do you know how you get drenched by a fountain? You stand under it. Not just stand beside it playing with the water — you jump on in and enjoy it!

When things are difficult, no matter how awful they seem to be, we need to continue to choose to trust, and look for God’s unfailing goodness and love, even as we read the bible. More than anything else, we all need to know how much we are loved. Plus we can always ask the Holy Spirit for His help and encouragement. He is incredibly generous. He loves to be with people who want to be with Him. The Holy Spirit is God’s fountain of love here on earth. He needs to be cherished, appreciated and sought after.

This life is never going to make seeking God a convenient thing to do. Unexpected bad things happen all the time and they are a huge distraction. The main thing needs to be the main thing in our lives. Jesus loves mankind so deeply – that is the main thing! He is not just an add-on so we can have eternity afterwards! This life now is not about making money, or finding a mate, or earning a living, or having a job or house. As we follow the Lord the things we need will be added unto us. This life is about learning to love others, and spreading the acceptance and love we have been given, around. We have the love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts.

Humanity is slowly but surely stepping away from engaging in caring human interaction – we’ve reduced most things to sex. We’ve even got fancy, or sad-sounding names for the way we behave. It seems our enemy has taken our focus off enjoying the Lord, and walking with Him, and onto excuses about why we are not perfect. There are doctors with more degrees than a thermometer telling us we are OK when we behave badly, because sadly we can’t help the way we think or react to things … because we have this or that complaint. Or our past or parents did stuff to us that messed us up… Instead let’s call sin, sin – and forgive it and repent, then personally leave it behind us. Jesus died to make us perfect, we don’t need psychological  excuses for being broken! Sin will break anyone.

Did you ever once hear Jesus say to others that this or that person needed inner healing? Did He tell the Romans or the religious leaders that they were narcissists? Did He ever talk about sadness as being normal? No! He provided what people around Him needed when He demonstrated the love of God through what He said and did. That’s our mandate too. He knew His purpose and He did what He came here for. You and I are here for a purpose, to spread His love around to His needy hungry children around us, who don’t know how much He loves them.

We must learn to trust in God’s never-ending, always-present glorious and deeply engaged LOVE. He loves us and that love is a never-ending fountain. He hasn’t gone away just because some bad thing or other has happened in our lives …His love is powerful, and Jesus Christ Himself, is proof of how much God loves us. We all have a calling – even if we are rich, or poor, or fat, or thin, or clever, or not clever, or talented or not talented … our calling is to be His love to other people. Step up into the higher calling. Jesus is there. His love in us and for us is that fountain.

All of the Lord’s disciples had horrible lives in the natural. They suffered persecution for righteousness sake. Dreadful things happened to them. But their strength did not come from their circumstances. They held their hope in Who He is and what He did – fast. “Our help is in the name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 124:8. These brave souls lived this life as dead men and women walking. They didn’t have any agenda except to see His kingdom come. Almighty God was not just an alternate source of help … He was their ONLY source of help. That’s what faith is … faith does not have one foot in this world and its resources;  faith stands firmly, joyfully under the fountain of His love knowing that He is for us no matter what is going on around us. 

Christians have become apathetic and indifferent to the very things that are meant to sustain us. We think we don’t have this stuff because we don’tfeel it. But His love will sustain us. At the same time we are minimising the amount of heavenly water supply we have available. We do that to ourselves by withdrawing from Him… He will never withdraw from us. Jesus said, ‘love God FIRST, with all your hearts and souls, minds and strength.’ That’s how we stand under His fountain. Living this way is not just for a few people  who have special spiritual abilities. It’s for all of us, right here right now. Splash others who don’t know Him, with that living water from the fountain of life. 💦 👋🏻 

P 2461 The bible is often contradictory.

/ DVH

Much of what His book says, is contradictory, or even contrary to our own instincts. Things like … Gain your life by losing it. Love people who hate you. Seek things that you can’t see or feel, and you’ll get what you need. A-n-d for one guy… get rid of nearly all your army and go fight someone else’s much much bigger army with lights and trumpets!…Or you could become whale chum as a taxi service  I mean … really!!! Moses once talked to a shrub and it changed his known world! Here’s the last one that seems odd …serve to lead.

The bible says: “What happiness comes to you when you feel your spiritual poverty! For yours is the realm of heaven’s kingdom.” Matthew 5:3 TPT. See? This guy thinks being spiritually poor is the best thing ever. Either his brain fell out or he is onto something. I think he’s onto something. God’s WAYS are always about RISK and they include our freely-made choices. Nothing about following Jesus will be easy — we will all have to die-to-self to carry those things out.

For a long time, Christianity has been about been acquiring of information. I’m going to start out by saying… I think bible school is great because knowing the bible well is the best tool we can ever have. I urge you to do it – we cannot fight the enemy without faith, and weapons. And the weapons in His book are not carnal they are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds! Actually, I think the bible will save your life if you use it the way it was designed to be used! BUT, the real point is… it was written to show us that without God — man can’t do anything. Yeah, well, that kind of cramps our super-spiritual super-star style. (Try saying that 10 times quickly.)

Hubby read me this bible verse from the Passion Translation, yesterday – “It felt like we had a death sentence written upon our hearts, and we still feel it to this day. It has taught us to lose all faith in ourselves and to place all of our trust in the God Who raises the dead.” 2 Corinthians 1:9 TPT. That kind of stuff can seem a bit loopy to someone who has studied and worked very hard to realise their full potential. However, this verse suggests that living life according to what human beings know and learn, can be a waste of time. But it seems to me that experience has taught this man something. 

Personally, some of the best stuff I’ve ever learnt has come from experience. Like Paul, I have also despaired of life a number of times. I’ve also wondered if I was really a Christian so many times I can’t count them! The Christian life is not for the faint-hearted- thank God it doesn’t rely on our faith, it relies on Him. Jesus once had a brilliant conversation with a man who knew all the right answers. We probably would have made him into a pastor or a deacon, but that man walked away from following the Lord!

Continually read this book for yourself. I advise each one of us to stop looking for human heroes to follow, or pattern yourself on … and instead …look for people just like you. People who didn’t cope and made mistakes. Some of those mistakes were so huge we are still dealing with the results today. Yet Almighty God had a plan for each of their lives. The thing is — the REAL hero of God’s book is … wait for it … GOD. Funny thing that. Who’d have thunk it?

I have been ill for most of my life and that means that I have had to continually reinvent the way I live with His help. Nearly dying numerous times will do that to you. I’ve learnt that His way not only works – it will blow your mind! His way is difficult, challenging and … life-changing.

I consider myself totally blessed because everything that has happened to me so far has led me to the place where I KNOW I literally can’t do a thing without Him! That’s not just a pretty saying to me, my life depends on it. Yet I have no idea what the Lord is going to do next! Life is one big surprise filled to the brim with more challenges than I can count. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord will deliver them out of them all.”  I can say Amen to that!!

“YOUR mission, should you choose to accept it “ 😂 … will totally blow your mind. Our own human resources are limited, but HIS, are limitless. And He has made His limitless resources available to us! Each one of us will have to rely upon Him in ways we have never ever even dreamed about. My advice is to stop trying to get everything right and start following His instructions in the book. Start with the Be-attitudes and work from there. Paul, Peter, and John also have heaps of great instructions… not to mention my good friend James! 

The bible is filled with people who obeyed, and they got it wrong and … God rescued them.  It is a contradictory book – filled with things that should never work … but they do … Remember, Almighty God planned stuff in advance for each one of us to do – if we don’t do it, then it won’t get done. 👋🏻

P 2446 Jump into joy by enjoying our God!

/ DVH

“Let joy be your continual feast. Make your life a prayer. And in the midst of everything be always giving thanks, for this is God’s perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus.”1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 TPT. You know, sometimes we can get so busy trying to get this thing called Christianity right — that we forget all the blessings and benefits of belonging to Jesus Christ! We are a blessed people. Our God loves us by choice. Our joy and thanksgiving needs to stay on that fact, rather than anchored in the things of this earth that can be stolen away – by inflation and circumstances.

It says in Psalm 103:2  “Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things He does for me!” Incredibly, Father God has done so much for His people to win our hearts and love, and yet we can “spit the dummy” so to speak because He hasn’t answered this or that prayer we deem important! Instead we allow our emotions to rule and keep score on what gets answered and what doesn’t. Whatever we focus on gets bigger. Let’s deal with our souls instead! “Why are you cast down O my soul … hope thou in God!“

Human beings can be so insular that we cannot see the beauty of the ordinary things that are with us every single day. Instead we wander up side-alleys of discontent and despair because we have become fixated on one aspect of our lives. Let. It. Go! Our God never sleeps or slumbers – He’s got whatever it is we need in His hands, let it go and start deliberately counting His benefits. Shifting our focus changes our responses and promotes enjoyment of His grace.

Psalm 16:11, David states: “You make known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your Presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.”  David knew all about enjoying God, and how to appreciate Him. Right now, I just want to point out that King David didn’t exactly live a happy happy joy-filled life! Before he became king, his earthly father forgot all about him! Then after David is anointed by Samuel, he was sent right back out to take care of the sheep … again. No celebration there!! 😳

The reigning king, Saul, got jealous of him and repeatedly tried to kill him. And then David lived life on the run from this man for 25 years. He is not permitted to build God’s temple, because he is a warrior. Two of his kids died, one in infancy and the other who grew to be a man, and he did not share God as his priority, like his father did. Ambition killed Absalom. Yet King David wrote some of the most beautiful words of praise and worship in the bible. He enjoyed God … even when he was running for his life! (Read the Psalms.)

We need to stop wasting our energy on petty things and open our eyes to all we have. Then we can let God change us from the inside out!  Here’s some joy-filled news – “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” You and I can’t buy that kind of favour! Joy comes when we know our place in God’s plans for our lives. Joy overcomes us when we can see that we have changed… even if we have no idea how it happened or why! Joy floods us when we realise that we know that we know … we are loved by Him. Warts and all! 

Joy and contentment go together in my mind. Paul says:“I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation …” I think His secret for that statement is in Genesis: “In the beginningGOD…” In other words … God was here before I came and He will still be here after I am gone! He can handle whatever comes at me!! We must throw away our desire to have a so-called perfect life, and simply follow and obey Jesus. There is no such thing as a perfect life. It is an illusion. Following Jesus every day. .. into: “joy unspeakable and full of glory!”

As we follow the bible we start to clearly see Jesus… His way of thinking, His priorities, His love for other people … That stuff begins to eclipse everything else that rumbles around us and tries to wrangle with our hearts. Enjoying God means I look for the best in each day as it unfolds before me. I’m actively looking for His hand in my life. 

Hubby and I have found ourselves recently laughing like loons for no real reason. And just like the scripture says: “The joy of the Lord has become our strength.” I think the Lord is helping us to enjoy Him in this life even though moment by moment it can be fraught with difficulties. It’s been a tough year. I wonder what He has for you? “Ask and you shall receive …” OR … Maybe we have not because we ask not because we are asking to support our own passions! Bye. 😂

P 2443 Stand on His love for you.

/ DVH

“And I pray that He (the Holy Spirit) would unveil within you the unlimited riches of His glory and favour until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His divine might and explosive power. Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of His love will become the very source and root of your life. Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is His love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!” Ephesians 3:16-19 TPT

This scripture has so much in it, it just blows my mind whenever I read it. Today I want to think about the word continually, as in on purpose (!) … reminding ourselves of the ever-present presence of God’s loving favour in and on our lives. Oh how He loves us! And His love is an utterly committed love. The price He paid to buy us back from hell and damnation is beyond our understanding, far more than we could ever ask or think.  You know, my opinion of my performance and who I think I am, does not matter to Him. Neither does yours. His opinion is the one that matters.

You may like me, you might not. The main thing I have to wrap my heart around is that Father God utterly loves me. In order to walk with the Holy Spirit, Who is the revealer of these great truths, I will need a firm foundation to stand on. Jesus died for my sins, once and forever, to make all this possible, is that foundation. Now we have to let that love sink down into our hearts so we become so completely saturated by it and there is no room for insecurity. Otherwise if my life does not go well, I might end up blaming Him, or other people … like you, or my family, my circumstances etc. And then the ground I am standing on becomes shaky. Our houses (lives) are only as good as their foundations!

We cannot start out with anyone else’s performance but HIS. What Jesus did was perfect. Anything else is this world’s measuring stick. Christ is now the perfect illustration of what mankind can look like. We can’t afford skip, or dismiss lightly this truth about how much God loves us. As soon as we dismiss it, or water it down with provisos, we miss the  magnitude of how wide, how deep, how all encompassing and powerful God’s love is! We dare not build on the wrong foundation, because His demonstrated Love is the only foundation that is eternally stable.

Many human beings don’t value love, except as a feeling —because this world’s idea of love is fickle, selfish and unpredictable. Humanity can be so unfaithful that our Father’s eternal faithfulness hardly registers in our hearts and lives. But it must. Otherwise we are moved around by circumstances and the winds of change too easily. We cannot use OUR measuring sticks to put a value on God’s love. It is far too easy, in these times we live in, to think that real love means permissiveness. 

Self-sacrificing, altruistic love wants only the very best for the one it loves. Father God’s incredible vibrant love has provided all of us with the means to be transformed. And all we need to do is to live for Him the way Christ lived for us. We have all the needed illustration and demonstration of that, in the book! Comprehending that sort of ongoing loving grace gives us a firm footing, as we walk through a weak wobbly world with no stable footholds.

I have learnt, from experience, that WE WILL GIVE OUT TO OTHERS WHAT WE STORE UP! If we store up our own mistakes, our wrong attitudes, our own idea of what love looks like … OR … spend our lives concentrating on someone else’s sins, their mistakes, and their wrong attitudes, we are no longer standing firmly on LOVE. The Holy Spirit was sent here to teach us to how to walk, talk, sit, and stand totally saturated with God’s love. He’s an expert. Re-read today’s scripture it entertains no doubts. 

We must mature enough to understand that real LOVE corrects, it shapes, it guides, it teaches, and … it helps us. Love always fosters connection. Father God’s love is with us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not leave us alone to muddle along without Him – He sent back the Holy Spirit to help, teach, guide, correct, counsel, and comfort us into His Way of Love. We must let the love of God live in us, and make us so rich in love we can easily give it away!  We need to learn to stand on these things, gratefully. 🕊❤️‍🔥 

P 2439 We are His children of the light!

/ DVH

“Once your life was full of sin’s darkness, but now you have the very light of our Lord shining through you because of your union with Him. Your mission is to live as children flooded with His revelation-light! And the supernatural fruits of His light will be seen in you—goodness, righteousness, and truth. Then you will learn to choose what is beautiful to our Lord.” Ephesians 5:8-10 TPT.

When I read this today, my first thought was this – we are His happy shiny people!  Everywhere we go we take His light with us … forget about long-life batteries … we have a source of light within us, that will last into infinity… and beyond!! Imagine that. This world has no comprehension of the treasure we have inside us. And ps … that’s very likely our own fault!  Moving on … because I don’t want to be a down-a-later… all the time!

What does it mean to be children of the light? Hmmm… I think it means, no matter what the problem is, no matter how hard things seem, we will always have an answer … because we know the Answer personally! He lives inside of us. Now some other people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet may not like His answer, but that ain’t our problem. We don’t even need to get together a bunch of people for us to shine, one of us and Jesus is a majority!  I’m pretty cheery about that thought too.

We have been re-designed to be optimistic people. No matter how big that problem is – our God is bigger. No glass half-empty here, we are totally overwhelmed and overjoyed to have His life-giving water inside us… Let.It.Out!  Because of this our catch cry toward others is: “How can we help you?” Jesus set that precedent in Mark 10:51-52: “What do you want Me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.” There ya go — another way to evangelise!

You know, without Him we can do nothing. How-ev-er!! That means WITH HIM 💥 watch out!! The Body of Christ has left this stuff to the experts for way too long. It’s time to get in the game folks. Here’s a red hot tip … you too, can be an expert on all things godly. Think on this – if I asked you about your fav movie, you could probably give me a pretty good summation of the plot and what you liked about it. Our interest in the bible is our thermometer, we just need to take our temperature – regularly.

Like Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”Studying the bible IS preparation, then doing what it says aids digestion. Your digestion of His book clears the grit and grime off the outside of your INNER light bulb. And just like moths and mosquitoes like the light – lost people who are sick of walking about in the dark bumping into awful stuff, love His light too!  His light through us is all the light this world needs.

Our God is so wonderful. He doesn’t expect us to memorise great chunks of His book– His word just needs to be a flowing river … because He is GOD … He can save people in seconds. Don’t believe me? Think about Jesus talking to the thief next to Him on the cross. That was not a comfortable conversation! Do you know how you get ready to witness etc? VOLUNTEER. “Lord I will talk to anyone You send my way today, but I am going to need Your help, as always.” Amen.

You and I, we have His marvellous light inside us. It could be as simple as saying to someone who asks you a question like: “How do you manage those difficult circumstances you are in?” I don’t even say I’m a Christian. I just say: “Without Jesus I can’t.” It’s always up to Him. The beginning, the middle and the end, I just grab hold of His thread of Love and then I follow the Leader. He knows where He is going. The Holy Spirit rides on our obedience … and it doesn’t even matter if you are scared to bits either, because the Holy Spirit LOVES this gig. You be you and let Him be Him. 

Finally, think on this – any light-bulb needs a power source. We have the power source that created this world, light bulbs and all! … inside us. It doesn’t matter how we happen to feel, faith doesn’t require feelings, it requires actions. It’s a ‘doing’ word! You and I can never ever be who we used to be, despite those awful pictures the other guy keeps throwing up in our minds… we’ve moved! Permanently. Out of the darkness into the light. 👋🏻

P 2436 Be humble, the Lord loves a humble heart.

/ DVH

“If you readily receive correction, you are walking on the path to life. But if you reject rebuke, you’re guaranteed to go astray.” Proverbs 10:17 TPT. The Lord gave me a key when I was a very young Christian and I’m still learning how to use it. He said this: “If you will hear Me for correction, you will hear Me for direction.” I can personally testify that that word is true. Allowing Him to correct us at any given time, opens eyes that are often blind to the owner’s faults … as well as new possibilities. Being ready to be wrong at any given time is not only a great source of humility … it is a source of amazing God-given strength.

It comes from understanding that we do not know everything. The bible has this great piece of advice in it: “Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; When he closes his lips, he is considered prudent.” Proverbs 17:28. Personally, I like my son’s translation of that, which is: “Even an idiot looks wise with his mouth shut!” 😂 James 3:13 says this: “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”  

Humility is rare in today’s world, and, as a result, the people of this age aren’t always wise – you simply have to read the papers to see that! When is the last time you saw a world leader say: “I was wrong, I’m sorry.” When is the last time YOU said it?  Meanwhile nobody enjoys being wrong…including me! But in this wonderful new world of God’s kingdom coming in our lives — we are rarely right— that’s because we are on a journey. Only God is good – remember? Humility always begins by putting Him first.

Many Christians bumble along, hiding from who they actually are, because they don’t want to change … they don’t think it is necessary. They discount their nasty attitudes behind closed doors, and think public politeness will fool God and others. Sadly I fall down that hole all the time. I was raised to have good manners, and they shoot me in the foot a lot. But true humility owns its faults and then seeks the Holy Spirit’s help to correct them. It loves reparation.

False humility criticises others where the perpetrator can’t be heard. You know good manners is about me looking good to you, humility is about caring how I look to God! Good manners can be hypocritical. We cannot be cleansed from known sin we will not own. Utter honesty and sincerity can be difficult to live by, but owning our faults, humbles us. Sadly we can successfully hide nasty traits from others by calling those traits nice names like — caring, constructive criticism, good manners, and sometimes we even misuse the prophetic…

Paul has that whole idea smashed… “Why not suffer wrong?” He says that in 1 Corinthians 6:7. He’s talking about Christians suing each other, but it is all the same difference! What He means is humbling yourself, and living honestly and truthfully is spiritually beneficial.  Peter says: “Humble yourself, under God’s mighty hand, that in due time He may exalt you.” 1 Peter 5:6. We need to come to the place where what God thinks and what He wants, is far more important to me than my pride, or what you think of me.

When we choose human wisdom we are moving away from the wisdom from above. James 3:17 tells us what this wisdom looks like: “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” It isn’t about who is right, and can prove it. Or who is wrong and hasn’t got a leg to stand on! What would GOD Himself have to say about our petty spiteful arguments? What are those things doing to our spiritual lives? 

My 96 year old mother has taught me these things by example. She forgives everyone, and speaks well of people, plus she absolutely respects Almighty God. She has always had the kind of attitude that says: “There is no point in holding a grudge, life is too short for grudges.” I have never heard her criticise anyone. My husband’s mother’s response to gossip or criticism is to stop speaking … full stop! She withdraws and won’t be drawn into the conversation. She respects Jesus more than people. It seems to me that senior generation of women has a lot to teach us!

I think humility starts in our hearts. We get it automatically as we understand we cannot possibly live this life the way Jesus did, without asking for His help… because there is too much of ME in the way. A repentant person is one who repairs things quickly, because their relationship with the Lord is far more important than outward appearances. Living this life dead to self is the very best way to follow Jesus – you get to humble yourself in front of others – all over the place! 👋🏻