Light

P 3201 Judgment belongs to God … only HE can be trusted with it.

/ DVH

I Corinthians 4:3-5: “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.”

To begin with I want to make the point that no matter how sweet anyone appears to be, none of us are perfect. When that statement becomes a reality in our lives, it goes a long way to stopping judgment. Especially if you manage to figure out that you can’t actually see, because you have this blooming great log in your own eye!

Judgment belongs to the Lord, because only He has the wisdom and love, together with the spirit of reconciliation, to see through the lies we even tell ourselves. Jesus loves the truth, and the Holy Spirit is in charge of conviction, not us. What He shares with us will bring clarity into hidden things about ourselves so we can deal with them, together. But we need to be so very careful about even the appearance of judging others, as we can easily misinterpret what we think we can see. The best thing to do when you discern something in somebody else is to pray for them.

Paul’s writings show us that he totally understood something that is essential for our own personal knowledge of God’s kingdom. I believe he understood the way our Father does things. Our Father doesn’t uncover our sins in front of others, instead He wants His generosity and kindness to fill us, and draw us to a place of sincere repentance, without any fear of reprisal or shame. When Paul received all those heavenly revelations, he didn’t take dictation. He was given Grace, from God, to understand and comprehend the Lords intentions toward man. 

This kind of revelation is so helpful – I urge you to ask for it. Once we truly comprehend that only God is good, and the devil is the bad guy – then clarification brings revelation. Being filled and remaining filled with the Holy Spirit means we can’t afford to hide anything from Him. However, the light of God in and on our lives holds no dangers for us. Jesus faced our Heavenly Judge for us and was punished in our place. No crime = no time!Let’s put aside collecting mental lists of do’s and don’ts. Then hopefully we will stop slinging them at each other!

This passage in 1 Corinthians presents us with a good reason to stop that kind of thinking and allow our minds to be changed by His Word. When it comes to judgment, only Jesus knows what is in that other person’s heart. If I am angry or afraid of someone, I can so easily be deceived by my own heart, and run on at the mouth. At the same time I can end up filling up my thoughts with junk … simply because I am convinced I know why someone did, what they did! … But I don’t know and I can’t. The Person Who truly knows what someone else thought or did, pardoned them, by doing what HE did.

I lived in an atmosphere in my childhood, that threatened me with physical and emotional violence when it came to my performance. So I learnt to be deceitful to protect myself. I am now old enough and I know I have been empowered by Him, so I can choose a different response! “I know Whom I believe, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him until that day.” 2 Timothy 1:12.

I could hold a grudge and harden my heart, but I will stop moving forward in God if I choose to do that. But He won’t reject me, because we have a covenant – an agreement signed in His own Son’s blood. Sometimes we can shoot ourselves in the foot, because we can’t possibly know what God is going to do next, so we pick up judgment to defend ourselves. The Lord is not like us! Hallelujah! Now, there’s a good thing to remember. Some responses to circumstances have become so ingrained in our psyche, we do things automatically. We need to deliberately retrain our responses, by allowing His Word to become a part of who we are now.

Judgment in the Christian world can be a fatal flaw. It means that we can no longer get to “know each other after the Spirit “  … because we are too busy trying to duck blows that may or may not come. We can quite easily forget our ministry of reconciliation, and use God’s Word to brutalise others. That sword is for our enemy so we can cut people free – it is not to slice up your neighbour!!  We can’t know what is in someone else’s heart, so acting in wisdom means we need to suspend judgment and extend GRACE. 

We can have confidence that we are already accepted, we simply need to be prepared to become vulnerable. That is a rude word to some people. They avoid vulnerability like the plague. Repentance isn’t a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength. It’s an honour system. Jesus honoured and pardoned us, so we honour what He did for us, by honouring and pardoning others and suspending any judgment. Sadly, our hearts can be deceitful. They can excuse me — and accuse you —- all-at-the-same-time! 

That’s why paying attention to what comes out of our mouths is the biggest clue to what is going on inside! Our speech, actions and attitudes need to be given our attention – especially the unguarded ones. The body of Christ can be a little like a slow leaky tyre, you want to fix it but you just can’t find the leak. This is a place where we lose touch with the Holy Spirit and HE is the ever-present Wind beneath our wings, let’s plug up them holes! Judgment belongs to the Lord — only HE can be trusted with it. Bye.👋

P 3185 A road map for your day.

/ DVH

“Let every activity of your lives and every word that comes from your lips be drenched with the beauty of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. And bring your constant praise to God the Father because of what Christ has done for you!” Colossians 3:17 TPT. “Walk in the wisdom of God as you live before the unbelievers, and make it your duty to make Him known. Let every word you speak be drenched with grace and tempered with truth and clarity. For then you will be prepared to give a respectful answer to anyone who asks about your faith.” Colossians 4:5-6 TPT.

After reading those two scriptures I felt a bit like a sheep! Drenching here and drenching there. Then I looked up the word ‘drenching’ and I found out that doing that to the sheep gets rid of internal parasites. Hmmm. Perhaps I need this drenching stuff, because it is beneficial to my new life in Christ. It is way too easy to pick up internal parasites. You just have to drive in peak traffic and all that internal stuff starts coming out of your mouth! For these two scriptures to have power in our lives we need to hone our focus, with the Holy Spirit’s help. I think about it like this– will what I am going to say help that person to feel loved? Love is my aim. 

Did you notice the conditions under which all of these lovely attitudes toward all kinds of other people transpires? Colossians 3 v17 is talking about those activities, plus our need to focus on the Lord Jesus and all He has done for us. And verses 5-6 of Chapter 4 is talking about walking in His wisdom, as well as letting the people around us know about Him … It also clearly mentions that we will need His grace to do it … I’ll say! 

I definitely need truck loads of grace, I ask for it all the time.

It is easy to see how conflict occurs – one person can have a different version of truth than someone else. This scenario will probably end up in collision. It means we need a common denominator, or we will end up arguing about our differences.Instead we need to find a place of agreement, so why don’t we agree with His VERSION of the truth. When we agree about our love for Jesus, that brings Him back into focus. It is not helpful to talk our different theologies or our behaviours. This why those two verses are good together – they show us where our focus needs to be.

OK. So HOW do we spread abroad the love of God into our family’s lives first of all? We do whatever we need to do, in a quiet way under His guidance – no matter what the job is, or how difficult or irrelevant it seems. Our lives belong to Him so we deliberately choose to follow the Holy Spirit!  We can get into a quandary when we try to live for us and for Jesus …all at the same time, because a divided heart won’t get us where we want to go. It seems to me that I need to be aware of every word that comes out of my mouth or I will end up circling the drain. Part of being daily transformed includes being careful what I say.

This life makes it blatantly obvious to me that I need a Saviour, and the Holy Spirit’s help. My own methods are broken. Praise God Jesus died to give me His methods so I am not powerless in the face of adversity! I can now, bless and praise God immediately for giving me a new nature simply. I just need to choose to live like He did, preferring others, and living aware of His Father’s Love for Him. Love is the oil that throws light into our everyday thoughts and actions.

Because I walk with Jesus, that means that the people closest to me will not get my worst behaviour! In fact, if I follow the Holy Spirit around in my own life and I can practise learning to process what I think, without even saying a word. His Grace flows more freely when we deliberately choose to take the lowest place. And the Lord Himself will guide me into activities that are His choice for me. And He will help me deal with the ones that bring up those pesky parasites we were talking about before.

We need to remember, that the scripture in Colossians 3 talks about letting. Letting means allowing! We allow the Holy Spirit to keep our focus on Jesus, and guide us into whatever He has for us to do today. Plus we allow Him to correct us as we go along. In reality, our focus has to stay on Him, because we can’t do a thing without Him! That’s when praise starts – when we become witnesses to what He is really doing. 

Our own little list of‘things I have to do’ will have to be surrendered to Him, simply because we are now letting Him guide us through each day. That’s what ‘dead to self’ means. I am no longer just a homemaker, or a mechanic, or a computer expert –now I am an ambassador for the King. That’s my title. That’s my Job! And it is by my own choice. That’s also when interruptions stop being a pest, and become His heaven-sent opportunities to change my responses. He can change me, or someone else – it doesn’t matter –because my focus in everything is on Him.

Now we are daily learning to rely upon Him and His Grace. I have a glorious Person Who is active, and helping me, and He knows exactly how to get me through the bumps of this life. I intentionally stand in His Grace and remember all this stuff that is going on around me, will never have the final say. Jesus does! However, if we choose to run with our own little lists … well, that’s when those pesky parasites come up, and they usually bring tanks and rockets with them! I need-to-be-drenched-with the Holy Spirit, continually, on purpose.

Who we are outside our house, depends on who we are inside our house. Part of overcoming daily difficulties is that we watch over our immediate focus, then it will become natural for our conversations to be about our faith in the One Who is helping us … minute by minute. That’s the road map from Colossians. Bye.👋

P 3132 Don’t let money blind you!

/ DVH

“Instead, stockpile heavenly treasures for yourselves that cannot be stolen and will never rust, decay, or lose their value. For your heart will always pursue what you esteem as your treasure. “The eyes of your spirit allow revelation-light to enter into your being. If your heart is unclouded, the light floods in! But if your eyes are focused on money, the light cannot penetrate and darkness takes its place. How profound will be the darkness within you if the light of truth cannot enter!“ Matthew 6:22-23 TPT. 

Well, that all sounds pretty serious to me. Nobody wants to be that blind! Yet money is an issue for all of us – except the billionaires! Just in case someone might think that this scripture’s severe response is just the Passion Translation – here’s another one from NIV …“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

This is my take on all of that:  we can put our money under our mattress, in a bank, or even in stocks and shares — nothing wrong with that – those things will give you interest. But they can also go belly-up and you could lose your investment. These words from Jesus are so appropriate. Investing in His kingdom produces eternal results. I love that word ‘stockpile.’When we give to the Lord, we are storing up blessings that can’t be pinched or eaten up by inflation.

And if you have ever lost your money because of adverse circumstances, then I think the word ‘thief’ is the first one that comes to mind! But when we put that money into the Lord’s work, we are putting it outside the reach of this world, into His kingdom, and at the same time we are releasing His kingdom to bless others. I like that. God’s bank contains multiple points or avenues for blessing, that this world can’t touch.

Meanwhile, who knew moths and rats and rust like to eat money? Not me! I do know rats and squirrels like to gnaw on wiring, now there’s another strange but true – and totally irrelevant fact! But the important bit is this …what we do with our money can have big ramifications on our spiritual lives. It can lock us in, and prevent us from letting in the very light that will transform us. But holding back is not good, you might even say it is like trying to see with your own hands over your eyes.

Revelation sometimes needs the right circumstances to flourish, and generosity is one of them. It takes faith to let God manage your money, and that faith opens our spiritual eyes to even more revelation about His loving kindness, goodness and mercy toward us, in other areas and arenas of our lives. It helps us focus on His kingdom, not this world.

This thought directly points to something Jesus said:“I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.” John 17:14-17. It is part of Jesus’ directive to be in this world not OF it, so what we do with our money matters.

As you can see Christianity is not meant to win popularity contests – instead it is a totally different lifestyle. A new way of thinking. Things like giving to the Lord’s servants, His pastors, missionaries, teachers, evangelists;  plus helping and caring for the poor – including widows and orphans. God counts all that as giving to Him. He has taken up the cause for the poor, and He wants us to take it up too.

When we do that with our hard-earned money we won’t lose it. The Lord promises to return it to us in many, many other ways. In our household we’ve found that money comes back toward us to help us in a time of need. It also ushers in revelation from His Word when we read it or need it. Giving in faith releases a deeper understanding of what Jesus wants from us and for us. It’s a kingdom activity.

Giving away money that we rely upon, means we are making a choice to focus on His kingdom, His priorities, and His Way of thinking. It is another way to learn how to walk by faith. I have a fun thing to share that we do  about this subject. Before hubby and I go to the shops, even just to walk about, we always pray: “Dear Lord, help us to walk away from anything we do not need, and to find the things we came here for, and not to waste any of YOUR money.” Amen.

Every single time we come home we find that either we have spent no money at all – or we only bought what we went there for! It’s hilarious. At the same time we end up having God-encounters with people. Talk about spending money being a distraction! Whether we have lots or none, money can take up way too much of our thoughts.

I want to urge everyone reading this today to take the Lord seriously when He talks about money. It doesn’t have to be a lot of money. I realise many people have very little available finances, but I cannot recommend sacrificial giving more highly, as a way to learn to walk by faith. Don’t let money blind you! Bye. 👋

P 3086 Followers.

/ DVH

“IF you want to be My disciple, follow Me and you will go where I am going. And if you truly follow Me as My disciple, the Father will shower His favour upon your life.”John 12:26 TPT. As the nice man said: we are followers of Christ, so where HE GOES — WE GO.  As we follow Him we get to be a part of whatever He does. The Lord loves to go into dark places, and talk to scary people. Light works best in the darkness. He likes to go to places that most Christians would probably like to stay out of – where the people who know they are sinners hang out.

Simon Peter once asked the Lord this question: “Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” And Peter did. After a few disasters, hiccups and missteps, the powerful Presence of the Holy Spirit fell on Peter and He preached one of the greatest sermons Jerusalem had ever heard. 3,000 people got saved, when this ordinary fisherman preached. He followed the Holy Spirit out of his hiding place and into the heart of the city.

Jesus took care of all our sins, but that doesn’t give us a free pass to do whatever we like with our lives. It was an exchange – His life for ours. Just in case we haven’t done the Math yet —that means our lives don’t belong to us anymore. We are so blessed, the Holy Spirit has given us the ability to follow Him, just like Peter and all the other disciples did!  Asking the Lord what we are here to do, is one of the most important questions we can ever ask. But Jesus didn’t concern Himself with their gifts or ministries, following Him was the first step into their new life.

Many sincere Christians pray: “Lord please show me what You want me to do for Your kingdom.” And when no answer comes, they figure that He doesn’t want them to go anywhere or do anything and they put down their personal calling, and sometimes … they settle for religion. Our personal calling is this: “FOLLOW ME!” Gifts and ministries follow that.

Here’s a huge revelation for today – obeying and following Jesus will lead each one of us into our calling… because part of that calling is to be transformed. Sadly many of us still aren’t ready for ‘the calling bit’ —we are too steeped in this world’s ways. Forget about the past, or the fact that you prayed and prayed for Aunt Minnie and she died anyway! I’m so sorry you suffered the loss of someone dear to you. But many sincere people have sadly gone under simply because they tried to lead – not follow Him. 

Be like Jesus, just LOVE PEOPLE and see where that leads you. Loving people opens so many doors! Christians are out there searching, wandering about, looking for miracles … if you wanna see a miracle … take a risk and be obedient! ”God  will not let you fall. Your guardian will not fall asleep.” Our guardian doesn’t sleep, because the Holy Spirit is always on.

The Word of God is a sword! Swords belong to warriors – not couch potatoes. It works the other way around – we take a risk, and speak or share, and God will back us up, and if He doesn’t, we get humbled! Bonus buy! You know, it is very windy at my house today, tomorrow it may not be windy at all – the WIND goes wherever He wants to – He’s always blowing somewhere. Find the wind and follow Him. Go into your prayer closet and stay there until you find Him.

Jesus did not die to make our lives easier…. read the book. Then ask the Holy Spirit questions while you are reading and do something about what it says.  Ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you are out of step with Him, and what He wants you to do about it.  It continues to totally astonish me when I realise what I have been tolerating in my life, because one day follows another and I am walking around half asleep, or telling myself it is normal to be mad at someone else. Try asking Him ‘Am I mad at anyone? “ Take a pen, you could be there a while!

Peter and Andrew moved away from what they knew how to do – which was toiling on the family fishing boat – and they immediately followed Him. Then Jesus set about showing them that what they had always done before with fish, they could now do with men and women. Here is the best question ever to ask the Holy Spirit … “Lord, where are YOU going?”  It is an oxymoron to call ourselves ‘followers of Jesus’ when we are not going anywhere. Jesus did what His Father told Him to do every single day. He got exhausted following the Father’s will. He had nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. Yet He treasured His relationship with His Heavenly Father above everything else, and obedience to the Father’s Will was His sole purpose. 

The Holy Spirit stayed WITH Him, IN Him, and UPON Him, because the Lord Jesus understood the word devotion, He knew that ministry means movement, engagement, interaction with others. Be a follower of Christ – He’s always doing something! Bye 👋

“As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us.” Hebrews 12:1 TPT.

P 3085 Dust? … Anyone?

/ DVH

“The first one, (Adam) made from dust, has a race of people just like him, who are also made from dust. The One sent from heaven has a race of heavenly people who are just like Him. Once we carried the likeness of the man of dust, but now let us carry the likeness of the Man of heaven.” 1 Corinthians 15:48-49 TPT. (Just keep reading I do have a point!)

I have had dust on the brain recently, what with spring cleaning, and finding cobwebs in my own life in unexpected places. Then hubby found this verse in his daily readings and we both had a good laugh. Laughter really is good for all of us, especially if we can laugh at ourselves. So we hit a joy bubble together and laughed way out beyond the reality of whatever was supposedly funny and … felt much better.

Apparently people much smarter than I am, suggest that if you are struggling with depression or anxiety, watching a marathon of movies that you know can make you laugh can help. They suggested the Three Stooges – which made me doubt the accuracy of their prescription … mainly because I don’t find the Three Stooges even remotely funny. I’m not into physical gags. I find people having pianos dropped on their heads hard to watch!

Back to today’s verse, because inheriting and sorting out other people’s old things has been part of my day for weary weeks now. My take on what these verses are saying goes like this: If you want Adam for an ancestor more dust awaits you. Ya might want to think about that! You could definitely need one of those dust-buster gizmos they sell for $59.99 on TV. On a good TV advertising day you can get two for the price of one. My question is — why not sell ONE for thirty bucks and be done with it? ps maybe you need two because the one you start with will kark it and then, the other one will come in handy? Or you can always give the extra one to your mother-in-law. I’m allowed to tell M-I-L jokes – I ARE one. Splendid! Now there’s Christmas sorted. I am so-oo-oo helpful!

Did you read the next line in that scripture? I underlined it so it would stand out! “The One sent from heaven has a race of heavenly people who are just like Him.”  I underlined that bit because it serves my point. I know HEAPS of people who aren’t like Him and sadly, they dusty-up the church in this world all over the place. At the same time they also obscure other people’s view of what Jesus actually looks like! I’ve been in a dust storm – you can’t see a thing! Dust, BTW, in the Lord’s hands can be useful stuff – Jesus once wrote in it and saved a woman’s life. 

Meanwhile our churches need some of those dust-busters because we’ve forgotten where we came from — we are dust-free simply because of what HE did. Before we met Jesus we used to be Pig-pen … see picture above. But now we have been bought back from that dirty dusty scenario to live in the freedom and light that surrounds our Saviour, Jesus. Our job is to carry around His likeness wherever we go. No more cloudy nasty dust for us – it only makes people allergic to us! But that kind of cleanliness and clarity won’t fall on us – we will have to choose it. 

I have included this next testimony purely because it was not me that suffered through it. My hubby was on the phone for an hour and a half yesterday to Centrelink  – listening to truly awful music … who picks that stuff and where do they live? I want to disconnect their CD player right away – I may even jump on it! … An-y-wa-y he rang Centrelink to tell them that they had paid my mother her pension, and as she is no longer with us, he wanted to ask them, how could we give back those extra $$s? 

When hubby finally did get to speak to someone – hours later! The guy at the other end of the phone was gobsmacked by our honesty. Apparently nobody wants to give money back anymore, they usually have to chase after a person if the extra cash wasn’t theirs in the first place.. No wonder the government has no spare money for poor people to buy bread and milk! And now comes the kingdom of God angle…

… this young man then explained the money was actually legally ours. Colour me astonished! I can’t be bothered here explaining why here, because it isn’t worth the space, but no bill collectors will be knock knock knocking on our door. Praise the Lord!

I wanted to use this illustration to show the difference between dusty people and heavenly people — it’s the way they live and act. Dusty people attract dirt, cobwebs, spiders, and other nasty creepy critters… BUT … the people who choose to live in His light, attract other people who are out there looking for the light! Let’s go! Let’s live this life we have been given, carrying the light of heaven wherever we go. 

How do we do that? Easy peasy. Live in His love. I am not good at it, yet …I freely admit that. But when I get done and dusted, (teehee) I get up again – that’s the secret! We will all get it wrong … and then we repent, and repair relationships, and deliberately go back to our precious Saviour and let Him further transform our lives with His redemptive love. We will end up thanking Him all over again for saving us from the never-ending dust piles of this life…as we choose to carry the light of His love and forgiveness out into this world. Bye. 👋

P 3075 Hope is for today!

/ DVH

“Rise up in splendour and be radiant, for your light has dawned, and Yahweh’s glory now streams from you! Look carefully! Darkness blankets the earth, and thick clouds covers the nations, but Yahweh arises upon you and the brightness of His glory appears over you! Nations will be attracted to your radiant light and kings to the sunrise-glory of your new day. Lift up your eyes higher! Look all around you and believe, for your sons are returning from far away and your daughters are being tenderly carried home. Watch as they all gather together, eager to come back to you!” Isaiah 60:1-4 TPT.

We cannot afford to postpone promises from the Lord into the future. The tense in the above passage from Isaiah is present tense. The future, in the natural, can look pretty bleak! However faith is a daily walk, so believing God and what He says, needs to become an every day occurrence, not just an emergency vehicle we jump into and try to use when bad stuff happens. This life is a giant disappointment for many people. They had hopes and dreams and then the ordinariness of every day life has ground them into the dust.  Postponing our HOPE into the future, is not a viable option. When our faith is low our ability to cope grinds to a halt. 

Jesus is the solution! You and I are hope carriers. Our hope is never exists in an absence of trouble. This is earth – bad things happen here – what matters is our response. Listen to what Jesus said:“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.]” John 16:33. AMP. Abiding means more than existing, it means thriving in the face of difficulties, by choice. It means holding onto hope when you have no earthly reason to do it, simply because of the truthfulness of the One Who said what He said.

In this world tribulation and distress and suffering fly at us from all angles. Meh! Nobody wants that stuff. Unfortunately we can’t just package up our lives as an overall time period, and set our faces into living for hope and peace in the sweet bye and bye! Of course there is peace in heaven – the Father, and Son are there. But down here in this life that we live in from day to day … sometimes from minute to minute … we need to learn to live out the things He asked us to do, despite the degree of difficulty it can take. Like Jesus said, we aren’t sweating blood, yet. That’s why the Holy Spirit is here with us, we need Him!  WE are not the Answer – He is! 

When conflict happens at my house I ask Him: “What do you want me to do with this Lord?” Half the time the Lord says this – far more politely than I would! “Shut up now.” I’m really bad at that, so I choose to leave the room and go and pray. There are also times when I waste my God-given time being a cry-baby and moaning my head off about how hard life is, and how difficult people are… blah blah blah. That’s when I feel the Lord waiting patiently for me to get over myself. Then He brings me round to viewing what I actually do already have, differently.

Now I have become so excited about the incredible way the Lord fixes things. It can often seem to take years, but boy! When He is done with what He is doing, it really is FINISHED. It is a total joy to watch Jesus’ work. He does stuff I would never even think of, because He knows the end from the beginning, so He knows how it will all go and work together for everyone’s good.

Have you ever have an argument with someone else inside your head? Me too. The thing is, in that made-up scenario, I will probably look wise, and patient – and the other person will most likely look like a cranky dummy! In my head, they will fall at my feet and beg my forgiveness. Let’s now quickly return to the real world! That’s the place where nothing turns out the way we try to choreograph it. We need the ultimate choreographer – Jesus Himself. 

I have seen glimpses of heaven revealed on earth, when I changed my response and began to use my faith and treat the person I was mad at, like I love them like crazy! That is a huge faith step – and for a while I kept falling off it!  Now I treat them like I would like to be treated. I give the other person the benefit of the doubt, and stopped defending myself, and instead, I have decided to believe for the best in them. It is much harder to fight with someone who comes over to your side and silently stands with you! You don’t have to agree with people to love them – that idea is devilish misinformation.

It is even better when we choose to stand on the Lord’s side and just love everyone else involved. What if withdrawing love from someone who seems to want to hurt us, is the devil’s itinerary? Jesus kept Judas in His followers until Judas chose to leave. He gave that man the opportunity to be with Hope personified, Peace like a river and never-ending Truth! We cannot look at, and stare at this life, and still see Jesus. Obviously, if someone else is abusive, we will need the Lord’s guidance, but … what if we let love reign instead of hate, antagonism and suspicion?

The bible tells us our light has already come, because Jesus Himself is our light. We don’t have to run about, looking for light or seeking after light like demented loons, because we choose to acknowledge that we already have the light IN US. Our hope is in His Word! Do we think Jesus will stand by what He said or not? We are talking about NOW, not one day – we won’t need that stuff in heaven – we need it now!

The Gospels and the Epistles clearly tell us that Christ IN us is the truth — this means that we can continually make a withdrawal on the deposit God Himself has put inside us. Now we have a choice to believe, every single time we are tempted to doubt. Jesus’ death and resurrection gave us the freedom to choose. Sin can’t make us its slave, because we already have the greater One inside.  

This is not some weird doctrine – it’s in the book! And I am not talking about always getting what I want, I am talking about us having what He wants us to have. Let’s live in His hope, today! Bye. 👋

P 3069 Our true purpose.

/ DVH

The more we live our lives focussed on our God-given purpose, the stronger that purpose becomes. Jesus Christ’s purpose is now our purpose. We inherited His calling. So now we are here to destroy the works of the evil one, and present God’s goodness to a world that already has a very bad definition of goodness!! However, if what we believe is an extra, or an add-on, then we will have very little grace to give away to others. Meanwhile whether the other people deserve what I am giving them or not, is Jesus’ territory not mine!

In really difficult circumstances, each one of us can experience a bankruptcy of faith, and end up doing the opposite of what we know to be true. Simply because the external and internal pressure can appear to get bigger than our knowledge of His Grace toward us. So we need to access His Love and Grace daily, because the bank of suck-it-up-buttercup, will fail! Sadly, when I try to deal with stuff in my own strength, that is often when I end up giving someone else an unwanted piece of my mind. Nastiness is such a waste of time, however, knowing our true purpose helps us to hone our spiritual attributes and instincts.

The Lord Jesus wants us to go to Him when we need His Grace, His Love, His Faith, because He has more than we will ever need! At the same time He also longs to lavish His love on us daily. Plus He wants us to grow up into His likeness – that’s our true purpose.

His help also includes whatever we need when we are dealing with other people. Other people can stretch our faith mercilessly, and when our faith is being stretched, it becomes harder to access His Grace and Love. That’s the growing edge. It helps me to remember that no matter what else is going on, Jesus’ love was always “on” so His Grace is essential in everything we do.

Grace helps me realise God doesn’t take sides – He is for all of us. I have no idea how He does that! Instead I go with the thought that He’s God, and so He can do the impossible! Sadly I often need a whole lot of roadwork to get there. However, He is so gracious, He will answer my prayer for help – even if it is half-hearted!

I don’t know what circumstances will present themselves today, unexpectedly… or when I will need His Grace to disarm fear, rejection, resentment etc. in myself. or from someone else. Grace is a great equaliser. However I don’t distribute His Grace like a powerful person would bestow a favour – instead, grace becomes a part of who I am, and giving it away is normal. I have learnt from experience, that if I tell Him I need it, He will always give it to me. I just need to  to ask Him! If I can control ME, by staying in the Grace of God, then I don’t need to control YOU!

My Faith in Who He is, and what He did for us all, is  an important foundation to anything that happens. My faith won’t be built up if I am not using it – because it needs to be stretched, and exercised – bit by bit. Meanwhile, five cents worth of faith probably won’t be all that useful when the sky is falling! I like to start my days by acknowledging that I need Him. He says He will supply everything I need, so that means I go right past my own efforts to look good, or feel justified, and focus on HIS CHARACTER instead.

That’s the only sure thing in the middle of chaos. Who He is. My own needs or irritations can easily cloud any issues, but fortunately, His Character is unchanging! If I choose to only use my faith like I am just renting it, or borrowing it – I will quite quickly find out I’ve sprung a leak! I must take ownership of my own faith! Faith is not faith when it is not owned, or used – instead it is more like wishful thinking. Faith needs to be visible and demonstrated. That demonstration pulls faith from the realm of the unknown, into this known world.

Our loving actions toward others can display our faith better than our words ever could. This also means I will choose to not put my focus on spiritual gifts, but rather I choose to focus on building Grace, Love, and Faith into my life as He leads me. Those other things will get ‘added unto me’ when I choose to concentrate on living a life of love, not self-centred defensiveness and anger. 

The need to change often appears in the form of a difficult problem, a destructive person, an impossible situation, or when things suddenly seem to be going upside down. Finding the Lord’s eternal attributes in those moments means I must deliberately decide to yield to Him. What I mean by that is this — I give up! I stop trying to find a solution, or an exit, or an excuse for my cranky attitude, and instead I wait for Him to lead me through the drama in front of me. Instant solutions are over-rated, sometimes all we learn from them is self-justification and presumption.   

Love is the kingdom we deliberately choose to live in. Grace is Jesus’ coin of that realm, and using our Faith to get those things, is the way to access whatever we need to fulfil His purpose in our lives. Bye. 👋

“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We are going public with this, as public as a city on a hill…” Matthew 5:14-16.

P 3061 Please don’t waste His light.

/ DVH

Ephesians 1:18:“ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people,..” What the heck does that mean? It means   that a spiritual person can see a glorious spiritual reality that a natural man cannot. We can place great value on the gifts of the Spirit, on the infilling of the Spirit, on receiving from the Spirit. We do this like those ‘experiences’ outweigh the reality of daily walking with Him! Walking with Him here on earth is our highest calling.

When you and I gave our lives to Christ, He came to live in us. The idea that Jesus would live in our hearts without the Holy Spirit makes no sense. Actually, God Himself as a revelatory, creative Being came to live inside us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. He knows the way ahead for each one of us. 

What we need to do is to acquaint ourselves with the ways of God, so that we treat Him like the priceless treasure He is! He’s right here, with each one of us every day. He wants to teach us, personally, as well as corporately. Whenever we live our lives choosing to do things according to our will – the Holy Spirit will quietly leave. But He does not leave us permanently – He strives with us to get our attention.

When I look at you through a slave’s eyes, what you do or don’t do, suddenly matters to me, because it affects me. When I am operating in the flesh, I can misunderstand your motivation, and become disgruntled or unhappy with you — if your behaviour is my yard-stick. But when Jesus is my yard-stick, I have been given the God-given grace to see YOU through His eyes. This means I can have mercy. I can give you grace, I can die for you daily, because I can see what He can see about you. 

Because I love Jesus, what He chooses to love, I love – now, your behaviour becomes inconsequential. And if we get snippy at each other we are reverting to the flesh. The flesh will not and cannot profit us, spiritually, These fleshly attitudes mean our God-given, Heaven designated Helper will leave, because I have chosen “my way” over “His way” and He will never take away our choices. He quietly waits for us to notice that He has left.

“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”Joshua 24:15. Day by day our choices matter. Christianity is not a part-time religion, it is an all or nothing one! Winning this war depends on our daily choices, our willingness to surrender everything that matters to us, to Him. When we live like that, we are demonstrating our faith that our God is a good God and He will not do us harm. Our eyes are enlightened to see beyond the here and now.

We dare not waste the daily light God sends us through His Word. I exhort you to take those things you read every day to heart, and act on them. They will be essential on the next step of your journey with Him. Bye. 👋

P 3050 Let’s say what He tells us to say.

/ DVH

Acts 8:34&35. “And the eunuch said to Philip, I beg of you, tell me about whom does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this portion of Scripture he announced to him the glad tidings.”  

My point today is this: when it comes to sharing with people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet — the bible is not one-size fits all. For a very long time we have presented people with John 3:16, or Revelation 3:20, and now those verses have become a tried and true method of presenting the gospel. They are great verses! But we have so many illustrations in the bible we can simply ask the Holy Spirit: “How would You like me to talk about Jesus to this person Lord?” 

Philip preached the gospel to a eunuch, and the man was saved on the spot because of the book of Isaiah. Stephen started with Abraham! Peter once preached something Joel had said. In another instance, multiple salvations started with a couple who decided that lying to the Holy Spirit was a good idea … and they both dropped dead. Anybody want an outreach that starts with people falling over DEAD?? This is an example of  what the fear of the Lord looks like. It starts with recognising that we are dealing with Almighty God, not the local council representative. Our Heavenly Father can’t be deceived.

Moving on … Jonah impacted the lives of a boat-load of sailors when he was walking in disobedience. A terrible storm ceased instantly as they threw him overboard, and that sight cut the sailors to the heart. The Apostles walked in signs and wonders which impacted the whole of Jerusalem. God knocked Paul off his horse and rendered him blind. I like that one … because the irony does not escape me! That man was already blind …he was continually persecuting the Church!

Who and what turns a human being around? The Holy Spirit does – HE’S THE WIND. It’s quite windy outside my house today. I can go outside and shout and scream fit to beat the band, but I cannot make the wind do anything. The wind goes where it wants to go. Jesus said this:“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”John 3:8. 

We need to learn, now more than ever, to listen to the precious Holy Spirit and trust Him and the Way He does things. Repentance and humility are always a help with that. We are blessed. All God-inspired ideas come from Him. But if we are not careful we can end up using them and reusing them like we are reading from a text book. THE HOLY SPIRIT NEVER RUNS OUT OF NEW WAYS TO GLORIFY GOD! 

Here’s a big thought from the book of Revelation … chapter 4, verse 8: ”…Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:“‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, Who was, and is, and is to come.”I asked the Holy Spirit about these creatures and this was His reply: “These beings need that many eyes to take the Almighty Father in. And every time they fly past the throne, they see something new, something glorious that they have never seen before, about Him, about Who He is.Their praise will never run out.”

Sin doesn’t exist in heaven, because sin would not be comfortable there. It’s a Holy Place. The Father and His love fill everything, because He IS everything! Heaven is filled with truth, light, love, peace, joy etc. Sinful people react to those things one of in two ways, probably because these options are polarising. They either reject it and Him, immediately – or they are awe-struck and move toward His light. 

There are many people who admire their own way of thinking, and they do not want to surrender to love. It isn’t fear that stops them. Instead, it is a lack of interest, hatred and many times it’s plain old rebellion.The message of the cross seems simplistic and foolish to some people. They find the things of God beneath their attention, they would rather cling to their sin than change their ways. But billions of others have simply been hurt by this life, or they have never known what real love looks like. Whatever the response is – we choose not to differentiate between people. Instead, we present what He tells us, how He tells us, to the people He sent us to.

Our job on this earth is to proclaim Him and fulfil His mission for our lives. We are to present the solution to sin and death – Jesus Christ. The bible is our tool, and now we use it to share Jesus with others. We are here to proclaim and demonstrate the good news.. But people won’t be able to choose if we do not follow the Holy Spirit’s leading and say whatever He tells us to say.

“For the Anointed One has sent me on a mission, not to see how many I could baptise, but to proclaim the good news. And I declare this message stripped of all philosophical arguments that empty the cross of its true power. For I trust in the all-sufficient cross of Christ alone.”1 Corinthians 1:17. Bye 👋

P 3044.

/ DVH

“Jesus said to all of His followers, “If you truly desire to be My disciple, you must disown your life completely, embrace My ‘cross’ as your own, and surrender to My ways. For if you choose self-sacrifice, giving up your lives for My glory, you will discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will lose what you try to keep.” Luke 9:23-24 TPT. 

These verses mean our lives have been whittled down to one important choice – will we live this life we have been given for Jesus’ sake? Or will we continue to choose to try fit Him in around the edges? I’ve noticed that dividing our time between what we want and what He wants, never ever works. What I think and want takes over.

In my opinion this particular choice needs to be presented to anyone who wants to give their life to Jesus – right at the beginning. After all, the Lord’s exchange rate goes right through the roof – we get His loving goodness for our sin! And this type of total surrender should be mentioned before anything else – we need to make it clear that people are giving their lives away.

We are not selling cars, holidays or houses – we are by His Grace, consistently revealing the One we know, to the people-who-have-not-met-Him-yet. I don’t much like the idea of total commitment coming later, as an after thought. In my mind, this needs to be the only thought. This is the choice! I live for me OR, I choose to live for Him. When I mess that up, He’s there helping me back onto my feet again. He’s Almighty God, He gets to make the rules, that means – I follow Him. 

Jesus loves to do great exploits and He wants to do them through all of us. That means we will talk to other people about what we’ve personally known about Him. He isn’t just helping the people on Youtube or the enthusiastic souls who make podcasts or write books. He will help all of us. But our faith levels need to increase. 

The Lord wants to do whatever He wants to do in your life … with you;  through you;  in you – to help others. What He does for us, every single day is so incredible — the sun came up where I live this morning! How about you?! Every single Christian has testimonies about how God’s glory has transformed their lives. But we can become so enamoured with this worlds’ razzmatazz and hype, we miss what He is doing! There is no need at all, for us to ever shift from Him being our central point of focus, because that’s the place we stand on.

We choose to view everything else that happens to us through what He has done. Even our calendars are founded on two abbreviated terms that take Jesus birth as a pivotal date. B.C. means before Christ. AD means Anno Domino(latin) — it means in the year of our Lord… We count time by Jesus’ birth!  Apparently some people have come up with a PC version, but I gave that the flick. If I listen to them I am a descendant of a short-sighted amoeba! Yeah right. Rhubarb.

What Jesus is saying here in Luke 9, is that none of our lives will reach their fullest meaning and potential outside of a totally committed life. God is good, we will always have a choice. So we can self-govern if we want to — but then our responses can be limited by our personal experiences, our intelligence, and opportunities. Deception floats about this world like pollen on a windy day – unseen and dangerous. But when Jesus is our catalyst – the sky is the limit. Let’s remember that this world has no knowledge of what real love looks like and everyone’s lack hurts other people. Love is NOT a feeling, it’s a choice.

The key to the passage in Luke is the word truly. “…If you truly desire to be My disciple…”  That means commitment is going to be needed, whether we feel like it or not. That stance takes bravery! Christianity is not a try now and buy later scheme, it is an all or nothing one. As a matter of fact, I think trying now and buying later is downright dangerous. Many people have decided to try Christianity – and in their view, when God did not met with their untaught irreligious expectations, they dismissed Him with a wave of their hand. They explain that they’ve bin there and dun that and they’d like to keep their options open!

Of course you can ‘try’ Jesus, but please be aware that you just put a giant target from His enemy, on your back. Everything that can oppose you will! Jesus cannot be an optional extra – He has to become the point of our lives. When we give our entire life to Jesus, He takes it. In return, we begin our journey into eternal life, right here, right now. We do that against a backdrop of imperfection, in ourselves and others. That’s why the light in us shines brightly – the darker it gets in this world, the brighter we will shine.

Eternity is not ‘pie in the sky when we die.’ It is perfectly expressed, here and now, by a life lived in faith, following Jesus wherever He takes us. We bring His kingdom down here, by the way we walk, talk, think and act. We can’t psyche ourselves into that kind of stuff – we need His help. And He is always with us, in the Person of the Holy Spirit. All means all. Jesus Christ gave His all, so now we give Him ours. Christianity is not a part-time thing – it is a life-time commitment. Selah. Bye 👋