Living hope

P 2781 Spiritual delays happen.

/ DVH

John 11:11-15: “After He (Jesus) had said this, He went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 

Some answers to prayer are delayed for reasons that only make sense much later! Today I want us to put ourselves into the position of Mary and Martha. Their beloved brother was dead after an nasty illness, and their faith in their Rabbi and friend had been rocked. Even though they sent for Jesus, He deliberately did not come when they thought they needed Him.

Disappointment grabbed hold of them. These two women had seen and experienced Who He was for themselves in the time they had known Him – they knew He was their deliverance – that’s why they sent for Him!  But the Lord had a bigger plan. Experience is only a good teacher when it reinforces that there is nothing Jesus cannot do. At those times we have to press through the hard bits, to conquer our fear and hopelessness.

Back to the two sisters. Their precious brother was now dead. Dead always looks hopeless. Let’s be real, shall we? 3 whole days had gone by – the man was not only dead, He was buried! They knew Jesus was from God and it seemed as if He had let them down … on top of that He was also a dear friend of theirs, they needed His comfort. Days of mourning had passed and still Jesus did not come. This happens to all of us.

Lazarus is a fantastic illustration of God’s ability to do the impossible. What happened to this man shows us something amazing. First of all, Lazarus resurrection proves that dead is not dead! You might want to stop and think about that. The people we love, who are no longer with us, are not dead, they are just not here anymore. I’m so sorry for your loss and suffering, but, even in the middle of our grief, we must take the time to remember that Christ is our living hope! Right here in this story, Jesus shows us that not only is He God, He has power over life and death. Weeks later, He would do the same thing Himself! 

The thing is that human beings often react to the circumstances. And if they are sudden or dire, then we throw up our hands and let our hope slip through our fingers. The time is upon us when we need to be the most hope-filled people on this planet! Yes, suffering is real and it is dreadful, and one way or another we will all meet the nasty side-effect of living and dying on planet earth – but we cannot afford to let go of our hope that God can work all things together for our good. Our hope is always in Him! It is not in the immediate circumstances, no matter how they seem. Grief is normal, and He’s still good. He’s holding tightly to you, in the middle of your circumstances.

Whenever we give things to Jesus, He takes them. Now, our faith is attached to His faithfulness, not to an answer. We have a book filled to the brim with how faithful our God is! In the daily grind, or especially in desperate moments, we need to learn that no matter what happens to us or around us, the Lord is still in charge. He has not forgotten us. Disappointment dogs our footsteps when we misplace our faith. Our faith is in Who He is, not in the answer to our prayers. Every single thing He does is good!  Never ever let go of your hope in His goodness.

“He is the Rock; His deeds are perfect. Everything He does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright He is!” Deuteronomy 32:4. We need to trust Him. And my best advice is  …we can practice this skill on those little ordinary things that irk us from day to day. Then if the roof falls in – we will have a platform of faith to stand upon … that is the evidence of those things we can’t see yet! His goodness, His provision in Christ is our sure foundation. When difficult things don’t resolve quickly we know we have an opportunity to stretch our faith in His goodness. We may need bigger faith some day down the road.

Fear of change can paralyse us, especially if we only look to the things we can see. Take Mary and Martha, after what they thought was the end, Jesus came…and He had a much bigger plan! His plan was not just to raise Lazarus from the dead … It was to give God glory! If we let our circumstances dictate how we regard our Heavenly Father, and His precious Son, and our wonderful Friend, the Holy Spirit – we run the risk of giving in to fear, disappointment and losing our hope. Hope is not meant to disappoint us, it is meant to lead us into greater things. Our hope is not in the answer to our prayers, it is in the goodness of God.

Spiritual delays happen. But because He is the greatest Father this world has ever seen … we can seize hold of His goodness in whatever circumstances are pressing against us and keep our hope alive. Bye. 👋

P 2462 Get rid of the stuff that is holding you back.

/ DVH

1 Peter 2:1 “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” First of all, when I find a “therefore” I want to know what it is there, for! That means I went back and read 1 Peter 1. Therefore means in the light of what was said before it. When I did that I found a pearl… without even trying. 1 Peter 1:3-4 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.”  

You know, a lot of people regard the opening and closing remarks of books in the bible as irrelevant, or advertising, or quite simply, polite contextual greetings. They are not. God can use the writer’s opening and closing remarks. This is a letter, but it is not like our letters. Every word in God’s book is profitable. 

Briefly, lets’ go back to our ‘living hope’ … our hope is not in what we think we believe. And that’s because people can believe the dumbest things!! Our actual firm hope is in the fact that Jesus Christ died and was raised from the dead and He now sits at the Father’s right hand.  HE is our hope. Who He is and what He did. Everything else is spiritual fluff! (And no, I am not splitting hairs – hope belongs to something concrete, it is not a theoretical thing.) 

The reason our hope sometimes dies very quickly is that we are hoping in the wrong direction. EG  … our hope is in answers to prayer! Hope cannot diminish when it is in the right place. I urge us all to put our hope in reality, not in wish thinking, or prayers, no matter how nicely we phrase them. What Jesus Christ did for us is proof that He can be trusted. So we actually put our hope in His trustworthiness and not in some pretty or earnest prayer! Jesus Christ really is Almighty God. He really came here, and He really loved humanity, and He really actually died and was raised from the dead! Hope in that. Base your hope on WHO He is and what He did. That will change the way you pray and help you to trust Him. BTW, this is why we pray in Jesus’ Name. Because HE is our hope. 

Now let’s go back to 1 Peter 2:1 ’Rid yourself of all envy and malice …’Why does Peter say that? Because envy and malice block our eyes and ears to what God is actually saying and doing. We stop seeing and hearing spiritually, and make our choices from the wrong place … the flesh! We cry: “I desperately need You to fix this Lord,” but we don’t and sometimes won’t, fix our own attitudes. When we entertain malice, envy, hypocrisy, and deceit etc. we become defensive and offensive, instead of loving, patient and kind. 

What we soak our minds in actually affects our attitudes and behaviour, and I am not talking about TV shows! Mulling over someone else’s sin against you is not profitable. Nothing is gained that way except more angst. Instead we need to identify if we have envy etc.etc in the way we think, and repent, then refuse to think like that. Seriously… we are the boss of our own thoughts! Don’t entertain them. Some people ask that junk in, tell it to put its feet up on a comfy chair, go and get it a cuppa, and then they wonder why they can’t shift the thoughts! Our minds are constantly at war – it is not safe to entertain rubbish. Here’s a dumb thought – offence will fence you in.

If a thought comes into my head, that does not mean I need to give it a party! I can refuse the thought. And I can keep on refusing it until it leaves. Personally, I do my best to look carefully at my thought patterns because I want to watch over my own heart. I am not obsessive about it, but I listen to what I am thinking because:“as a man thinks …so is he …” (Proverbs 23:7) And some of my errant thoughts deserve jail, not entertaining!  However, Paul says in Philippians 4:8 to “let your mind dwell on these things. Whatever is right … whatever is profitable…”  Live there! Start looking for the good profitable parts, even in bad things. Bad things awaken urgency within us to get closer to God. And that’s a good thing to start with! Then start being grateful.

I hold my thoughts up against the Word of God and if my thoughts are wrong I chuck them out. Bad things start festering when we ignore the fact that we are mentally chewing on unhappy relationships and difficult people. It is our part in this eternal arrangement we are in, to get rid of the stuff that is holding us away from our true inheritance. 1 Peter 2:1 tells us that. And most of the bad stuff starts out as thoughts. Try monitoring your thoughts sometime, it will surprise you. 👋🏻

P 2105 Merry Christmas – and yeah, I know it’s early!

/ DVH

In the past, I have spoken with some highly intelligent people, who told me that I came from a kind of an amoebic bird-fish that crawled out of some sort of primordial mud. Meanwhile, if you think about it, the scientists who think they have proved their point, actually agree with God Himself! The bible says we came from mud they have just missed seeing God Himself in the process.

Here’s an FYI, Genesis says that man was made from mud, but then God breathed HIS LIFE into that pile of dirt!  (Genesis 2:7) And Adam became a living breathing being – filled with the same life that IS in God Himself! It took 930 years for Adam to die, he had so much eternal life in Him, even though he gave it up when he disobeyed. Some other clever people have devoted their lives trying to create Artificial Intelligence, but the truth is that God put more intelligence and potential inside a little baby’s brain than we can ever duplicate!  Even I can sculpt a passable frog out of clay but I cannot make it LIVE. Jesus Christ has life in HIM – He came to give that life that we threw away, back to us.Here’s a fun thing – Jesus once gave a blind guy a brand new eyeball by spitting into the dirty and He made it from… wait for it … MUD! (John 9:6) Ya might want to read that and think on it! 🤔

Our God came here to earth, in Person – this is what Christmas is about. It is about heaven touching earth in such an incredible way that every single thing changed. And for some people, all around the world, this the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus Christ is our living hope. He came to earth for all of us, but we really do need to remember, that we all inhabit the same planet. However, we can’t possibly share the good news in the way it was written, when we are so utterly determined to keep our lives separate from the other people world-wide who are suffering! Christ identified with us deliberately. Why do you think God chose a cowshed as a shelter to bring His precious Son into this world? He wants everyone to know that they matter to Him. Poverty, sin, and sickness are not some sort of punishment from the Lord, instead this stuff is an opportunity for those who have plenty – to share.

People matter so much to our Heavenly Father – not our own comfort, or even our expensive Christmas gifts. We’ve become so obsessed with our OWN personal happiness, we’ve forgotten Who we are here for! Jesus included everyone – refugees, poor people, smart people, people who didn’t believe in Him  …plus … the people who knew they were sinful and … the ones who didn’t like Him at all. Christ didn’t see any human barriers, because they only exist because we’ve let them be there.Sadly we’ve even managed to take something God did that was so incredible, so profound, and we made it ALL ABOUT US. Yeah. Merry Christmas! 

I can’t help wondering about what the Lord would like for HIS birthday? Any thoughts?? Like maybe we can eat less and use the money to share with those who have NONE? Ask yourself, who did the Lord spend the most time with? If these people are His priority then they should be ours as well. When we tell people that Jesus loves them so much, they may or may not hear us –  but that bit is not our responsibility. Our bit is to demonstrate His word in our actions, prompted by His love, and His power. God is looking for empty vessels to fill. Vessels that will overflow with concern and compassion for those to whom Christmas is just another dreadful day spent looking for food, shelter, and warmth – for them and for their families. There are times when I think the Western world is so FULL we’ve become utterly side-tracked. Riches and comfort are like an opiate, they lull us off to sleep. 

Jesus said: ’GO! And tell them I love them – help them…” Merry Christmas… early.