Logs and specks

P 3227 Choosing to live in the good.

/ DVH

“For we remember before our God and Father how you put your faith into practice, how your love motivates you to serve others, and how unrelenting is your hope-filled patience in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 1:3 TPT.

Deliberately taking the time to remind ourselves to take to heart the good things, can help us to walk through  difficulties. Especially when the bad stuff just keeps on coming! Even if the bad seems to outweigh the good, when we turn our heads to see the blessings of God, our vision of His life in us expands. We start to see that what seems bad, can actually ‘work together for our good.’ That verse stops being theory and becomes real.

It is also useful to give the Lord permission to poke us in the heart when we are cranky with someone, and ask Him to remind us of the lovely things this person may have done for us. We also need to ask Him to show us what He sees as good. If He calls it good, it’s good, remember?? There are times when I get angry at someone and I can’t remember a good thing they ever did. But that’s because I’m angry with them! It’s about me not them! 

On the other hand, if we do love someone just because we are commanded to – sheer obedience – then we may miss out on the greater good. The greater good comes from loving others because we can see God’s goodness in them. That’s called spiritual sight! With people we don’t particularly like, that can take practice and spiritual eyes! Remember, we want to speak God’s language – He came here to learn ours. Even though in some people, this kind of goodness may be like the stuff that gets hidden way, wa-a-y back … at the back of the fridge, where it’s easily forgotten. My advice is to clean out the fridge regularly, you never know what you might find back there that’s good.

Let’s begin to see the Lord at work, for our own spiritual well-being. Pressing in helps! Critical, unhappy hearts misinterpret what they see. I’m talking about taking the time to notice, even if that good is infinitesimal in our eyes. It can still transform the way we look at the things that happen around us. It is easy to move on too quickly from appreciating someone’s else’s effort when they make it. It is a mistake to see kindness as something we deserve. We will always get kindness from the Lord, but other people don’t have to give it to us, no matter who the heck they are, or who WE are. Allowing cynicism to guide us is deadly. 

Christians expect so much from our leaders, without understanding that they are just human beings like us and they can make mistakes. The way we treat our companions when they have made a mistake or sinned, is an indication of our attitude toward redemption. It also shows us our level of kindness. Our job is to help people get rid of their earthly burdens, not find extra ones to tie on their backs just because they did something we don’t like! Here’s an interesting ‘heads up’ – the things we excuse in our own lives can really annoy us when someone else does it. Hmm, I think I’ve heard that before: “logs and specks’ wasn’t it??”

The subtext to this particular subject, kind of goes like this: “If I can make all this effort then why can’t you do it?”This kind of thinking is one of the best diagnosis of “running on works” I’ve seen. The next step from there is to make what you think a law in your own mind and then, bingo bongo, you suddenly have religion. That stuff is particularly poisonous to the things of the Spirit. One of the most useful things I have learnt, is that everyone else is not on the same learning curve I’m on. They serve God first, not me. Thank the Lord I am not in charge … imagine the mess!! 

Here’s a pretty obvious fact – we actually need to see and acknowledge the good, in order to remember it. There’s those spiritual eyes again. In my opinion we cannot afford to live this new life in Christ without them. Ask Him! But be prepared for your new eyes to work on you first when you look into the mirror of His Word! Meanwhile, let’s give the Lord permission to reveal ourselves to ourselves, otherwise we will just keep running around and around, with lots of hot angry air, but accomplishing nothing and going nowhere. 

The Lord has something that you can be, or do, that I can’t, and it will be memorable. You may have noticed when Jesus speaks to some people, He sees them through spiritual eyes, right into their character, even though He has never met them before. “Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Here is an Israelite indeed [a true descendant of Jacob], in whom there is no guile nor deceit…” John 1:47. We all need this kind of sight! In this modern age, we have worked much too hard on reading the bad in people – it’s a form of self-protection. It almost goes without saying that ‘our God is our protection and with HIM we are safe.’

Remembering, and noticing the good in others becomes a skill. We all need it. Have you ever heard someone prophesy over someone else and say things like: ‘You are a mighty man/woman of God.’ Really?? I wonder what their family thinks? At that moment God is speaking to what’s good right and profitable, and our minds need to dwell on those things too for our own spiritual health! Bye.👋

P 2614 What are we asking for … ???

/ DVH

“For every persistent one will get what he asks for. Every persistent seeker will discover what he longs for. And everyone who knocks persistently will one day find an open door.” Matthew 7:8 TPT. And here’s the more generally known version: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” NIV.

I am pretty sure that these verses have not been taught, or expanded as widely as they can be –  I think they include many things other than material things. Meanwhile, I don’t think they are about fish, stones, bread or snakes either! I urge you to read around today’s text to explore what I am talking about – the bible says that a wise word is like “an apple of gold in a setting of silver.” Proverbs 25:11. Perhaps we are putting a bit too much focus on the APPLE, and not enough on the SETTING. We have translated what Jesus said into physical, tangible items, when I believe they have a much much wider application. 

Immediately above these verses about ‘asking, seeking and knocking,’ the Lord Jesus is talking about not judging others. He uses the illustration of logs and specks to show us how important it is to assess our personal attitudes and situations truthfully and clearly. Immediately after the ‘ask’ verses, He goes on to mention that we need to be careful not to give important, precious things to undeserving recipients. 

Speaking for myself, I love the wider application. I know I need His help when it comes to judging or trusting, or even changing my mind. I’m opinionated … like you didn’t guess that! 😶 So I need to be aware that my thought processes and words can lead me into judging others. Nowadays, I use that ask and keep on asking verse as my go-to ‘help help’ prayer for the many, many things that trip me up. There are moments in my life when I feel I am standing right at the edge of somewhere that I have absolutely no right to be — and I need to fling myself into reverse very quickly — otherwise I will end up going the wrong way – fast.

Today, again, 😊 I want to talk about reading the bible, because I think context is extremely important. It seems to me that Jesus through these verses, wants to stress that Father God longs to be active on our behalf – in all our lack and inadequacies. The Lord wants to help us. He knows we can bumble into the wrong attitudes and lose our God-given right to be a blessing to others. So right here I think the Lord is saying “Ask for the Grace you need. Maybe you need long-suffering, or patience, self-control, or some other fruit of the spirit. ASK!” We need to show the Lord we are serious about transformation by persisting.

My point is — I don’t think this verse is a grab-all handle to claim everything material we think we want or need, and use the Word of God as a battering ram to do it! Jesus goes on from this “asking verse” to talk about the fact that there is a narrow gate and a wide gate. He exhorts us to squeeze through the narrow gate so we will become one of the few that find it. None of that sounds like a lear jet, a yacht, or someone dripping in diamonds, or a 500 sq metre house to me! I’m not saying we can’t ask for those things, however, I am saying that these verses in this chapter are ALSO about attitudes, not just acquisitions. So we know that we can ask for His help when we are tempted to give in to our baser emotions. 

And what’s more the verses talk about being persistent when we ask for these spiritual graces. In other words, instead of dismissing our faults, or hiding them — we need to ask Him to help us with them. Imagine asking for deliverance from judgment, or help with our mingy attitudes. What a bonus that would be! Instead of throwing up our hands in despair, and letting fly with stuff nobody wants to hear… Why not take Jesus’ advice and persistently ask?

And one of those questions includes, where do we actually have the most need? Now if you have nowhere to live then pray away! I’m not saying these verses don’t mean what we think or hope they do, I just want to point out that they have a much wider application than we have managed to grasp so far! Instead of focussing on material things we need to focus on all the things we desperately need – perhaps we lack love toward someone?

Instead of living quiet lives of despair, because of our own nasty little ability to fly off the handle and yell at someone else, why not use this particular sword to get free? Like I’ve said before, the Holy Spirit has a million translations we have yet to find. Let’s not stop at the gimme one. Instead let’s move onto the transform me one, as well. “For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” That, BTW, is also three different ways to be spiritually blessed. Bye. 👋