Lord

P 2399 Forgiveness and obedience are our best weapons of choice.

/ DVH

Forgiving others and obeying the Lord’s wishes has become our life’s work. Those two things go together. So much so, that when He shows us something as we read the bible we need to immediately ask Him: “What would You like me to do about that Lord?” And then we go and do it – using our choice not our feelings.

Initially, when the Holy Spirit checked me about stuff I was doing that wasn’t good, I didn’t like it very much. He said things like: “You have resented this person’s influence in your life, you need to start appreciating them.” That meant I had to practice taking my stray thoughts captive, and at the same time I had to stick my hand over my mouth instead of bad-mouthing someone I was mad at. Sadly, I am still not always successful at that… 

But the first thing I learnt about myself because of His instruction – was this: I had been using my thoughts and my words as a pressure valve! Anger and resentment built up inward pressure that I needed to deal with. After all your mouth is right there and it works and everything (!) and so I often used my words to cope with bad things that happened, or perceived slights and injuries caused by someone else. After a while I realised I had a really big lists of stuff (aughts) against other people (any). Bad plan BTW, keep your forgiveness lists short. “And when ye stand praying, forgive if ye have aught against any, that your Father also who is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” Mark 11:25 ASV.

This is how it plays out:  let’s say you can’t stand your Uncle B. Maybe Uncle B was kind of not nice to be around. Every time you saw him as a kid you wanted to run away, or you hoped your parents would rescue you, but they were too busy socialising instead. Now, because you are an adult, when you see Uncle B. you can run for the hills, or you can even avoid family gatherings, because he is going to be there. Maybe you want to protect your kids. You don’t want them to feel like you did around him.

Here is what I have learnt. Forgiveness is harder to find for old wounds – you are going to need lots of God’s GRACE to do it. Perhaps you are also angry with your parents for not protecting you, a-n-d … you probably wouldn’t pass Uncle B. a fire extinguisher if he was on fire 🔥 … so that would be something else you need to work on. You are stuck with not only your need to forgive others, but your own past childish judgment. 

Unless you make a start by forgiving your parents for their neglect, you can easily slip into assessing what they did. It is unfortunately easy to judge our parents retrospectively and vow that we will never do that stuff to our kids! It’s a no-brainer that you will also need to forgive Uncle Bob, BTW. And you are definitely going to need help with that!! Here’s my first point. We cannot do lasting spiritual transactions, without the Holy Spirit – He knows every single detail and how to get us free. We have to start with God’s Grace and guidance to navigate past any mine-fields. (Mind-fields.)

I can’t tell you exactly what to do because every situation needing forgiveness is different … but I urge you not to postpone or avoid forgiving someone as a way to defend yourself. Neither should you avoid repentance just because it seems the other person won’t change. We cannot hinge our transformation on someone else’s behaviour! That supposed knowledge of their sin is a snare sent to trip you up. Ask for His Grace, and keep right on asking while you continue to follow Jesus. Keep praying: “I want to do what You said Lord, and I need help.” 

Unconfessed sin and a lack of repentance is a place for satan to stand in our lives. satan is a legalist, and he will use it against us – he will distract us with things that are of no consequence – while we are ignoring the thing that is tripping us up! Instead we need the Lord’s Grace and His way through. We cannot live the Christian life and experience victory if we don’t make the practice of obeying the bible a living breathing part of our lives – instead of just a using it as reference book.  

Forgiving someone does not mean we are giving them permission to continue to abuse us. Rather forgiveness is a statement, an intentional declaration, that we know that God has a bigger plan. Romans 8:28 says: “And we know [with great confidence] that God [Who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.”

His plan and His purpose is to lovingly transform us. Sometimes He will rescue us, and sometimes He wants us to act in faith, like Jesus did. I have observed as I have followed Him and embraced His purposes, that His plans for my good blow my mind. I would never have understood those plans, if I hadn’t decided to die to the way I think, obey what He said, and let Him be Lord.  

Here is my last thought for today – our God does not speak to us contrary to His word – His word is immutable – it will not change over time. Choosing to forgive, plus knowing the Word of God and choosing to obey it, is our best defence weapon. 👋🏻

P 2397 There is a WAY to walk.

/ DVH

“In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.” Ephesians 4:1-3 MSG

Don’t these few verses in Ephesians really nail the issues facing us all? Firstly we need to find our road, then we walk … and then, well, I’m sorry Apostle Paul, but some of us aren’t UP to running … so we take the car! … But … good thought! 🚕 Meanwhile, if we happen to think what OUR pastor says is tough… reading the bible is revolutionary.

Hubby and I have to carry 8 chair raisers when we go on the road, because modern chairs seem to be made for three year olds to use as a climbing frame… Or for people with much younger knees. Not for older people whose knees are mostly ageing nicely. Older people have knees that go “Snap Crackle and Pop” like Rice bubbles. We carry these chair raisers because getting me out of low set modern furniture is like watching Captain Ahab try to drag Moby Dick out of the water. 🐋 It’s. Not. Pretty. 

We also carry heaps of pillows with us, because most places don’t have that many, and I currently need to sleep almost sitting up. I used to sleep on my right side until …  …🤕💥!!! In our travels over these 17 years, we have found all sorts of amazing, hard-as-a-rock beds! Piously, I sometimes remind myself that Jesus Himself slept by the road …then my evil twin self reminds me that He was 40 years younger than me at the time!  

We carry more water in our car than the local dam, because I can’t drink tap water without getting some bug or other. Yes, I use my faith, and yes I’ve tried drinking the tap water 🙄… a-n-d … previously I’ve gotten Giardia, as a bonus buy! So now we use avoidance, because Flagyl antibiotics ain’t fun, they create other worse things. Immune-compromised people have to learn to compromise, and God didn’t make no stupid people!

The first thing we do when we get to our destination, is pray and ask the Lord what He wants us to do for Him where we are. Amazingly, time and time again He tells us separately, what He wants us to do, and then when we share … it’s the same! That gets me every single time. 🙌

The manager of this establishment, a young lady, was delighted with the butterfly keychain we gave her. And hubby gave her two of his pictures – she also took bibles. We had a lovely conversation about her finding a guy like the one in hubby’s painting … the picture is above. Apparently this surfer appears to be her type. And as she said … you never know…?? Meanwhile, a surfer in a red T shirt? Good luck with that —-that’s like sticking a sign on saying ‘free shark bait.’

After that we settled in, and later, as we were having a shower … the toilet exploded. Well… it didn’t really explode … but it did a good job of trying! It started spraying and belching its contents all over the room, all over the floor and up the walls. I was in the shower at the time and for some reason … it must have been the Lord .. we both found this sight hilarious, as we took shelter and watched… Until we had a brain-wave and put down the toilet lid! The splatter hit the mirror four feet away!

The plumbers on the bobcat digger outside, had done something dumb to the plumbing. And our unit, and the one next to us, were affected. The poor manager was so upset because she had distinctly told them not to DO anything to the pipes. Fortunately… neither of them were surfers with long hair in a red T shirt. It seems there are slim pickings for cute intelligent guys in this town! 😱 Meanwhile that smell definitely lingers …

The way to walk with the Holy Spirit, is to take faith steps. And yes, sometimes things will test your faith.  These steps come one at a time. You say yes to going when He asks you – that’s step one. You pray and make plans, and wait for His input, that’s step two. You go prepared to bless people however He says – step three. And then stuff happens and you face some test or other – that’s step four. And, step five, you tell fear and grumpiness to go take a hike! And the last and final step is give thanks you weren’t sprayed with toilet water! There’s a WAY to walk.👋🏻

P 2371 Transformation.

/ DVH

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

Jesus Christ did not just provide our redemption on that cross – His death provided us with TOTAL lifestyle TRANSFORMATION. Now we have the POWER and ability to grab opportunities to figuratively and literally change our minds. To change our thinking, change our reactions, change and transform the way we were taught by family, life and the people we’ve associated with – into something life giving and redemptive. 

You and I don’t have to be the same old cranky easily provoked grump we always were. Now, we have the power and the Person inside us Who will help us to get that soft word that turns away anger! (Proverbs.) We can be transformed by believing what it says in the book – and acting on it, using our faith. If you wait to feel like it, you will never feel like it – trust me!  The power to change is in the Holy Spirit’s Presence in our lives. We have to put away the idea that this life is about the Holy Spirit AND …EG: the Holy Spirit and what I want. We can’t have both options. Dead people don’t have options or opinions.

I have learnt that if I find myself resistant to transformation, that is an indication of how rebellious I have allowed myself to become. I love this illustration of how inner transformation works: “There is a legend of a grandfather or elder using a metaphor of two wolves fighting within him to explain personal inner conflicts to his grandson. When the young person asks which wolf will win, the grandfather answers “whichever one you feed.” Whichever one you feed!? So, what are we feeding our thought life on?

People freak out and say that you should or shouldn’t watch this or that, or you shouldn’t go here or there if you are a ‘good’ Christian. But the truth is obedience is about Who you are actively following. The real question is this – what will help me to obey the Lord and what will lead me away or distract me from thinking about Him?! Christians love Jesus but they do not necessarily foster that love as the most important thing in their life. The everyday humdrum things-that-need-to-be-done stuff swamps them, and they forget about Him and start living this life like everyone else.

The secret to total transformation is in the book:“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23&24.  We are not working for a man anymore – we are working for Jesus in our school, home or job. That other person is HIM to you and I. That’s how deeply the Lord Jesus identified with mankind. So if you are yelling at someone else – you are yelling at HIM! “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.’ There is no accidental or incidental happenings in His kingdom! Everyone we bump into is sent.

It doesn’t matter if you are doing the washing-up or teaching your kid how to tie their shoe laces. That other person is Jesus standing there. We have so much power in our choices. Unfortunately, in this generation, our wills have become weak because we give in to them all the time! Instead we need to stand on the Word and refuse to go the wrong way. Ask for His help to resist the temptation to act like you rule the world, and yield to the ONE WHO ACTUALLY RULES THE WORLD. This world will not explode if you acknowledge that you do not know how to do everything – remember His strength is made perfect in weak people!

We have His book. The bible tells us His thoughts about behaviour and life. We do not have to remain ignorant. We now have the power to overcome the things we have probably deliberately cultivated along the way in our lives. Before we met Him we did stuff to protect ourselves and make us feel good about who we are. Ask yourself, do I see myself as a victim or a servant? The answer will diagnose your position before the Lord. 

We have mistakenly tied Christ’s Presence in our lives, entirely to our behaviour, not to what He has already done. His Grace propels us into obedience, it empowers us to make right choices. Our behaviour actually changes because we want to live and remain in His Presence, rather than roll along day after day, doing what we want. We are His servants. We’ve been left here to serve Him and serve Him by serving others. And transformation comes from obedience to His word as He leads us – – and BTW if you read it then you are responsible for your response.. 👋🏻

P 2370 God has given us clear guidelines.

/ DVH

When you read Exodus and Leviticus in the Old Testament this line appears in practically every paragraph: ‘this is what the Lord has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the Lord may appear to you…’  Father God does not do or say anything without a reason – we need to pay attention to what He said.

He wants to teach us how to live our lives reconciled to Him, progressively learning His Ways. In the Old Testament His requirements were temporarily satisfied by the blood, of sheep, bulls, goats and birds – in the New His requirements were totally satisfied, now and forever, by the blood of Jesus Christ. Hebrews1:1&2 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.”  

What Christ did was so powerful, it went backwards and forwards throughout time! The blood of animals previously satisfied the Lord’s anger at man’s rebellion and disobedience to His instructions … for a season. Meanwhile, do look at how patient He is – that first season lasted for approximately two thousand years!  (Moses to Christ.) For those two thousand years He provided a way for human beings to be able to relate to Him by a series of rituals and instructions … and then Christ came … and everything changed forever. Now, instead of temporary reconciliation, we have a reconciliation that lasts forever. Thank you Jesus!! We can go boldly to the throne of GRACE at any time.

Jesus took all those many commandments and transformed them into two. “Love God” and “love one another.” However, He was not just content with telling us about them – Christ fulfilled them both. We are not thinking clearly enough if all we can see is that Jesus died to reconcile US to God. That thought makes US the focus! NO!! He deliberately died because GOD wanted to  reconcile Himself to us. None of us qualified to be able to approach our great and mighty Father without the ceremonial rules and regs of the Old Testament. But He is not satisfied with lip-service. He loves the genuine heart felt response that comes from real revelation of Who He is, into a heart seeking after Him. 

Let’s be clear. Father God loves the man He made. He does not just tolerate us – HE LOVES US — Our God loves the vilest sinner as deeply as He loves the sweetest saint but, we eliminate ourselves when we refuse to live this life His way.Human beings have no idea what unchanging means, because humanity is so changeable and fickle. However God’s love is like a mighty heart beat steady, strong, powerful and the Holy Spirit goes after each one of us with a plan and a passion we will never understand … this side of heaven. We think too small. And when we think too small, we make God too small – we make Him like us by using OUR logic to explain – or sadly, dismiss Him. 

Actually I think we have even presented Him to other people in an incredibly limited fashion and that’s why many people reject Him. Because we explain Him like a list of rules and regulations, dos and don’ts … instead of a vibrant living, loving, passionate Being Who cares about each one of us so much He has done all He can to bring about reconciliation. That ball is now in our court. We need to remember, that He knows how many hairs we have on our heads and the deepest joy and sorrow of our hearts.

We dare not reduce the God of the ever-expanding universe, to a formula!  He is the God Who produces tiny babies almost by the second all over this world, AND… they are all different. How astonishing. He knows each one of us by name, by nature, and by His own choice. His love is personified in Christ and spread abroad by the Holy Spirit – that’s why walking with Them both is so incredibly important. Through the Son and the Spirit – even though we are limited, we can see parts of the Father’s heart toward us that we cannot see any other way. All this is evident to me when I see Him take such a personal, intimate interest in my life and well being. He helps me please Him through the Grace released at Calvary and the precious Holy Spirit’s help.

The Lord has taught me that Love doesn’t come by command — but through appreciation, by beholding … by seeing Him. Our great quest is to personally discover, through His Word, and our experiences of His intervention in our lives – how truly beautiful He is. Jesus Christ’s BRIDE needs to be pure, utterly in love with our BRIDEGROOM for Who He is, not just what He does.Then that deepest sacrificial love for our bridegroom will take us places that we have never even dreamed about. Our Gracious Father has given us clear guidelines, through His book, how to be transformed by His Grace into a Bride worthy of His precious Son. 🙌

P 2369 We cannot legislate unity.

/ DVH

Unity comes from an overflow of love, compassion and respect for the other guy. Instead of constantly rehearsing what divides us, let’s try to find common ground. Sadly we now have 45,000 denominations!! Look, as long as the other person you are talking to believes Jesus Christ is the God-sent Son and Saviour of the world, just let go of other things you don’t agree with and find things you can agree on. Jesus is Lord is a good one!! 

Seriously. We can lose opportunities for reconciliation by being pedantic. Telling the other guy where he is wrong will shut down a conversation faster than the bullet train in Japan travels between Tokyo and Osaka. Just let love loose – love is about focusing on the good. I don’t mean we have to agree with everything, but our POV doesn’t have to collide with someone else’s in the name of straightening them out. One of the best things to do when conflict arises is to ask if you could pray together. Come before the throne in Jesus’ Name and let the Holy Spirit do what He does best … sort things out. 

We do not put enough faith in the power of the Holy Spirit to change US as well as the world. Sometimes I don’t think we put enough faith in Him to sort out our lives! That’s why we start meddling and throwing in our own good ideas. Remember the garden. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise and insightful, she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:6. Eve used her own wisdom and initiative to decide what was right. Look at how that turned out!

Obviously rebellion dropped in, and of course her husband didn’t even run it by his brain – he just did what she said for peace! (Joking) 🤪 That kind of peace, BTW, giving our agreement to shut somebody else up, is not true peace. True peace happens, and unity begins, when both sides agree because they want to, because maintaining love is more important. In that place there is no coercion. Silence isn’t in the answer either – it’s a beginning, but we are aiming at LOVE not just an absence of sound. We must not aim too low!

All Eve shows us is how easily we can be led astray, away from peace directly into blame. Meanwhile sometimes I think we consult one another because we don’t want to be bothered waiting on God… He can take too long. Hmm… maybe He takes a while so we can calm down and reflect instead of reacting! That would be His Grace in action. Perhaps He wants us to choose to die to self out of love, instead of an absence of conflict! How do I know that? I’ve done it! I’ve given up my power of choice and compromised. PS it never works. Our hearts can’t be right when we disagree and then lie about it. Duh! 🙄

That is why I started memorising verses like: “Why not suffer wrong?” 1 Corinthians 6:7. Because the minute I start to straighten you out – I’ve stepped out from under the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and I’m back leaning on my own understanding! You know, some people are so committed to their own POV, they would exercise their free will even if their entire house was on fire but they weren’t ‘ready to leave yet!’ 😱 Learn to yield. First to God and then to each other.

True unity can’t come under a dictatorship. The fault is not just the people disagreeing – it is that people need to pray together more than they talk AT each other! We cannot maintain our agendas …  things founded on fear, or rebellion – in the throne room. Sorry to repeat myself because I know I’ve said this before, Isaiah was a prophet who turned to JELLO in the throne room. He spoke for God all over the place, but when he was confronted with God, he knew his place — ON HIS FACE! 

In the Presence of the Lord any disunity disappears. I have been known to  have heaps of opinions – until I get in there. We are handling disagreement badly if our aim is to get the other guy to think like me, because I know I am right. If people can’t see pride in that sentence they need Holy Spirit glasses and they also need to pray heaps more. 

Unity matters to God. He’s got the best unified game going in the history of the Universe. Not only does the Trinity agree – They PREFER one another. We need to set our aim higher. Unity is about love, and what the Father wants, not about what you or I think. 👋🏻

P 2360 Look at what Almighty God can do with obedience!

/ DVH

Exodus 40:16“Moses did everything just as the Lord commanded him.”                                                       

Exodus 40:19b “… as the Lord commanded him.”    

Exodus 40:21b “… as the Lord commanded him.”       

Exodus 40:23b “… as the Lord commanded him.”     

Exodus 40:25b “… as the Lord commanded him.”    

Exodus 40:27b “… as the Lord commanded him.”    

Exodus 40:29b“… as the Lord commanded him.”     

Exodus 40:32b “ …as the Lord commanded Moses.”

Exodus 40:33b “…and so Moses finished the work.’

Exodus 40:35 “Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” I just want to mention that Moses was familiar with God’s Presence – he’d been in it a bunch of times. Yet this time Moses couldn’t get into the tent! The Lord’s Presence is not measurable – it is without measure. 

Eight times God specifically gave Moses instructions about how He wanted this place of sacrifice and worship assembled. And then God kissed the work of men’s hands with His Presence, because of their obedience and attention to detail. As Christians we cannot afford to diminish or dismiss our call to obedience. That is the cornerstone of our relationship with the Lord Himself. Jesus obeyed God unto death.Why on earth would we think it is OK to skate right on over whatever He has told us to do, in the book?! 

The whole of that glorious tabernacle was assembled under the Lord’s oversight. It was designed by God, downloaded by the Holy Spirit to Moses and his team, and carefully worked into a cohesive whole by Him as well. And God approved every single stage of the tabernacle’s assembly so much that He did not just make suggestions, HE GAVE DIRECTIVES. Ya might want to think about that for a month or TEN. 🧐

At the end of Moses’ life, after he had led this group of difficult and demanding people around for 40 years, and watched all his peers die off;  He hit a rock twice, instead of once, and missed out on seeing the point of that whole journey! However, lest you think our God holds grudges, it has been said of Moses – that God Himself buried the man when He died. Wow. Nobody else but the Lord knows where Moses is buried. How He loved that man!!

Back to us today, and that option-out button we all like to use when God tells us to do something or other, and we don’t like it, or we aren’t sure if it is Him speaking or not! The devil likes to cloud our minds and throw doubt into the mix of what the Lord tells us to do. I’ve learnt to obey anyway. Sometimes I stand there and look like a goose, and sometimes He does something incredible, and that would be me, standing there again, this time with my mouth open like a cod-fish – astonished. If it doesn’t surprise you, it wasn’t GOD! The only Person destined to look good when we serve Him is Him. The glory is always His when He speaks.

He’s an amazing God, so He does amazing things.  We simply have not learnt that the way to partake of such things always involves our obedience. He once put me into my car to go across town to meet someone I didn’t know, to talk to them – and I didn’t even know what I was supposed to say when I got there! When I met this person, in my whole life I never met someone who seemed so together. They had been a Christian for years and years, and ran some wonderful thing or other for the Lord. I was intimidated to the max. On the way there … … did you get that??? ON THE WAY THERE !!! … the Holy Spirit gave me three scriptures for this person.  

I read them out to this person and they melted like snow, right in front of my eyes and wept profusely. All I can tell you is this, all of us have secret buttons, other people may not know where they are, but boy, GOD KNOWS WHERE THEY ARE! I have never seen this person since, but I do know their life changed in those moments. And all I had to do was to be willing to obey, even though I felt like a lunatic, temporarily. 

If you want to see miracles, and watch Him work in astonishing ways – trust Him, take a risk and learn to obey. Start by obeying what it says in the book, and go on to do the things He asks you to do. Treat His book seriously and do what He talks about. Be the kind of person who forgives and repents, and learn to change your behaviour, with His help – even if you think you aren’t wrong! Let God Himself be the One to excuse you, instead of doing it yourself – or taking a personal census to try to excuse yourself! 

BTW that tabernacle Moses built was destined to be an illustration of something much bigger … SomeOne far greater Who was to come.  I’ve said it so many times – Jesus is all over the Old Testament and the New. When you and I obey, we release His Grace into this world. His GRACE is unstoppable. Obedience is not optional, it really is mandatory. You never know what God will do with your faith!👋🏻

P 2359 Psalm 3.

/ DVH

King David’s song when he was forced to flee from Absalom, his own son: “Lord, I have so many enemies, so many who are against me. Listen to how they whisper their slander against me, saying: “Look! He’s hopeless! Even God can’t save him from this!”  Pause in His Presence. But in the depths of my heart I truly know that You, Yahweh, have become my Shield; You take me and surround me with Yourself. Your glory covers me continually. You lift high my head. I have cried out to You, Yahweh, from Your holy presence You send me a Father’s help. Pause in His presence

So now I’ll lie down and sleep like a baby—then I’ll awake in safety, for You surround me with Your glory. Even though ten thousand dark powers prowl around me. I won’t be afraid. Rise up and help me, Yahweh! Come and save me, God! For You will slap them in the face, breaking the power of their words to harm me. FOR THE LORD ALONE IS MY SAVIOUR. What a feast of favour and bliss He gives His people! Pause in His presence.”

Some times the people we love dearly, the ones who are our family, can do the most damage. It doesn’t even have to be what they say – neglect and abandonment can devastate us. The first point I want to make today is that this kind of scenario is not a walk in the park. We can’t just click our heels and the bad bits will go away. These things severely test us and often challenge our belief systems.They test our resolve to follow Him no matter what happens. 

Some things are a choice, but when it comes to family, those things are the places where we find we are most vulnerable. Family is about history. They knew you when. You knew them from birth…. That kind of history tears at our hearts like very little else, and betrayal from those who are meant to protect and care for us brings deep wounds. My advice is this;  start this process with healing, not rebuking or blaming your self. Ask the Lord Himself to be your Father and help you with the places that are bleeding inside from all that betrayal you feel. 

Don’t make excuses for them, and don’t make excuses for you either. It is what it is. David’s son was trying to kill him to take the throne. It wasn’t a whoopsie, or an error of judgment, it was a deliberate act of betrayal for Absalom’s gain. If you read the story, (2 Samuel 13-37 -15-12), Absalom went about whispering in other people’s ears, trying to turn the people’s loyalty away from David. That is not a mistake, it is deliberate SIN. In Absalom’s case it was jealousy and pride. He was beautiful and popular and he knew it and then pride took over.

Sometimes our family member/s are not simply making a mistake, they have joined their allegiances with destruction. They may call it correction, or caring for you, but because you are maintaining some degree of freedom or other they do not have, they will try to stop you anyway they can. Jesus Himself said this about families in Matthew 10:36 –“Don’t think I’ve come to make life cozy. I’ve come to cut—make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law—cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over Me, you don’t deserve Me. If you prefer son or daughter over Me, you don’t deserve Me.”

Look, if Jesus Himself talked about it, then difficulties like this aren’t totally unexpected. My only advice is grieve for your loss and ask the Lord to heal your heart with His Grace and Love, and then, immediately go on to choosing forgiveness. Some family members will turn around, and others will see your forgiving heart as something that can be used against you. Then you will need grace, grace and more grace. Don’t leave home without it, because Grace can do the impossible. 

Don’t just content yourself with forgiving out of some kind of familial loyalty – ask and keep on asking for His Grace to truly forgive. INSIST. Meanwhile difficulties like this can take time to heal, so keep on believing God is helping you – and don’t quit. Take your focus off the family member/s that are persecuting you, and deliberately give those people as an act of your will, to Jesus. And then keep on doing that each time they come up in your mind – eventually Jesus in you will win.

At the same time it is good to go on into blessing these folks until you find you really mean it. It’s all a process and an extremely hard one at that. Your job is to watch over your heart and leave the work to the Holy Spirit. Let’s give thanks that we have a Parent Who never stops loving us, and He is totally devoted to the restoration of families. 👋🏻

P 2334 There is no other place to build.

/ DVH

Luke 6:46-49 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Also in Matthew 7:24-27)

Hmm… what does building on sand look like? It looks like fads, and easy answers and things that have no substance to them. Things that cannot last. Any house without a proper foundation cannot take weight or stress. It cannot withstand adverse conditions. Pressure causes a house like that to sink and crumble, because the structure is on something that is not rock solid. 

Building on Rock is hard work from beginning to end. There are no easy answers. Right from the start we need to teach our kids more spiritual survival skills, instead of over-protecting them. They are going to need to be spiritual warriors in this world. They not only need to know how to fight things like – their feelings, shallow doctrine, carelessness, lack of real devotion – they are fighting for their spiritual legacies. The ones we are leaving them! 

Christianity is not for people who cannot, or don’t want to,  persevere. It’s for tough people. Because digging through rock is hard work! Doing what He says can be hard work. Sometimes I think we don’t understand how important our foundations are. Reading the bible is not meant to be a walk in the park. It’s a treasure hunt and sometimes you just plain can’t read the map! Maybe you allocate 30 minutes for  … blasting the rock, (aka reading the bible) as well as clearing away the rubble  – however some days it is going to take a couple of hours instead. Reading the bible cannot be just a regularly scheduled thing with a set amount of time allocated, like ordinary chores. We cannot survive without His word. (Matthew 4:4)

How can we do what He says … if we don’t pay attention to WHAT it says? Doing what it says is part of digging a foundation. Otherwise as James so succinctly said, we go away from God’s mirror and forget what we look like. God’s book often leads to more questions than answers. And that ANSWER will probably not be the same the next time you crash into that question again, anyway.

We are digging through all kinds of rock and shale to find something substantial to anchor our spiritual house into, because when we are anchored into rock, (Jesus) nothing can easily shift us.  Plus we are looking for aspects of His nature, we have not seen before. That’s gunna take some digging because our God is not a surface dweller, and there are gold, silver and precious gems for us to find. Those things do not just lie about on top of the ground. 

Doing what it says helps us to digest what we have read, and it helps us to retain and value the treasures we find. It will also provide us with regular testimonies about His Grace in action, and make relying upon Him easier.  It takes things out of the realm of information, and shows us how faith works! Plus it fixes His truth as the measuring stick we use in every corner of our lives.

Sometimes we need to assess how our lives are going by our response to trouble and difficulty. I’m not talking about our initial response, but if whatever has happened shakes your world, and you can’t seem to find your spiritual feet again, then perhaps part of your foundation is faulty. Maybe you could prayerfully look for scriptures with the Holy Spirit’s help, to build up your foundation.

Remember God’s Word is most powerful when it is acted upon. There is no other safe place to build!👋🏻

P 2325 Mechanical things and I are not always friends …

/ DVH

… and I don’t just mean this computer I am typing on either! Now, if you give me a paint brush, I will paint you a picture … if you give me a pencil I will write you a story… But computers, or things with technological chips in them … like the kettle, or the car, or the cell phone, or the air-conditioning… those kind of things are the bane of my life. They promise so much, and drive you nuts instead. Tell me you haven’t yelled at some inanimate object that didn’t deliver as promised! 😡 

Life has given me lots of opportunities to discover what I can’t do. I was once given the opportunity to use an electric disabled scooter in a supermarket… that was an absolute disaster! I kept hitting all the fittings. Sigh… I even moved some of them sideways – by hitting them of course. A very nice employee came along after that and asked for the keys back. I didn’t blame him, I wouldn’t want anyone moving the shelves in my supermarket either. It appears I definitely can’t use one of those darn mechanical gismos. 

It actually took me six months of three times a week driving lessons, to get my driver’s licence. I could easily remember the rules but the whole steering/parking driving down the road steering thing escaped me. Sigh. I just ain’t mechanically minded and I’m not excited about the responsibility either. I once tried to ride a Vespa and I kept sticking my feet down to stop it. 😱 That was not a good plan. And never ever let me near your Venetian blinds… I know they aren’t mechanical – but try telling them that! I mean well, and I try hard, but the practical outworking sabotages me. I always pull the wrong string first, and it goes rapidly downhill from there. 

One of the fantastic things about getting to know the Lord Jesus is the distinct lack of any need to feel important – for His sake or my own. The realisation that the God of the Universe loves me … Meh! Everything else becomes superficial trimmings that can disappear in a heartbeat … and they often do! Even things with chips in … and I’m not talking about fish and chips either.

So what am I on about? I’ve learnt, from my own very obvious inadequacies,that we need each other. It is not good for man to be alone. You know, that verse is not just about finding a spouse. It is about us, the brethren, needing each other. ← There’s that pesky FULL STOP. I can’t sing by myself, however I can sing in a choir. I freeze up in a solo, in front of an audience. 🥶  So I suggest we keep me in the choir… and maybe YOU sing the solo instead. I know some people who look so ordinary… but when they sing … I feel like heaven stops to listen.

And, I know some preachers who usher in God’s Presence and challenge everything you think you know … in a good way. Afterward you feel like you lost ten pounds of excess weight. It just drops off and you feel lighter. I’ve met people who can say three words and shift your focus off your troubles and back onto the Lord – without preaching at you. There are others who make me smile and laugh  – there is just something about the way they view this life …

… We cannot do Christianity alone. It is NOT GOOD FOR US. We need to stop analysing other people’s theology and just start appreciating their strengths. Having opinions can be vastly overrated. I’ve learnt that the Lord loves it when we make a choice to see the good in each other. He kisses it. Our God loves unity. If we want Him to hang around with us, then we had better figure out how to accept the people who mess up like I do. Who can do somethings OK a-n-d others … not-so-much. Unity is not just enforced agreement, it is having the same heart toward each other. 

That does not come about easily.

God so loved the world … and HE thrives on our differences. Let’s move outside our comfort zones and make room for each other. You can fix my venetian blinds and I’ll draw you a picture.  😂 💻!

P 2305 HE is our hope. Not our circumstances.

/ DVH

Exodus 33:12b,13a.”You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favour with me.’ If You are pleased with me, teach me Your ways so I may know You and continue to find favour with You.”

This is a fantastic prayer. We simply must put to one side any self-serving, ‘placing our order’ prayers like: “I’m praying for this,” or “You need to do this Lord,” or “could You please do this Lord?”  In favour of prayers like this one Moses prayed. Moses’ prayer puts Almighty God back in His rightful place – IN CHARGE. Remember …”Seek the kingdom first … then the stuff we need gets added.”

Human beings can struggle with biblical concepts. We love the idea, those concepts are exciting … it’s the practical everyday, minute by minute outworking of it that gets on top of us! Having our faith run our lives seems so extreme. Actually that very thought shows us how far we’ve drifted away from His plan. The kingdom life is a totally committed life. Think about your faith life like this … how would you cope if God changed your plans?

You see the reality of our new life is that “the Lord will have His way…” He wants to be with us and be a part of our lives. I cannot comprehend why people leave Him out. Why leave out the One Who made penguins, dragonflies, and platypuses?? People say things like, ‘why did God give me a brain if He didn’t want me to use it?’ He gave us a brain to use it in His service, and in our service for others. Not to swell up our own sense of self-importance.

We constantly need to refresh and remind ourselves as well as reinforce our personal desire to: “…proclaim the Name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God! “The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He.”  Deuteronomy 32:34. He is perfect and … we ain’t!! 

We cannot be trusted by ourselves to ‘do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.’ Sooner or later we will all start blaming and shouting at each other and that is followed by all sorts of division, plus a whole lot of … wandering vaguely off into la-la land. And I don’t mean Los Angeles! We need the Holy Spirit’s input in our everyday lives – HE IS OUR STABILISING FORCE.

Moses understood the fact that sooner or later, without the Holy Spirit’s guidance, people stumble off into a wilderness and then they will turn around and blame GOD – and their leaders – even though they consensually walked off! I know we’ve all been transformed, washed by Jesus’ blood, but …at the same time we still are, present tense, being transformed and daily being washed! 

Without the Holy Spirit’s input, human beings can easily get arrogant and lose the desire to change. People enjoy being comfortable and feeling safe. We only like the kind of ‘adventures’ we plan. Being a Christian takes enormous courage, personal motivation, loads of action, and the sort of flexibility that is always prepared and willing to make personal sacrifices and life-style changes. You know, very few people just walk away from Christ – they slide away – one seemingly innocent bad choice at a time.

The thief’s greatest ploy is to steal away our confidence in our Father’s trustworthiness, love for us, and His goodness. It is incredibly important that we stop majoring on the loss or gain of material things, and start to realise the incomparably true value of our faith. Our personal faith and our corporate faith mean so much to Christ – He gave His life to buy it back from the enemy. Jesus has given us an opportunity to develop HIS kind of faith – the stuff that brings heaven to earth. And MOSES knew all about that! That man had a wife, a job, a home, relatives that respected him, as well as kids – and God asked Moses to give all that normal stuff up and go and save a nation!

Our circumstances can change in a heartbeat when God is our hope. Following Jesus is not meant to be boring! He turned fishermen into Apostles. 👋🏻