Love

P 3077 God has a different value system

/ DVH

Life is a funny thing — day after day we can try so hard to appear to be so together – spiritually, physically, and emotionally. We can unwittingly perpetuate deception, when we tell ourselves that we must continue to try harder — because we don’t want to let the Lord, or my family, or the church, or my job, down. Maybe the real truth is that we don’t want to be vulnerable in front of other people, because we don’t actually trust them! Or perhaps we think we will be judged if our humanity shows. 

Have we accidentally believed the lie or the hype that says God’s people are meant to be already perfected, getting everything right all the time? After all we want to be a good witness for Jesus! However, He’s the burden bearer – He is NOT the one who overloads us!! Day by day we are on a road. We are sojourners… travellers, learning as we go – like Abraham did. That learning does not stop while we are here. Religion likes the appearance of doing good, but that stuff will create frustration with yourself and others. 

In contrast, the bible account of Abraham’s life reveals His humanity. This man followed the Lord step by step from an old life into a new one. That new life was God’s own design, not his!  Abraham’s mistakes became stepping off points into what God actually wanted in the first place. The man’s faith in God’s ability to bring him through the difficulties he faced, increased as he simply kept putting one foot in front of another and obeying what the Lord told him to do.

When, if EVER, did our salvation rest on us? Our God only made the world, without our prayers, and without us to advise Him! He is and He always will be, His own incredibly wise counsel! What on earth makes us think we can fix ourselves? We desperately try to find the right person to pray for us, or the right prayer to pray, or the right scripture to quote over and over again. The Lord knows we are dust! Thinking point:  dust is just everything around us, broken down, worn down by time, into teeny tiny particles. Only God Himself can take dust … or dry bones … and make it live again! 

I think our worst problem is that we have made Almighty God too small. We have our gimme doctrines of wanting this and wanting that, and expecting Him to cough stuff up, as we accidentally call presumption, FAITH. We are settling for the appearance of looking good, or being nice people, instead of pressing in for complete restoration healing and transformation. I can’t fix anyone … not even me!  We are all broken one way or another!

Our loving Father God is always seeking US. He has our good in His heart because HE IS GOOD. Jesus didn’t set up a tent, and say: “…if you want to be healed come to My tent meetings!” He went out amongst the people and ministered to them wherever He found them, and most of the time, they found Him! That’s what our God is like! Always seeking us, always wanting everything to work together for our good – that’s His purpose! Our holy, sometimes self-serving, clusters are keeping real seekers out. What we are basically saying is to be saved means you will look like US! Doesn’t that line scare you…just a little bit?

The bible reveals God’s thoughts: ”Jesus says, “If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit,… ”John 15:5. Our problem we need to learn how to remain in Him, especially when stuff happens! Grapes don’t go wandering about looking for better nutrition or a stronger place in the vine – grapes are stationary. They are totally dependant upon the POWER OF THE SAP TO KEEP THEM. That place is the place where we live.

Remaining in Him means I trust Him no matter how things look. It is hardly ever about whatever is actually going on, most of the time this life is about Who is in charge here? Even bad things come to an end, one way or another. The reality of Jesus in our lives, is in the presence of His peace. He stood up in a storm and told it to shut up and it did. Boy do I pick Him to be my best friend! I wanna be like Jonathan – he knew how to pick best friends! Meanwhile we must remember, we are all in transit. Think on this as an aim for your life: “But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 MSG

The sooner we realise that we are not capable of figuring things out so that they work perfectly, every single time — the sooner we can get about the business of simply following Him, step by step, like Abraham. Jesus Christ is God’s first-born of many sons and daughters, but even Jesus didn’t PRESUME on His unique position. His faith was in His Father’s ability to carry out whatever Almighty God wanted, whenever He wanted it.

If we want to live in peace with people around us, then we must learn to trust God no matter what else is going on. Jesus didn’t take sides in conflicts –  all He cared about was His Father receiving His due glory, and His will being done. The people who love their God and do great exploits look like this: “For God makes all the decisions here. God is our King. God runs this place and He’ll keep us safe.” Isaiah 33:22.

Trust the Lord. His ways are not our ways, and His value system is not like ours. And if you know you are broken, don’t be ashamed – we ALL are. Some of us just hide it better than others do. Bye. 👋

P 3073 Be Generous.

/ DVH

“So he (an angel) said to him,(Cornelius) “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.” Acts 10:4&31 ”… and then Peter said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms are remembered in the sight of God.“ Hebrews13:16.   “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” 1 Timothy 6:18.“Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.” Acts 20:35. “…remembering the words the Lord Jesus Himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ 

One of the least favourite things to talk about in Christianity is money, rapidly followed by service. It seems that you can tell people that it’s wrong to yell at their spouse, and kids, and get mad at the neighbours … but leave their hard-earned money or time alone! Yet Jesus taught parables about it. He talked about things that directly involve what we choose to do with our money, possessions or time. It seems to me that we’d better pay attention, because money isn’t the only issue here. What we do with our time, our love, and attitudes also matters  — it’s all generosity. 

Cornelius was not a Christian, yet his generosity brought him to God’s attention! An angel told him that his generosity created a memorial for him. Think about it. We are here, right here, right now, because Cornelius was generous. Almighty God used this man to open up Jewish eyes to the possibility of sharing the gospel with the Gentiles! He straightened out Peter’s theology, with a vision, impressing on him that what the Lord Himself SAID was clean or unclean, was the guideline,  We can hypothesise and ponder all we like, God has bigger plans than we can ever imagine – let’s do stuff HIS way.

The bible tells us ‘our thoughts are not His thoughts, our ways are not His Ways.’  Father God does not respond to some things the way we do – He’s the all-knowing, all-wise, infinite, eternal God! This means He has a fantastic perspective!! He sent an angel to speak to Peter, because Peter’s theology didn’t line up with what the Lord wanted to do. I’ve noticed many times in the bible where God clearly says: “Think bigger still!” I believe we have inadvertently limited Almighty in order to manage Him, and our disappointments. Good luck with that! You cannot limit a limitless God – that is why the universe is still expanding!

The Holy Spirit clearly tells us in all those verses I mentioned above, that He loves generous people. People who voluntarily help, and/or listen to someone else’s troubles, and pray for them. We need to live this kind of life, all day, every day – always willing to share with, and help others. Our life is to be ‘other-centred’ and so we will have to fight hard against the current trend in humanity that is: “Me! Me! Me!” centred. ‘It is in giving that we receive.’

Our God has been incredibly, out-of-this-world generous to us. If we truly want to follow Jesus – that’s the narrow path – generosity.

Living like this is never ever convenient. Giving always means you have to make an extra effort. Just like changing our minds about ordinary things can be difficult, because we think we already know the answer. But those little things, those choices, steer our ship in His direction. That’s what changed Cornelius’ life and opened a brand new door for all sorts of people. Jesus set the precedent, when He healed, blessed and talked about our Heavenly Father to Samaritans! We have no idea who the Lord will save… that’s why we must tell everyone.

I think it is foolishness to live this life postponing giving and blessing others, to a better day. People deceive themselves thinking that other things are more important. Things like a better future, a much-needed holiday, or a nicer house, or good education for our kids. But none of us know where we will be tomorrow!  We dare not stop participating in our God-given, God-blessed actions, by holding them ransom against adverse circumstances. Find someone to bless today and every day. Go outside and look around, get a different perspective to this world – there is more to life than striving to attain things. 

I know what it is like to have difficult things land on you daily. That happens to us. I just keep giving the difficulties to Him. I’ve learnt to want what He wants, no matter how important things may seem to me to be at the time. His way is the best way. Pray, read the bible, make your time available to Him, and ask Him to help you find something good in what the day brings along. We can so easily give up our peace and hold ourselves hostage to a better day tomorrow. But we only have today.

Lately I’ve ended up laughing at things that would have made me so mad in the past! Sometimes, laughter really is the best medicine. I’ve learnt that my overreaction to petty things can be hilarious! God remembers and takes note of generous people! We all want God’s favour, and because of Jesus we already have it!  Generosity is a key to living this life the way the Lord Himself did. Bye. 👋.

P 3071 Jump on in, the water is fine.

/ DVH

“Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralised—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!” 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 MSG.

Perhaps the church has been so busy avoiding people who supposedly sin … like we don’t!  … because we are afraid of being contaminated(!)  When we live like this we are walking away from an extremely ripe field of grain. We don’t have to BE them, to talk to them. We simply choose to go with Love Himself, personified in us. Jesus goes before us, and He is with us, and He will remain with those people who need Him, long after we have left!

Speaking as a grey-haired old lady who has approached a bikie gang, plus, on another occasion, a couple of loose bikies strutting around a holiday town … I, too have had some conversations outside my comfort zone. On one occasion I felt like I was tackling two Goliaths!! But God spoke to me and He said: “If not you then WHO?”I’ve repeated the first story in this blog somewhere, in the past 8+ years, but the second one was pretty daunting. 

We pulled up in our car right next to these two huge bikie guys leaning against a lamp post talking to each other. And, joy of joys …the Lord spoke to me and told me to speak to them. My dear hubby immediately knew what I was going to do … so he left the car too. I climbed out of the car and tottered over trying to look casual. Then I said: “Great bikes boys!” Well, they were, their bikes were immaculately kept. Meanwhile I had to look UP to speak to them both – they just kind of nodded and kept talking to each other, probably hoping I would go away. 

I’ve learnt from my hubby that if you are going into the lion’s den you had better be prepared to stand up for Jesus right away or you will just peter out, and look like a goose. So I said: “God told me to tell you that Jesus loves you.” Jesus definitely loves them, but in those few seconds I wasn’t quite so sure how I felt!  – UM … maybe terrified? However THEY both looked at the ground. One of them kept on looking at the ground — it seemed like he was hoping that the ground would open up and swallow me.

Anyway the other guy stared into space but he interacted with me a bit, whilst I explained that I was probably his mother’s age and she might be concerned for his safety. Bikies like to hurt one another where I live. Then I said again that Jesus wanted them to know that He loved them, very much. The guy looking at the ground had a little tear roll down his cheek, and he kind of sniffed and wiped his nose with the back of his hand and nodded at the other one, who was staring anywhere but where I was. And then they started to move away. So did I! I jumped  back into our car so fast – you would have thought I was Gout-Gout!

My point? That was a God-appointment. In that kind of appointment the Lord reminds people He is real, by waving at them, through whatever we do and say. He calls to them, telling them He loves them. People usually react really well – but twice in 20 years we’ve been rejected. That’s pretty good odds wouldn’t you say? One guy nearly climbed over his desk to throw us out … so we left!  Another older lady was quite vocal about what was wrong with Christianity. So again, we quietly left. Of course we prayed for them!

God appointments are like that. They are times when we are set up by the Lord to be ourselves. We are not supposed to be an evangelist, or a prophet —you just be you. The person who loves Jesus. You are a witness – His witness. A witness tells what they know and what they have seen. Plus they answer questions if they are asked some. Half the time some overly enthusiastic people flood the poor schmuck they are talking to, by trying to stuff a life-time’s worth of witnessing Jesus at work in their lives into one encounter. 

Remember, God will send someone after you’ve gone. You are just being salty that’s all. Here’s some don’ts I learnt from a full-time evangelist. After the encounter, don’t jump, laugh, dance, sing, and create a hullabaloo anywhere near the person who was happy to listen to you. They will know you are talking about them, just respectfully leave. Don’t overload them. They don’t need 35 scriptures, or 12 how to come to Jesus brochures. 

Every time we are fake we are separating ourselves from the very people God asked us to speak to. We’ve all been saved by the very same Grace we are now offering them. I can only encourage anyone reading this to “jump on in the water is fine.” And if it goes wrong? “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming …” Easy peasy. 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 3068 We have an inheritance.

/ DVH

“For in His wisdom, God designed that all the world’s wisdom would be insufficient to lead people to the discovery of Himself. He took great delight in baffling the wisdom of the world by using the simplicity of preaching the story of the cross in order to save those who believe it. But for those who have been chosen to follow Him, both Jews and Greeks, He is God’s mighty power, God’s true wisdom, and our Messiah. For the “foolish” things of God have proven to be wiser than human wisdom. 

And the “feeble” things of God have proven to be far more powerful than any human ability. But God chose those whom the world considers foolish to shame those who think they are wise, and God chose the puny and powerless to shame the high and mighty. He chose the lowly, the laughable in the world’s eyes—nobodies—so that He would shame the somebodies. 

For He chose what is regarded as insignificant in order to supersede what is regarded as prominent, so that there would be no place for prideful boasting in God’s presence. For it is not from man that we draw our life but from God as we are being joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. And now He is our God-given wisdom, our virtue, our holiness, and our redemption.” 1 Corinthians 1:21, 24-25, 27-30 TPT.

God’s Wisdom cannot be accessed through our puny little, oh-so-easily-distracted minds. We desperately need His minute-by-minute input into our daily life. Together, as His Body – we have been freely given everything we will need in this life. The Lord Jesus’ life of love showed us all of God’s fullness in an every day setting. 

Jesus did so many things deliberately, for a far greater purpose than we ever imagined in our restricted thinking. He came to teach us by example. It is astonishing that Almighty God, Himself, would come to save the world in such an awe-inspiring totally selfless way. Now He is always present with us, as well as in us, in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Because He said it, we can believe it.

Jesus’ life and death are our God-given key which can unlock the mighty revelation of Who God is. Plus we have the Bible which is a road map into eternity. Now, anyone with a heart to learn His ways, can access Him in that book. However, every single one of us will also need the Author’s insight and revelation to open our eyes, so we can read it and be enlightened. The prime objective is to let the bible read you while you are reading it. Then we act upon it. Fame, money, earthly power or human intelligence, won’t help us understand what happened on an ordinary wooden cross outside Jerusalem, that’s why we need His Spirit to open our eyes and hearts.

Without God and all He did for us, we will live limited, small  lives — but with the Holy Spirit’s help – the impossible becomes possible. However, our enemy wants us to ignore these facts, using discouragement, despair and suspicion. It is one of his wiliest, sneakiest tricks. There is but one standard and that is – Christ IN us – HE is our hope of glory. He, and He alone, is our daily inspiration to live above the mundanities of this life. Jesus is SomeOne so good, so pure and holy, yet so normal, we struggle to comprehend how an ordinary human being could live and die the way He did.

At the same time, the bible also reveals to us, that we have not even begun to plumb the depths of Who our Heavenly Father God is … or how utterly beautiful and incredibly wise His Ways are. As we study His book, we can see that we still have such a limited understanding of spiritual things…. God Himself has equalised mankind in one sovereign action – through His precious Son’s obedience. It is no wonder that it can be difficult without the Holy Spirit’s help, to comprehend the vastness of what happened. Now we do not have to reduce God to our size — He already did that, once and for all!

Our access to understanding Who He is, comes from reading to His Word, with the simplicity and obedience of a little child. We need to read it looking for something to obey! Christ lived His life in total obedience to His Father’s will – He did all the work for us. Now we can come to Him the same way any child would come to a loving gracious parent… joyfully, without fear, or shame – always expecting to be received. Our Father’s enormous wisdom and love, coupled with His incredible goodness and kindness, coaxes us into an intimacy beyond our comprehension.

Jesus’ death and resurrection opened the door to a whole other way to live. That wide-open door can only be closed by our own choices. The devil can’t finagle his way in, or short-circuit what God has done because it can only be seen and understood through the spiritual sight of the Holy Spirit’s goodness, mercy, grace. Our enemy is so defeated—he now spends his time trying to distract us from the ongoing, never-ending revelation of our Father’s incredible love.  

Every single day we can always have the input of precious Holy Spirit. He has been given to us to open our eyes and hearts to that new way to live. Under His help and guidance, now we can gladly pass that Grace onto others who don’t deserve it either. You and I have been chosen to be the inheritors and recipients, as well as the distributors and executors of the Lord Jesus’ will. Bye. 🙌

P 3067 Rules don’t reign here – Love does.

/ DVH

We are not in the Old Testament, under the Old Will – now we live in His kingdom. So rules don’t reign here — LOVE DOES. It is a very limiting thing to live by rules, because there is no freedom to change or explore other possibilities! In the past few weeks I have discovered that the loss of a loved one sharpens your awareness of who you really are. The pressure and sadness bring up things that might remain undisturbed, or even unseen.

People make choices that separate us from one another. So much more of this life can be explored together, if relationships were valued more than privacy. Sadly, my whole culture values privacy! Have you ever experienced getting angry with people who do some dumb thing you advised them not to do, and when it doesn’t work out — they want you to fix it for them?  Boy do I have a word for you today. It starts with RE and it ends with PENT! We are told to bear one another’s burdens so we can carry them to the Lord for that other person, not collapse under the load!!

Recently I found piles of anger, stuffed into previously unknown corners, all over the place in my heart. Apparently, I also have a postponing habit! I see something in my heart, and think, ‘I’ll fix that with the Lord, later!’ Well, later finally came, for me, and it wasn’t a bit like Christmas! I discovered I was sick to death with being asked what I thought, only to find, lo and behold – the other person didn’t like that answer and threw it away. It wasn’t that I wanted things to be done right – I just thought they could have been done better. 

I’m an external processor. I find out what I’m thinking by what comes out of my mouth and sometimes that is a bigger surprise to me than it would be to you! It’s dangerous stuff, trust me. It is amazing how easily my foot gets into my mouth. Especially as in the natural – I can’t even put my own socks on! Stuff started coming out of my mouth that definitely wasn’t true, and so the Lord began to deal with me about my own attitude toward myself. 

I had developed a habit of thinking that if I had said what the Lord told me to say in a better way, maybe things would have turned out differently. In other words I had picked up false responsibility, which meant that everything that went wrong was most probably my fault. It’s taken a crisis for me to see that I am definitely not that clever!! Other factors have come into play.

Individual people that I care about and respect, gently began to suggest that the way I was thinking about myself was not a great way to deal with things. And then another one came along… before you knew it — I had a queue of them, that nearly went around the block! And they were all saying the same thing. They didn’t all use the same words – but what was said had the same theme. The theme was —- “punishing yourself for other people’s poorly made decisions, is unscriptural and a bad idea.”

That’s the problem with honesty … it’s great but it can be brutal when you swing it like a sledge hammer… at yourself.I had developed an ungodly attitude that was disguised as humility. It seemed to be easier to me to be self-effacing, than it was to say to someone else: “But God said.” The Lord explained to me that attitude was not humility, it was negating the gift He had given me. Then I explained to Him that if I didn’t self-efface stuff, people would not only get mad at me, they would find, and use, that big hammer on me, frequently.! He very gently said: “Isn’t that called fear?” I sure didn’t have any answer for that one. Unless you count … UM! 

But that conversation led me to one question – how often does fear stop any of us from obeying Him? I mean, think about it. We live in a world where there are no rules – because we think rules restrict other people’s freedoms. So now we’ve made rules that say that you can’t stop others from being themselves! Does anyone see the irony in that?

In God’s kingdom, wherever we have had rules — He is actively helping us replace them with His LOVE — because Love is the perfect bond of unity. We can’t get to unity with rules because all of us are rebellious – even the nice people! I can’t get to the place where I am not afraid of you, simply because the bible says “don’t be afraid.” Instead I need a revelation of how great His love and acceptance is toward me. Those rules have not been discarded, they have been gloriously upgraded in one life-changing event! Jesus died in our place.

Sadly, I can keep on doing the very things that are preventing me from growing up into God’s plan for my life – by undermining myself. The Lord wants to tell each one of us today, that there are always areas in our hearts that He is working on. At the same time, He is preparing each one of us to be ready for what comes next, because He knows when those even more difficult things will land on us. 

We can miss the opportunities He brings to prepare us, by not replenishing the oil in our lamps. So don’t tell yourself: ‘I’m just broken.’ Our God can mend anything. The rules have been replaced by LOVE and love cannot, and will not ever fail. 👋 

P 3066 Position yourself to catch the Wind.

/ DVH

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If you truly want to follow Me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share My cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to My ways.” Matthew 16:24 TPT. I believe the secret to this verse is in the words: ”if you TRULY want to follow Me.” 

This thought is repeated in Luke 9:23-24 TPT: “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.”

We often look at our actions, we don’t often look at our aims, desires or wants. So we can quickly feel broken-hearted when we know we’ve failed the Lord. Especially if we revise the things that miss the mark. Those self-accusations won’t help us to follow Him. If you and I think we have messed up too much, we will start to AVOID Him, not follow Him! 

Meanwhile, that is not what He is saying here. Our wants and desires matter to Him. But it is LOVE that is meant to lead us into the place of obedience. Forcing ourselves, creates resistance. I think this means we need to change our primary focus – don’t look to other people for that kind of love, look to Jesus. Then BE the person you need others to be to you!  Read His book like a love letter. Go to the Lord and tell Him that you want to be close to Him, that you long to make Him your heart’s primary desire, but your flesh is weak. Tell Him you need His help. Then let the Holy Spirit be your Personal Coach and follow His instructions – they are in the book.

There are things that make us feel guilty – whether the guilt is real or not. But until they are confessed and dealt with and put aside …we can easily rationalise away the real issues and start fighting the Wind…literally! A kite doesn’t try to fly – it simply positions itself to catch the wind! The Holy Spirit is the wind beneath our wings.  I may not need what you need right now. I may need His loving discipline, but you could need a hug! Christianity is not ‘one size fits all!’ 

We have a Saviour Who personalised everything He did and said as He ministered to individuals. He didn’t go digging around in the coal cellar of people’s hearts, He accurately touched the sore spot in there, and then put His love and truth in its place. When a dumb thing came out of someone’s mouth – He addressed it. The secret to living a day-by-day Godly life, is check out internally what we are aiming at. If I choose to follow Jesus, then I will put down anything else that stands in my way.

Jesus is telling us here, that we cannot follow Him and still live a selfish, greedy, angry life. Those things do not work together. Walking in Love is the Answer. He lived His life showing us the way to follow Him. But the Lord will not beat anyone up because we are not dead to ourselves. And if we analyse our every thought and move that will just take up our precious time. Instead we need to be thanking Him, for all He has done and Who He is. It’s about our focus and our focus must be His love FOR US.

He has done all of the work, all the heavy lifting. In these scriptures He is saying… to achieve what we want, death to self is the only way. He’s pointing to the direction we simply must take. We can’t step into what He has given us through guilt, reprisal or condemnation. He loved us, walking right into death and then He went through that into a new life. That action has given us unfettered access to His heart. The Holy Spirit will lead us, and help us for free, we simply need to let Him have His Way. It takes faith. Jesus has told us what the results will be if we choose to live this life not following Him. 

Because of what the Lord did, we cannot afford to let condemnation strangle us anymore. Kick it off. Tell those thoughts you want to follow the Lord — that filthy snake can’t lead you anywhere but down the drain! Love is our Leader now. Jesus knows we are weak. OH!… but He is so strong! He can get us through anything, including our own weaknesses. He’s with us, as one of us. He is our Friend that is closer than a brother. And He has sent us His most cherished Helper – the Holy Spirit. He created each one of us. He knows what needs to be changed and when it needs changing. 

Whenever love prevails, our responses will be different. When we feel empowered, and safe;  His acceptance and Love gives us room to grow, without pressure. The decision to follow Him is difficult because it means we don’t call the shots anymore. But we are giving that power over to SomeOne Who put up His hand and said: “I see those sins My brother or sister committed, It’s all real. It hurt and destroyed other people. But kill Me instead of them. LET THEM LIVE!!” 

The Holy Spirit wants to guide us through any potholes, pits, and mudslides of this life, into a new way to live. Catch the precious Wind of Love and start your adventure with God Himself. Bye.👋

P 3064 The missing piece to the meaning of life …

/ DVH

… IS IN THE BIBLE! Our Heavenly Father God has not left us to our own devices, instead heaven invaded earth in the most innocent, harmless, least intrusive and threatening form – Jesus Christ came here as a little, helpless baby! HE IS OUR MISSING PIECE. In the bible we have a permanent record of God’s love in action throughout the whole book. Because men and women, just like us, saw our God in action and wrote it down. Now we need to act just like the leper in Mark 1:45 ‘… he…began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter,…” What do we proclaim everywhere? That God’s love is clearly demonstrated through Christ! He is the Major piece of our life’s puzzle.

We have discovered that His Love needs evidence — and Jesus Christ is our personal, and corporate evidence that mankind is now, and will always be, greatly cherished and loved by God Himself. This fact was never meant to be kept a secret – God Himself came here!! We’ve been incredibly blessed, because the bible says to each one of us:  “whosoever-will-may-come!” In other words:  we don’t care what you did. If you are willing to make amends and walk away from sin, and trust Jesus to save and heal you from the torments and angst that sin has produced in your life … you are welcome here! There is no secret password, handshake, keycard or any particular puzzle skills needed! The bible has been given to us to make God’s love for us clearly known. 

That Love for each one of us is another major piece to find. Christians have been reborn to be walking, talking demonstrators of God’s love in action. We are to live this way with each other, and that will be our witness to the world around us.“In addition to all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” Colossians 3:14. The Father, Jesus His Son, and the precious Holy Spirit already have this perfect bond of unity. If we think about Their mutual love like that, then we will begin to understand how important OUR unity is to Them. Their kind of love explodes in us, and on us, and it intentionally fills up our hearts. But this love is not just a feeling – it is a choice. Choice is another huge part of our puzzle. 

Christ chose to love us and that love has always been on display through His words and actions recorded in His book. He did that whenever He chose to lift people up who were burdened by their sin, and He challenged those who thought they weren’t! He healed the sick, cleansed the lepers and delivered those long held captive by the devil’s wiles. One of our enemy’s greatest deceptions portrays him as a scary person in a red suit with horns. But, our bible portrays the enemy as disguising himself as an angel of light. So we need God’s wisdom to see and hear properly – there’s another puzzle piece. His book can teach us. 

Together with the Holy Spirit’s help, plus everything contained within His book, these things are our very best puzzle solvers, and part of God’s heavenly plans and tactics. However, even the bible itself can be a puzzle. We will sometimes need 3D laser skills to see the reality contained inside it. The Holy Spirit helps us to look through the words to the realities within. “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).” John 10:10. If whatever you have bumped into steals, kills or destroys yourself, or others, it is not God. Jesus Himself made that clear. Our only hope is to tune into whatever the Holy Spirit is doing, then we can see beyond the obvious things in this world, into His realm, where love prevails.

We also need to hold tight to another puzzle piece that says ‘God chose to give His precious Son as a sacrifice.’ Jesus chose to come here. And the Holy Spirit chooses to be present all over the earth, guiding each one of us, as He is going to and fro. He is watching out for anyone whose heart is toward the Father. The Trinity’s deliberate choices have led to us having absolute freedom to choose which way we will personally go. And no-one else can take that choice, that puzzle piece, from you. You will have to choose to lay your entire life down at His feet. 

Day by day, we continually remind ourselves of His Ways by reading His book – that book is the key to every eternal mystery. My next proposed puzzle piece is an important fragment of the eternal puzzle we need to understand. When people die, where do they go? His book tells us that. The bible shows us the answer, when it tells us about a rich man who had a beggar named Lazarus at his gate. The rich man ignored the beggar’s needs. (Luke 16:19-31) You can read about the results for yourself. This puzzle piece looks like this:  whatever we’ve been given is to be used to further His kingdom, not ours.

My last pivotal puzzle piece is that salvation is available to every single human being, even the worst of us. In God’s kingdom ALL means ALL!  Almighty God does not use hyperbole, He doesn’t have to. What He says is truth! Jesus clarifies our view of our Heavenly Father and personifies His ways beautifully in the bible. This eternal puzzle was always meant to be solved by us… and FYI …Jesus Christ is the missing piece. Bye 👋

P 3063 The best kind of wrap!

/ DVH

““You are my place of quiet retreat, and Your wrap around Presence becomes my shield as I wrap myself in your Word!” Psalms 119:114 TPT. One of the things my mother left behind when she died recently, was a pretty wrap. I won’t ever forget who it belonged to, because it is now a part of our shared history. Hubby and I chose it and gave it to her a long time ago. Any time I wear it now, I will be wrapping myself in memories of all of us together.

This is true of God’s Gracious Presence, He keeps us surrounded by love, as well as sheltered within Him. He does not take away our trouble and difficulties, instead He promises us a place of safety within it. We are wrapped all around with Him. His kindness, love, and Who He is. His Presence becomes a barrier between us and everything else. However, this is not just a place of safety, it is also a place of enlightenment, full of personal strategic battle plans and solidity, in the middle of whatever is going on around us. It is a place where we are aware of His abiding love. His nearness comforts us. All that and much much more, is available as we wrap ourselves up in Him.

I can remember years ago, someone I dearly loved, who did not yet comprehend the hugeness of God for themselves –  got mad at me because I was so wrapped up in the Lord, that I virtually always had a bible in my hand. I was so preoccupied with what He had done for me, I wanted to be with Him all the time. We need to learn to value Him above everything else, including our own comfort.

Back then, I was taught that the Holy Spirit was like some sort of a glorious phenomenon – Who was given to only a select few people to empower them to do special things. The rest of us were doomed to plod on – making the best of what life chucked at us. And if you didn’t have a label, (a spiritual gift) you were given a practical job to help the rest of the church function. I had no idea that when the Holy Spirit fell on the church in Acts – He fell on EVERYONE in that Upper room! You and I are meant to be continually guided by, and led by SomeOne Else greater and wiser than we are.  

Psalm 91 has rapidly become my favourite Psalm, because it is all about safety and protection, the things I couldn’t always find in my own life, or even Christian circles. This Psalm became my God-given shawl. Despite the horror of this world today, we are to live within this secret place. We do not visit it and come out again to go on with other parts of our lives. It is our home-base — everything happens from there.

Verses 1-11. “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand]. I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust! For [then] He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. [Then] He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings shall you trust and find refuge; His truth and His faithfulness are a shield and a buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror of the night, nor of the arrow (the evil plots and slanders of the wicked) that flies by day, 

Nor of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor of the destruction and sudden death that surprise and lay waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only a spectator shall you be [yourself inaccessible in the secret place of the Most High] as you witness the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place, There shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent. For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service].”

Psalm 91 is God’s delightful “shawl” or “wrap” for each of us — it shows us, within the text, how it works! This Psalm hinges on a couple of little phrases like: “I will say of the Lord…” plus “he who dwells.” These phrases are clues for us …Where do you find your refuge? In distraction? Or maybe your refuge is within your family, group of friends, job, or your church. God Himself wants to be our chosen refuge, our shawl, our place of safety and comfort. He wants to be the place we run into when we are in trouble — all our memories are in Him.

This is why I am often so emphatic about total surrender — giving our lives completely over to Him. Because that is the place of provision and protection. In the secret place we get to watch whatever is going on, without it destroying us. We are not laying aside our responsibilities when we do this, rather we are giving them to, and deferring to – the Greater One within us. We expect that He will take care of things for us. 

Back at the beginning of my walk with the Lord, I had a terrible time with a sort of split-definition of the ways my spiritual life was supposed to work. I could never figure out which bit of my life was mine to go on with, and which bit was His! So I lived as I pleased, trying hard to do the things I read in the book, and I took the difficult, or impossible things to Him. The thing is, it is so, so much easier, less frenetic, time-consuming, and stressful to just give everything to Him. Little things and big ones.

This Psalm is the very best kind of shawl or wrap. We can see what is going on, but we are no longer in the line of fire. We can stand behind Him and become spectators of His love in action, toward us…and others. Bye.👋

P 3058 A change is needed.

/ DVH

“I had to nurse you and feed you with “milk,” not with the solid food of more advanced teachings, because you weren’t ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready to be fed solid food, for you are living your lives dominated by the mind-set of the flesh. Ask yourselves: Is there jealousy among you? Do you compare yourselves with others? Do you quarrel like children and end up taking sides? If so, this proves that you are living your lives centred on yourselves, dominated by the mind-set of the flesh, and behaving like unbelievers.” 1 Corinthians 3:2-3.

You know, there’s a deeper place for Christians to live daily – simply because God’s GRACE is available to each one of us all the time. His Grace facilitates our new way to live. However, Grace can’t change a FAKE ME. By that I mean, who we are can be carefully hidden under layers of ‘pious sucking it up’ instead of true transformation. Real transformation means when somebody presses button “A” in our lives, we don’t explode anymore. OH for THAT day!! 

In our society today it seems the land of harder and worse is looming up right in front of mankind. Sadly, most of the time, instead of listening to our own reactions, we make excuses for our behaviour and get furious at someone else. But because of what Jesus did for us, we no longer have to be ashamed to acknowledge where we personally went wrong.

A lot of our time in this life is wasted by pretending we are managing – when we are not. The best thing about sin is that we have an opportunity to be saved and transformed from it, when we acknowledge it! Every person on this planet has sin in common. Realising that, can lead us deeper into the Lord’s incredible Love, we must understand that despite our sinfulness, He will not turn any of us away. It is always our choice … we can live in the need for revenge, or inner peace. You know, babies always need to be looked after, adults have a life to live. Babies are not productive at all, they are consumers.

It would seem from these verses in Corinthians that the Apostle Paul knew some undernourished fat-babies in his life as well! However! “There IS NO condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus…!!” Acknowledgement of our own sin will lead us into a wider, broader place … where I can love you no matter what you did, because I’ve learnt hating you is just as bad as whatever you did to me! Comparison of big and little sins is killing us – and our fake identities are muddying the waters of this life. There are higher places for every single one of us to go. I tell myself: ‘Every time I confront these things in my life, I’m building my faith muscle. Every time I humble myself I am stepping into His Grace.’

So we must decide, and choose to move on from the stuff that has held us captive for most of our lives, and believe what the Lord Jesus said. It’s all part of the same faith. “It is for freedom that Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1. The slavery comes in when we refuse to acknowledge to ourselves, that we were all born broken! Accepting the never-ending, all-encompassing love of God is available to everyone, changes our perception of things that appear to be stuck. Transparency helps us. We cannot afford to walk around with our noses in the air looking at others thinking: ‘they are more broken than I am!’

Let me be clear – the Lord won’t physically stop us, we must learn, through experience, to use our faith in His truthfulness, to stop ourselves. That’s what our faith is for – we are to live this new life we have been given, using our faith that what the Lord said He did, He did! Acknowledging our sinfulness puts feelings in second place, and at the same time we are telling ourselves that no matter how things look, Jesus has got our troubles or difficulties and He’s THE penultimate Redeemer. 

The door to that jail we lived in before we met Him – is now permanently open.There are no guards! They fell on their backs when He burst out of that grave! The enemy tries to keep all of us busy examining everyone else’s attitudes and actions for our entire lives. Unfortunately, if we put our faith down, and aim at excusing ourselves, we will continue to commit whatever sin we’ve been fighting that trips us up. Instead we must believe Jesus is telling the truth. He said He did it, so it is done. Now we repent and repair things wherever we need to, and move on.

Jesus said that while He was hanging on a cross in agony. “It. Is. Finished.” Every requirement for our new life is already in our account, it has been paid for, in full. Now we put aside the temptation to resent people, or to lie, to ourselves and others, or get angry and hate people. We simply go and do what Jesus would do. He came here to love people, so that’s what we do too! We are all pilgrims, we have not yet arrived: “but we press on!! …” 

There is incredible freedom in not excusing yourself and facing up to reality. There were times Jesus physically went up a mountain to pray. Here’s my little theory … I think He did that because He needed the spiritual, physical and emotional respite from the stuff all around Him. He need to find true REST in His Father.  Prayer and reading the bible are our spiritual life-blood – they gives us rest from striving. Listen as if God Himself was speaking to you, personally. What we need to change is our belief that your sin is worse than mine! Bye. 👋