Love

P 2708 Why would we limit the LIMITLESS ONE?

/ DVH

Let’s fervently pray for our understanding of Him and His ways to be stretched instead! Why would we settle for other people’s limited views when we can go after and know HIM personally. My best and only thought is kind of a small one – and most probably a big fat understatement! When someone asks me what God is like, I say: “He’s like Jesus!” That’s because Jesus clearly told us in John 5:19 that:‘He only did what He saw His Father doing, and only said what He heard His Father saying.’ 

Also Hebrews 1:3 it says: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”From those verses alone, I learn that Christ is indeed God stepping into time and limiting Himself to our ways. It blows my mind! At the same time, Jesus walked this earth and still lived within our normal human limitations, except HE lived a totally limitless life. Nothing stopped Him – nothing took Him by surprise. Read the book and keep on reading it. It will blow your mind, it always blows mine!

Our Heavenly Father speaks to us in many ways. He has so many more ways to speak than human beings realise. God speaks the languages of angels, as well as every human one – past, present and future! Even the sky shouts to us daily about Him. Plus the stars sing out His praises. Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” Job 38:7 “ …while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy …”

His Love speaks a language that doesn’t always have words, and His idea of faith reaches beyond mere human understanding into the supernatural. My point is – we are chasing after SomeOne unknowable, without help. We need revelation from His Word and the Holy Spirit. I think we can easily succumb to over-reaching if we think we can define Him without His help! Our finite beings are too small to understand the incredible complexity of Who He is..🙌

Today I want to talk about our limitless Heavenly Father, from this POV … we need to understand our side of this glorious endless relationship. There are times that we can think this prayer, or that question has remained unanswered and become disappointed with Him – although we probably wouldn’t say that out loud! It is imperative for us to understand that Almighty God always answers us … HE JUST DOESN’T ALWAYS USE WORDS! Continually pray for eyes to see and ears to comprehend His Answers – because even His silence has a purpose!

Sometimes our understanding of His Ways etc .can come later, perhaps retrospectively. But in order to walk with Him and grow, our faith in His goodness must conquer our doubts and disappointments. Otherwise we will impede our progress in our faith, and we may never reach our full potential. Jesus died to give us the capacity to be stretched and transformed, not because He finds us unacceptable, but because our personal and even learnt inclinations, limit our understanding of Who He is and How much He loves people.

The very best mutual language, the one that will always be understood, by Him and us, is LOVE. That’s why it is imperative that we learn how His kind of love works. How it functions  – what it produces. When we begin to uncover the mysteries of LOVE we will begin to understand Who He is.  I know I rattle on about that over and over again – but knowing His Ways is an important key to defining the way WE need to live.“How can two walk together unless they be agreed?”

We can’t walk with Him and be restored into the innocence and purity we were always meant to have – unless we put aside those things that weigh us down. Both personally and corporately, we are currently limiting ourselves. We allow a few men’s insight to rule many churches, at the cost of broadening our base by going after insight for ourselves. “In order that the many-sided (multi-faceted) wisdom of God might be made known now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places through the church,…”Ephesians 3:10. BTW innocence and purity were restored to us at the cross. It is time for us to fight this world’s definition of wisdom and freedom – and return to the simplicity and power of the cross. 

One of the things we will need to put down is accepting religious doctrine as representational of ALL of His truth. You and I are the only people who can limit the size and function of our faith. When we deliberately choose to learn to love as He loves, all sorts of barriers will blow away, our eyes will be opened;  and then we will look at others with the joyous word “brother” on our lips! 

This is when we will begin to “know one another after the Spirit”instead of eliminating others because of their beliefs. Only God Himself can take the muddle of our denominations and personal proclivities of faith in Him, and bring it into a cohesive whole. Defining God separately is a waste of our time … we must start learning what His love looks like and begin to fervently pray that we walk in it, toward each other. Why would we settle for a limited edition god when we can know the LIMITLESS ONE?  Bye. 🙏

P 2707 Somebody’s been at the Kool-aid again!

/ DVH

Have you ever heard someone prophesy in church, or had somebody give you a word and you thought: ’huh??’  Well that was a bit weird?’ At this point you may be tempted to run around yelling: ‘That person has their marbles scrambled – fruit-loop alert!’  Don’t do it … don’t do it …don’t do it! Resist the temptation. You might learn something,God taught one guy with a talking donkey, and Jesus taught His disciples with a tree! Now at this point a religious person could observe: ‘Of course when we act like that, that’s judgment.’ Oh right… thanks for your input! 🙄

I’ve asked the Lord once, about whatever it was that someone else said that sounded off to me, and He replied: “What’s that got to do with you? Your part is to follow Me.” Well, there’s me in my box with the lid nailed on. There are times when somebody who says they are listening to the Holy Spirit can get it wrong.They stand up and announce that the end of the world will be the last Friday of this month, and that Friday comes and goes … and!!!  … Nuthin’ happening here…!  Then people can start avoiding that person like they have the plague. Here’s a thought maybe we could let them learn from their own mistakes? We all make them!

We simply must refrain from slicing and dicing people with gossip and judgment etc., we need to repent, and ask for the Holy Spirit’s insight instead.  Why? Because even though someone’s word was not accurate, we can still learn something. Maybe the thing we can learn is this: it is not the height of wickedness to get a message scrambled, or to ‘hear’ the wrong morse code!  As a group we can become so lazy and put such pressure on other people to be ‘the mouth of God! We even do it to our pastors. These are human beings right? They put their pants on one leg at a time like you do!

The pressure to be always right and ‘speak for God’ is too big for one person.”Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said.” 1 Corinthians 14:29. At the same time, we don’t have to go home and pack our bags, and make sure our wills are in order — just because Brother So-and-so announced the sky is falling. Ask the Lord – what’s in that for me to learn? Then quietly move on. Plus … try not to peer at the sky all day on that Friday!! 😳

Meanwhile, my take-away from what Brother So and so said is …“LIVE READY.” That way I’m learning to walk with Jesus and ready at any given moment. That’s in the book. Now if, by chance, that prophetic brother keeps on revising the date of the apocalypse – then PRAY FOR HIM. He obviously ate something that has disagreed with him. or maybe he has drunk too much Kool-aid! That can happen to all of us. That’s why unity is more important than being right. Sorting out that lost lamb is a job for the pastor, or an elder. You and I should just keep on praying for them.

Hubby and I have very different ministry gifts that enhance one another, and I am in awe at what God does with his obedience. I often watch him as the Lord works out His plans through him. Some of the time what hubby says to other people is like a bridge way-too-far-away for me. He’s so bold. I’d probably pussy-foot about and then say not very much of anything. I talked to the Lord about it and He kindly explained to me that my husband is His servant first. Well, that resolved that conflict! When Almighty God puts dibs on someone it goes straight into none-of-my-business basket. I learnt that skill the hard way. 

But what if hubby were actually wrong and his leading is inaccurate? Here’s what I’ve learnt. At times like that I can put my faith in God to redeem and transform whatever is going on for His glory. I’m no longer looking to be a smartie-pants who is always right, now I am looking for the Lord’s outcome. At the same time that doesn’t mean I can’t speak to hubby about it, lovingly. ‘…or how can two walk together unless they are in agreement?’ For the sake of unity we will need to come to a place mutually where we leave things to the Lord to sort us both out. Even if I am positive that I am right, a wrong attitude can discount love.

The bible says this is what love does — it suffers long. It believes all things, it hopes all things, it is not rude and … love can’t fail! If we choose to stand in love then we are putting ourselves on the Lord’s side. We need eyes filled with His love to see Him working. Our human POV won’t be enough, it is tainted by our own theological opinions. My point today is this – the only person who is right all the time is the Lord! The rest of us mostly muddle about.

We may find there are times when some poor soul has been at the Kool-aid – be kind. Maybe they are desperate to be heard. Whatever the reason – Almighty God is bigger than their mistakes – Jesus died to pay for their sins and errors too. Let’s practice “bearing with one another in love.” Otherwise we can end up even wrong-er than Brother So- and-so. Bye 👋

P 2706 My thoughts about prayer.

/ DVH

Matthew 6:5-15 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, Who is unseen. Then your Father, Who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Many people think of the Lord’s prayer as a model for prayer. I think prayer is simply talking to the Lord about the things that are bothering us, asking Him to help us. Rightly or wrongly I personally pray about temptation etc. when it comes up! Our Heavenly Father loves the kind of prayers prayed quietly, away from other people’s eyes, and approval. He doesn’t want long endless prayers, as a matter of fact, Jesus refers to that kind of prayer as the sort of prayer that is meant to impress God and others. Whatever someone’s reason is, praying quietly by yourself is a wonderful way to sit with Him. Jesus’ own prayers were personal and often private.  Moses talked to the Lord face to face, and sometimes Moses was ON his face, but it was personal!

The Lord’s prayer shows us our priorities in prayer. Our heavenly Father, and His role in our lives, then what He wants us to do in this life to bring about His kingdom. Our Father is not a just a title, it is a reality. If you think about that the next time you pray it will change everything! We are reminding ourselves of Who He is, and who we are not! After that we go on to pray for the people who sin against us. The thing is, we are praying because we see HIM as our Answer. We don’t need a list, we need connection. We are not going shopping, we are meeting with SomeOne Who loves us and is our great priority. We have been told that we can ask for the things we need. 

We all know that forgiveness is an ongoing need, it is an always optional decision to obey Him. What we do about someone else’s sin is carried out to honour Him. I have found that feelings come, and go, but prayer is like air – necessary. As I’ve said recently, I’ve been learning that we must simply let go of some people, as well as our expectations that they will change to meet our needs and make us more comfortable. Talking to Jesus, Who was a Master of letting go – is a fantastic idea. Praying for things means we have lost the importance of Who He is in our lives. He’s the priority – not just the answer!.

But what about when someone maliciously hurts you over and over again? Then we are suddenly at the pointy end of their jabbing stick. Forgiveness negates the pain of being prodded by memories over and over again. I’ve learnt to accept people from my past, as well those in the present, by letting go of their mean spiritedness, their attitude is not my business. We can easily have an unrealistic aim for others to be perfect. However, I know I’m not – so I can forgive you! Sometimes I have to let go of things and forgive, minute by minute, as well as daily. I make that decision FOR HIS sake, not the other people. I owe those people Love and I will receive that love by sitting in the Presence of the One Who did everything to restore me.

“…do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others” — it is not the size of our prayers or our ability to outtalk, or even outshine others, or present a good case— what counts is our relationship with the Lord – it’s Him we are talking to! He’s told us that unforgiveness cements us into a bad place. This whole thing comes down to what we care about the most. Our embarrassment, pride, or the desire to simply let go of the past – so we can all get on with our future. We injure ourselves when we hold onto things.

When we pray in secret this means we have become eligible for unseen blessings. Those things are only recognised by the person who prayed, unseen!  I don’t know if you have noticed this or not, but our wonderful Heavenly Father loves to do things in secret. When He asks us to pray that way, He is inviting us into a place where He often works, and at the same time we will get to know and understand Him in a new way.

If God knows what we need before we need it, it stands to reason in my peanut brain that if we do need it He will supply it! I have learnt to say to Him: “Surprise me!” and He does! Prayer is a privilege we all share because we love Him and we want to acknowledge Him first. Bye. 👋

P 2704 A spiritual vitamin pill!

/ DVH

“God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13 TPT

There are days when I wear this verse out!! (As if I could!) What I mean by that, is that the Lord presses the refresh button in my life, over and over again. And hallelujah, verses like this one never get worn out – thank you Jesus. Here are a couple more FYI.


“For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”Jeremiah 31:25. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30 MSG.

I like the whole ‘revitalise us’ theme. Some days when I get out of bed I sure need a kick start! Yesterday was one of them. Going on the road always requires lots of work from my dear hubby, on top of what he already does. He’s preparing things for weeks before the actual event. Sadly we can’t do the whole fast-food thing while we are away – that means he has to cook a whole lot of stuff before we leave and freeze it. Not to mention how much fun it is to pack the car! I don’t know how he does any of it. 

I had a chat with the Lord about my inability to contribute regarding our adventures and He very kindly reminded me that hubby couldn’t go if I didn’t go with him. It’s nice to feel useful, even when you are doing nothing! By the time I swan out to the car the day we leave, everything is done. My sole contribution is to not fall apart physically while we are travelling – and, of course, I have to trust the Lord for that!!  But praise Him I have been given the gift of encouragement, so I use that along the way.

The first verse above in Philippians is the reason we go. The Lord has given us a passion to do what He likes best –  He loves to talk to people! He just adores it. Because He loves them so much, we have caught His joy, so now we love it too. You just never know what He is going to do next – that’s the bit that always grabs me by the heart – the unpredictability of it all. Some days hubby barely says ‘hello’ to someone, and they go on to talk about their private lives and spiritual thoughts, almost immediately. Because the Holy Spirit is present with us, we eagerly anticipate and welcome Him wherever we go, because we love watching Him work. It’s just like a little kid, watching ‘my Daddy do stuff.’

Here are a couple of really good questions to contemplate: “But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” Romans 10:14-15. 

Three guesses who Paul means by the title – “someone!” The day came for hubby and I when we both had to admit, someone means ME! I know that Christians get closer to the Lord through prayer, preaching, waiting on Him and fasting, or even by operating in spiritual gifts … BUT !!!… one of the best ways I know to grow, as well as use and stretch your faith, is to GO – for the gospel’s sake. 

I have this theory, most people like to stay within their comfort zones, because they don’t want to mess up, or bring the Lord into ill-repute. They often feel inadequate for the task. Plus people have busy lives! In fact if you look at me in particular, the one thing I don’t have, is a busy life. Being disabled means you have to plan your days very carefully and prayerfully, I only have so much energy to go around. Even on the road, I can only do what He tells me then I turn into a pumpkin and need sleep. But here is what I’ve learnt – if you give Him whatever you have, Jesus will take that offering and multiply it. 

Here’s my scripture about that scenario… hold on … it may surprise you. “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” John 6:9. Most of the time I have limited energy, so I just give what I have to Him. The Lord takes my little offering and multiplies it. Meanwhile, some people might have lots of energy and very little time, or even motivation – so today I want to encourage you to give your time and lack of motivation to Him and watch what He will do with it! Jesus has spiritual vitamin pills that make the physical ones look like rice cakes … all air and very little nourishment! Bye for now. 👋

P 2703 Even if we die, WE WIN!

/ DVH

Right here, right now, we have been re-born into something new. To start with, we are now risk takers. We take a risk every time we talk about Jesus to someone we care about, or even somebody we don’t know. People have been punched on the nose for less! It’s always a risk. I’ve learnt to do whatever He tells me to do — but, at the same time, I figure if I heard Him incorrectly, Jesus can redeem anything! So I ask Him to redeem whatever I did that missed the mark.  Plus I carry lots of hankies, and bandaids! … only joking.🤣

The bible teaches us to love other people, but the reality is we have no actual guarantee that whoever we love can’t, won’t, or don’t love us back. The best answer to that unfortunate dilemma is to focus on how much HE loves us! Sadly I think most of us are ignorant of that particular fact. We let the fact that other people don’t love us dissuade us from the reality of His eternal, passionate love for us.

So it is good to make that error our prayerful starting place. It is way too easy to start in the wrong place. Sometimes we start by doing our best to love others – but we actually need His power to love others. Sooner or later, everyone is going to annoy us, and there goes love out of the window. Instead, ask Him to reveal to you how much He loves you.

At the same time, it is not good to sit around waiting to ‘feel like He loves you’ to fall on you – instead, deliberately choose to decide to believe the book! Then begin to live this life the way we have been taught by Christ’s own example. One step at a time, always walking with the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t leave us, we may not be aware of Him – but He is there. If we fall down and do something that breaks our connection with Him, then we repent, repair and get up again. The whole point of Christianity is selfless living!  Sometimes, because many of us are needy one way or another, being selfless can be risky. Actually, some days it can look downright stupid!

However, we are now playing the long game, because this life we lead is eternal. We aren’t interested in a quick return on our investment, because we’re choosing to live this life invested in heaven. That’s a long term investment that holds countless treasures beyond our wildest dreams – some we will see here, some we will see there.  It won’t be hard to be nice to difficult people in heaven – it won’t even come up! That’s because we will ALL be changed. Interestingly enough, maybe the people who bug us won’t be changed at all, but WE will! And if that sentence grated on you – maybe you still have issues. PRAY SOME MORE. 😂

Jesus Christ sealed this incredible provision in His blood. He has made it so we can’t lose – the only thing we can do is to default on what we have been given.  We simply follow the precious Holy Spirit’s prompts and be prepared to die to self. Now, that’s the knotty bit … that’s when we find out who we really are, and polite falls off! Here’s a whacky thought, maybe we can’t get along with some people because our unchanged attitudes have corrupted our POV. 🤔 We can say that we will die for the ungrateful, the unkind, the deliberately wicked – BUT!! When that turns out to be somebody close to you … meh! Not-so-much! 

Here’s another thought … when we change our response with His help, then the unhelpful people will be wasting their time. They can say or do whatever they want, but we will have moved! The Holy Spirit is powerful, He just needs our co-operation. This is how we learn what the power of God can do, when we see ourselves leaving stuff behind we thought we had to have, and we step into Christ’s shoes.

It is how we become those people mentioned in Psalm 91:8-10 “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.” Every time we choose His Way, over our way – we enter into His protection, His kingdom. That ugly stuff can’t hit us in there. It just kind of lies about on the ground looking pretty silly.

Try it out. The next time someone tells you you are stupid, dumb, ignorant, difficult, grumpy, talk too much – just tell them, ‘ Yes! I know I am. BUT! I have a Saviour and He’s changing me.’ Duck those punches and pretty soon you will start to see them coming, and head them off before they hit you. That’s when you king hit them …. WITH LOVE. His Love is a collectable. It accumulates. The more you partake of it, and freely give it away – the more you have to give. Joy pops up fast on the heels of love. It’s hard to be unhappy when you know He loves you.

I am often astonished at how the Lord can take the worst situation, and He not only changes it – He utterly transforms it into something I’ve never even dreamt about! That’s the power of God in action. We’ve all been reborn to be risk takers – walking with Him means even if we die, we win! 👋

P 2702 Christians are no fun …

/ DVH

…and we should be! …  Proverbs 17:22: “A joyful cheerful heart brings healing to both body and soul…“I’m not talking about frivolity or carelessness with our faith, but honestly … sometimes we can be no fun at all, and at other times we are just plain too earnest. I know this is obvious so please pardon me for saying it, again! … but as Christians we should be the happiest people on earth! We are not meant to be the fun police, because we have the joy of the Lord as our strength! When I look at church people sometimes I think boy do we all need to do some joy/strength training! When was the last time you had a good falling-on-the-floor-belly-laugh? 

No, I have not suddenly lost my mind – I can prove it.  I can still spell antidisestablishmentarianism backwards, so yup! … my mind is still working. OK! OK! I actually can’t spell that stupid word backwards but I know someone who can … does that count? We can all do with a large case of the sillies. As Christians we are meant to be the most optimistic people on the planet! We know the Saviour, personally, and whether you or I woke up with more pain than we care to admit, or our spouse was even more grumpy than usual – we have His joy inside us. Guess what? HE’S NOT SAD like … EVER. He won! We are now on the winning side.

We went away for a little holiday recently and we took bubble guns with us. That’s bubble guns not bubble gum OK? Bubble gum is nasty stuff, you can’t get it out of your hair! Have you ever had a bubble duel? I mean right in your face, loads of bubbles everywhere — hundreds of them? I double-dare anyone not to laugh at so many bubbles you can’t count them. Do you know how much it cost us to have a bubble duel? We got change from $15. Priceless. Look let’s get rid of our serious dignified faces and have fun. Remember fun? Last week part of our family stood on our balcony and watched bubbles go everywhere, and the next day – we did it again and we fell about laughing again.

It is my 97 year old mother’s birthday today. We took balloons and presents and … bubbles to her party. There they were, the oldies in the old folk’s home, lined up like life was already over, and we brought out the bubble guns and fired away. Bubbles everywhere. We took a fantastic photo of my mum looking like Popeye with one eye shut and bubbles all over her – but I can’t put it here because she just might kill me. She doesn’t read my blog, but she’s my mum – she will know!!  Mothers always do.

All those old people, who had been plopped in front of the TV for the day, plus the staff came clustering around her chair and us, and we gave away chocolates. Everyone was smiling. Some came out of their rooms and joined in. I imagine most days are pretty much the same in the old folk’s home. Well yesterday wasn’t. Our mob arrived and took over. I have never been more proud of our family. 

All my life I have done my best to do the right thing – so I wouldn’t get into trouble. Hah! Now I give my Mum cheek all the time, and she can’t do anything about it! She’s stuck in a wheel chair from old age, and she can’t run after me anymore. Talk about healing!! 😂  Do you know the really interesting bit? She laughs her head off now, instead of getting furious with me. Sometimes we can be restrained by our own inner caveats. If you get whacked round the ear-hole enough times you learn “don’t do that,” and something inside gets stuck and you leave important parts of your self behind. 

Hubby contributes to our hilarity all the time. He tells blooming terrible awful Dad jokes. Man those jokes are on the nose. They are corny and not funny but everyone groans, and … then they laugh, but sometimes that comes out as a large sigh. You know Jesus never once said: “Go and preach the gospel, but don’t you have any fun doing it!” We treat this world like it is hostile to the gospel and His love. I’ve been out there – it isn’t! Most people aren’t anti-God, they just haven’t met Him yet! Maybe we have failed Him as His representatives by walking about with serious faces and the idea that what we believe is made of glass. Love may be patient and kind, etc etc. but it can also be FUN. Remember fun? Remember when you favourite thought wasn’t watching TV, or playing video games? Live like that.

Everywhere we go, we have been commissioned to take LOVE with us. And let’s remember that Jesus Himself is JOY personified – so, as His family we will represent Him badly if we have no joy. It’s time to show the world that loving God is the most fun thing ever. Christians should be lots of fun … not black holes of disapproval. Of all the people on this earth, we are the ones who don’t have to be plastic. We can be ourselves and we can be fun! 🤪 👋

P 2701 ‘You’ve got mail!’

/ DVH

“So, dear friends, don’t let this one thing escape your notice: a single day counts like a thousand years to the Lord Yahweh, and a thousand years counts as one day. This means that, contrary to man’s perspective, the Lord is not late with His promise to return, as some measure lateness. But rather, His “delay” simply reveals His loving patience toward you, because He does not want any to perish but all to come to repentance.”2 Peter 3:8-9 TPT.

Scriptures like this one reveal the Lord’s heart and they explain His timing.These are the kind of things we need to watch out for as we read our fresh mail, every day. At the same time we are always looking for things we can apply into our own lives. I ask myself, all the time, what does this teach me about Him? What am I doing or not doing that needs to change? I’m not simply looking for answers to prayer to make my life easier –  I want HIM – I want to know Him. Reading the above verse immediately shows me that He is patient and compassionate because He is merciful. 

When I go out into this world to speak to the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet I have verses like these in my thoughts. At the same time, when bad things happen at our house, I have also hidden these things in the inner chamber of my heart. I hide His word in my heart, so He can speak to me. We hide His Word by acting on what it says!  His timing is absolutely perfect – He daily gives me‘apples of gold in settings of silver’all the time! This life is not about our comfort, or human knowledge —  we can miss what He is actually doing at any given moment, when we seek those things. We seek His kingdom FIRST. Our God made this world out of nothing – imagine what He can do with your little life!

I love verses like the ones in 1 Peter, because they clearly say that He doesn’t want anyone to perish! Just let that sink in. Your worst enemy, or mine – the Lord does not want them to perish.… Those people who are persecuting you – He doesn’t want them to perish. He loves them just as much as He loves us. I’ve discovered that our responses to various situations, like the immediate one from our heart, can tell us a lot about how much we trust Him. That’s a good thing! If my boat is leaking it’s going to help to know where the holes are! So, if you are afraid … “What time I am afraid I will trust in Thee.” Psalm 56:3-4. These things aren’t feeling issues – they are choice issues. The bible is a book of instructions and insight – the more it is applied the more we will know Him.

Only God knows why some people act the way they do. Whenever we are hurting we have to stop and go into the inner sanctuary in our heart, and wait there for His insight.  “I would not have been true to Your children if I had spoken this way. It was too hard for me when I tried to understand this, until I went into the holy place of God. Then I understood their end.”  Psalm 73:16-17: We will gain real understanding in the Presence of God. Not by going round and round the issues, desperately looking for an answer. However we all need to go after love “… love builds things up!” Walking in love takes us out of the realm of our thinking and brings us into His realm of influence. 

Our answers and reassurance lie in His realm. Love is not a feeling it’s always a choice. Remember that the next time you have an argument with someone. Our only real choice is to believe in the One that we know, He cannot lie or fail us. We cannot afford to pin our hopes on what we think we know, instead we must go to the Friend Who sticks closer than a brother, and then we firmly attach our hopes to Him and what He says in His book. We’ve always got MAIL! And then we stay there – holding fast to His faithfulness. 

It is essential that we read His Word as Him speaking to us, not superstitiously –  trying to divine this or that situation -, but rather to reinforce our personal knowledge of Him so we have something we can obey!A bigger view of God will boost our faith. Reading His Word is designed to increase our faith in Who He is, as well as what we believe. Those things are the most valuable things we have. The more we understand His Ways from His Word, the more we can hold fast when everything is sliding up and down and it looks like the sky is falling. And we can make adjustments by repenting when we are being faithless.

Our faith has substance. It can stop our little boat from sinking because we continually look to Him to calm our inner storms of dismay and fear. His book spells out what we are to believe. It gives us pictures from the past of how other people got it right or wrong and the consequences of their actions. We must always remember that Christ changed everything. However, if Christ had not died and gone away, we would not have the Holy Spirit NOW. He is our comforter, counsellor, encourager, helper, teacher, guide to holiness, and the spirit of all truth. He is also our Friend that sticks closer than a brother – He’s everything we will ever need to get us through this life.

Despite the lack of snail mail nowadays — you and I have always got mail – it’s in the book! And the Holy Spirit loves to breathe His life into whatever we read, today. Bye  👋

P 2700 Let’s keep our eyes on forever.

/ DVH

The bible tells us to “… above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.”Proverbs 4:23. When I watch over my heart I am watching over who I am and what I produce!

Sometimes the hardest thing to watch over is our own heart. From my limited experience, other people often tread on someone else’s heart unknowingly. However, whoever started whatever has happened, if someone is offended, it means that there is something we both need to look at..Sadly, we can mistake somebody else’s motivation for evil intent, when the truth is this:… a whole lotta people are just big dummies, (like me), and they talk without thinking.

It goes without saying that forgiveness is the key that opens the door to understanding and reconciliation, but we all have people in our lives who are repeat offenders. So today I want to talk to the offended as well as the offender. Have you noticed how easy it is today to take offence? My first bit of advice to the one who is offended, is that forgiveness will require resolve, it will take self-discipline. There’s a happy thought! However, this is how we mature, and grow the fruits of self-control and patience…  by hanging on firmly to the VINE – true forgiveness is in that vine.

So we: “…set our mind on the things above.’ Colossians 3:2. Most growing points in our lives are a matter of forgiveness. The thing is, people aren’t doing whatever they did AGAIN – if we really forgave them in the first place! There may be some times when we read this bible stuff and say to ourselves, “yeah, yeah, great thought, but how do I do that?” I wish I had some snappy whizz bang methodology, that took care of our instant responses – but I don’t.

Here’s my advice for the one offended. My experience in this area of forgiveness has come down to two words – DO IT.  Don’t expect to feel good about it – just do it. Deliberately, and with great resolve, take authority over all the mean, niggly things you want to say to that offender, and ZIP IT. 🤐 When Jesus hung there silently on that cross for us. He gave us the power, by what He did, to shut up when we desperately want to put someone else in their place or comment on their behaviour.. 

Seriously, don’t give into your feelings for a minute, because you will find yourself circling the plug-hole going down for the last time! The bible says SET your mind because sort of kind of hoping the conflict will magically go away, will not work! Let me clarify this – we are changing an internal mindset in our lives, and doing that is not easy. Mindsets change when we consistently ask Him for His help,  use our faith, and keep our anger to ourselves. I say to myself: “I wanna be like Jesus and this is the Way to get there.” People who have no self-control haven’t totally realised what He gave us when He died for us. We already have forgiveness – LEARN TO SHARE. Read Romans! The more we die to self the more we gain!

Transformation takes hold when we find we can say something positive to the person who is jumping all over our last nerve. The bible says: “Bless those who curse you, do good to those who despitefully use you.”  Look, we are not talking about a walk in the park, we are talking about pressing into God until you forget what you were mad about! It IS hard! Hullo!! I say to myself at this point: “Oh there’s that thing that I am not going to remember, because it is a trap sent to distract me!”  That scripture from Colossians is not just a nice thought – it is an essential part of victorious Christian living! Why would we hand our enemy a loaded gun to shoot us? Disarm the gun.

Now to look at the offender: If something is your fault. If you opened your big mouth and hurt someone else and they tell you what you did … then don’t make excuses, and don’t give endless explanations… simply APOLOGISE. Humble yourself. You are not the judge of what hurts someone else! Actually we are not the judge of anything — read the book. Ask what you can do to make amends. People can easily forget that “I’m sorry” is not what the bible says. It says repent. Repentance involves humbling yourself and taking responsibility for what you did. Hurting someone else IS a big deal, because we don’t live by this world’s standards, now we live by His! And He clearly tells us not to make each other stumble.

Offending people is a big deal! I’ve met many people who say they are sorry, but they don’t go that one step further to usher in reconciliation. The aim of repentance is reconciliation. We need to remember that in this Christian life our hearts belong to Him. Father God takes this stuff seriously – it cost Him His life!  When people are mean to you they are being mean to His child. This means we need to pray for them!  Christ’s ministry is all about love and reconciliation, and that is our ministry now too. To live this way, it will help us to keep our eyes on forever, instead of just the here and now. Bye. 👋

P 2699 Nothing happens by chance.

/ DVH

I read this yesterday, and I thought it might be a blessing for others. It’s an exhortation from the translators of the Passion bible written by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez: It’s a great word, it lifted my spirit and I hope it does you good as well. We’ve been blessing people all week, and today it’s your turn! The Lord says to YOU –

“Come into the secret place and find encouragement that waters your thirsty soul. I have words of life to share with you today and living-understanding to strengthen you. Run into the shelter of My presence and let My love wash over you in a fresh way. I don’t offer stale bread to My hungry lovers. Eat of My now word. Tune your ear to My Voice.

Give Me the heavy weight of the burden of fear you are carrying. There may be uncertainty in your life, but I see everything clearly. There are no mysteries to Me, and I won’t let the tides of confusion sweep you away. See how My hand holds you steady. You cannot escape the grip of My glorious grace, child. 

What wondrous plans I have for you. What a future you have in Me. Let Me guide you further into My goodness as you follow My leading. I promise never to let you go or get too far ahead. I give you eyes to see from My perspective. Look to Me, and nothing will ever shatter your hope.”

Praise God for their gift of exhortation! Moving on to some real life testimonies … … we had a brief break last week and it seemed to us that the Lord is much more ready for us to speak to people than we are to do it! Any time we go anywhere, we find that there are suddenly numerous opportunities to talk to strangers. In the shops, or even to tradesmen in our home.

At our house, we have had some things break down and afterward we realised what happened wasn’t about the broken item … it was about us talking to the person who came to fix it!  We’ve seen this over and over again, Father God will bring people to us. He really is looking for His kids to share the wealth of heart knowledge He has given all of us. We need to freely talk about Him! This past week we have had all kinds of opportunities to encourage strangers..

While we were away, the internet in our rented holiday unit fell over, so a tech guy turned up to fix it. We were chatting away to each other, and we just included this guy in our conversation. After about five minutes, told us he had been very sick recently and he was very scared because he thought he might have had cancer. Now that is definitely God! People rarely go that deep that quickly with strangers!!

This young man went on to say they discovered it was coeliac’s disease. So hubby prayed for him. Meanwhile, the silly internet still kept blanking out…!!  You know, God isn’t interested in our comfort, but He IS always interested in people. Like I’ve said before, knowing His Ways helps a lot!

On Tuesday this week, a carer came to our house to clean the floors for us. To be truthful, I was a bit annoyed because I found out that our usual lady wasn’t coming …again! I never do these spiritual sums until afterward – I guess I’m a slow learner!! It has taken me four weeks to work out that we’ve not had our usual helper each time because the Lord wanted us to talk to other helpers about Him! 🙄 

This particular young woman was delightful and we very much enjoyed her company. She did a great job too. We had a very profitable time talking about her life, our lives, and the Lord. So much so she said; “I could stay here all day!” She also kept saying, over and over again: “There is so much joy in this house, I’ve never been in a home with this much joy before.”  You know, sometimes I’m so dumb I don’t notice things, unless the Holy Spirit sticks a great big “look here, dummy” sign on it! Hmm… you might think I’m joking … I’m NOT!

Hubby decided to call ahead to a place we are going to be staying at next week, as we make our way up north to give away bibles. He spoke about bringing blankets, toiletries and food for the poor. The young lady on the phone nearly came through the phone she was so excited. Apparently most small towns are quite overlooked when it comes to government aid. However the Holy Spirit personally picked that town. Who knew they had a homeless problem there? He did. 

I just want to finish today by saying that the Lord’s plans for us, to bless us, include everyone around us. Nothing happens by chance. It is good to see even inconvenient interruptions as opportunities for His kingdom. Bye 👋

1 Peter 2:9 ESV“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”

P 2698 Some things really are as plain as the nose on your face.

/ DVH

Thank God we always have HIS MIRROR! The bible clearly reveals to us that we cannot love God and hate our brother. “We love because He first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister IS A LIAR. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” 1 John 4:19-21. And just in case we think we can wiggle out of that particular idea on a technicality, Jesus Himself answered the whole …  “Just who is my brother?” scenario, brilliantly, in the story of the Good Samaritan. He made it clear, my brother or sister is the person I want to avoid, or the person I blame for making ME feel bad!

We can be easily fooled into missing out on our new life in Christ’s life-giving lessons, by dismissing our own personal responsibility to fix things. Being reconciled means humbling yourself not just shoving the blame off onto the other person. We can’t just silently excuse or dismiss our need to cherish Him, and His Word above everything else, and hope He won’t notice! Fixing stuff isn’t just a process of negotiation, and agreement – true reconciliation means we can go back to walking with each other in love, as quickly as possible. The aim is change – not pretending! Self-deception is the worst kind of deception.

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.” Romans 12:17-19. Personally, I ask the Lord for His help to sort me, and the other person out. I let Him know I am happy with what He wants to do about it, either way. And I aim to take the low road – because I probably did something or other! His Presence is way more important to me than my ego. People who protect themselves have fragile egos and, sadly, they can easily miss opportunities to die to self.

I recommend true reconciliation with others highly, because that action quickly diagnoses all the greebilies that hang around, unnoticed, in our own lives. These creepy critters disguise themselves as terrible wounds that have been inflicted on us – and that means many times we avoid the stab-ber like the plague. Have you ever noticed how dead-set easy it is to prove your point and get sympathy for your sorrow when somebody hurts you and everybody else can see it was their fault? My advice is to give sympathy a swerve and go for the Gold – walking with Jesus.

Oh the temptation to feel justified can be such a battle. We can easily want to bad mouth that person who did us so much harm! We can end up collecting other people who agree with our assessment of the perpetrator’s behaviour like we’d collect postage stamps! The temptation rises up to go over and over the events in our mind, revisiting what we should have said to put that other person in their place. Of course YOU don’t do that … and … neither do I! Where is the faith in self-justification? Nobody should owe anybody anything but LOVE … and that situation is only diagnosed by the One Who paid it all.

Unless we choose to leave our fate in His hands, we can end up wasting our time and effort trying to paint a picture of how right WE are and how wrong the other person is. Of course they are wrong! It’s often as plain as the nose on anyone’s face who is at fault. But the real point is this … our response is our response. And guess what? The only thing we have any power over is OUR RESPONSE. Um … ‘turn the other cheek, and walk the extra mile’ seem familiar to me.  You know if Jesus had avoided the toxic people WE WOULD ALL BE DEAD IN OUR SIN!

Yes, I know I am advocating letting that person who hurt you or I go free! But that’s what Jesus did for US, and He didn’t put any caveats on what He did either… He died once for all. That’s what the book says. So that serial killer who has despatched numerous people in ghastly ways… can stand on the same ground I do. GRACE. Sin is a great leveller, and fast recognition of what I’ve done, is a brilliant way to get humble quickly! That murderer can change their life too, just like I did. Meanwhile it is so dumb to keep lists of things anyone did! Just give it all to Jesus quickly, and make sure that you fix things with that other person too – to both people’s satisfaction.  

The thing that has a permanently lasting effect on us is to value Him above all the bumps, breakages and bruises this life hands out. It’s as plain as the nose on your face. My advice is …keep your mirror handy – we all need it! Bye. 👋