Love

P 2268 We need His Grace to make changes.

/ DVH

Have you got a problem person in your life? Somebody that makes you feel like there are nails dragging down the blackboard? Sometimes in order to see the very real people around us, who love us, and live with us, we almost need to be laid aside to start being taught by GRACE. We simply must start giving each other room to grow. At this juncture I think it is important to point out that it’s all too easy to see what’s wrong with somebody else and totally ignore the fact that not only are we not perfect, actually we do the same thing all the time! 

I think the Bible talks about that somewhere in there -…logs and specks! No matter what we tell everyone else, what we all actually need as individuals is Grace. It takes great Grace to own your own faults, but if we keep skipping our own change whilst examining everyone else’s life, we’ve missed the point. The old standards of looking and sounding right are shackles – they must come off. Otherwise the pressure to perform will imprison the whole body of Christ! It will be scary at first but the plus side is we will be free to grow and HE gets what He wants. Win – win!! 

Some of us have been grown-ups for a very long time and others still feel they need to revert to control to get their own way. Our own way was never part of the deal! His life for ours, that’s the deal. Christians are battling with immature leftover feelings from childhood. People often need healing not constant critiquing, or reprimanding. It is unfair to expect perfection from others. God doesn’t, and we shouldn’t either.

Grace is the currency and language that we need to use to help one another, as well as ourselves. This life is not about convenience and expediency, it’s about us growing into Christ’s likeness. Everything we need for this is available using our faith; our job is to seize the opportunities. People do not mean to make mistakes. We need to leave others the room to learn. That is costly if you feel that you are the person everybody else is learning on! Nevertheless somebody has to decide that making sacrifices is part of Christianity and I think we all need to start with ourselves first.

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” 2 Peter 3: 18. GRACE is our vehicle for growth. But in order to progress, we need to practise it. So those people who annoy the living daylights out of us are God sent opportunities for us to practice. They are not put there to annoy us, these people are just on their own journey toward truth and acceptance. Christ is our model … what He didn’t say speaks volumes. 

Sometimes we are so used to our own way of thinking, behaving, and being, that we forget that other people have a different place they are coming from. So what looks like a bad thing to us may be purely harmless to someone else.  We need to practise humility, and purpose to lean on Him and learn His ways. That will make us all bigger inside. Our task now is to encourage one another into good works. I think humility and vulnerability are a prime position to do that. I also think it’s why Jesus said, “Don’t call your brother an idiot.” Other people’s learning curves are often our greatest challenges and source of annoyance.

The Holy Spirit will not make anybody do anything. He can present us with urgency and encourage us to persevere. But He’s not a bully. The Lord means for us to treat each other in the same way. “Love one another as I have loved you.” Love does not have to abuse – instead it undergirds, it provides support, simply so the other person can learn. It does this unconditionally because that’s the way the Holy Spirit supports us. Some things are better not even being spoken about if it’s going to cause someone else to feel pushed or coerced. It is not another person’s job to force someone else to conform to their standards or ideas, to transform your life your attitudes your actions etc. 

Everything is about Grace. Christ’s death released unending Grace, which is always available to us but we must not abuse it – when we abuse it, we lose the benefit. The way to get Grace is to use it and rely upon it and realise that we are not complete without the Holy Spirit’s input. His Grace is freely available but we must humble ourselves, acknowledge our need and cooperate with the One Who was sent to help us. I have learnt, from experience, to trust the Holy Spirit’s opinion above my own – He knows me better than I know myself – plus He’s just plain lovely.  👋🏻

P 2264 Gratitude leads to surrender.

/ DVH

“Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you’ve got, be resolute, and love without stopping.” 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (MSG) Loving other human beings the way that God loves us, not only seems impossible – I actually think it IS impossible. On the other hand, earthly Love promises the moon but rarely gives us anything as valuable in return. Earthly Love can often take everything from you. And sadly, sometimes, nothing comes back.

I think we’ve reduced loving God into a concept, rather than aiming at it becoming a reality. Some people might say, “I really love roses or I love chocolate, or I adore my car.”   Whilst all those kinds of things are legitimate, because we all have likes and preferences, sadly I think we have also reduced the word ‘love’ to just another adjective – like ‘blue sky’ or ‘pretty rainbow.’ However in reality, the kind of love God talks about in the bible, is not only interactive, it is see-able. After all His love came to earth to save us from ourselves.  

This kind of love often remains unseen, unheralded, and unappreciated, and because of it’s invisibility, many people try to escape from their own sacrificial response to God’s love –  because  they want to have their cake and eat it too. His Love does not have divided loyalties. My biggest concern is that Christians have adopted this word the way the world has adopted it, as an adjective, and it has become a description, using it as an adjective or noun. Those things are often tied to feelings. There is an unseen war in this world today over the word Love.  It has been watered down and used frivolously.  To understand love, and in particular God’s love, we must always look at Christ – He is our glorious illustration of inward affection being expressed outwardly and perfectly, by the way He lived and died. 

It seems to me that we are very happy to receive whatever Jesus died to give us – so we can go to heaven, but sadly, we are not nearly as happy to give up our idea of this life and all of its benefits, for His sake. We have forgotten Calvary was an exchange – His life for ours. There are no exceptions to this new way of life. We need to understand that we are not too young or too old or too infirm or preoccupied with making our own personal lives successful. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 NIV. 

Jesus Christ was not a kissy huggy demonstrative person – yet He still absolutely demonstrated His love in a way we can see and copy. His love went beyond outward signs of affection into living His whole life for our benefit. We cannot, and dare not, ignore what He intentionally modelled it in front us. Despite popular opinions Christ did not die so we could have a better life here. He died to give us the power to live this life here and now for His sake. For the sake of His kingdom.

Jesus was not a part-time lover of God, He lived every second of every day He was given, for His Father’s sake.

It is true that He believes we are worth it, but we are taking advantage of His huge largesse when we do not live this life to the full.  What would it be like if our earthly friends only helped us when it suited them, or when it was convenient?  Does that seem like true friendship to you? Jesus told us in the above scripture that this is the pinnacle of love, to live a sacrificial life dedicated to Him, representing Him, with no thought of recompense.

I would go so far as to say if we think we are fulfilling this criteria by using our ministry gift, prayer, bible study, worship in a form of tokenism and hope He won’t notice the difference … this means, at the very least, we are terrible friends of His. Up until Jesus came, the lamb offering people brought for sacrifices for their sins had to be perfect.  Christ was our perfect sacrifice.  I don’t think He is looking for us to get it perfectly right, rather, I think He is looking for us to be so in-love with Him that the word, “No”, doesn’t even occur to us, our response to His love is our devotion.  I know I’m not there yet.  

All I want to do today is to challenge everyone about what needs to happen in our lives for US to love Him back the way He loved us.  It’s our heart attitude that matters. It doesn’t matter that we fail.  But just like a compass always points to true north, our hearts need to swing away from the distractions and troubles of this life back to the Saviour. And then gratitude will lead to surrender.

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.” 1 John 3:1 NIV. The way to behold Him is see Him for Who He really is – so we must go past His hands to His face which is filled with Love for us. He doesn’t want spoiled brats, He wants people who voluntarily choose to love Him right back. 👋🏻

P 2263 Always remember, Love is the umpire.

/ DVH

I have spoken before about hubby and I and the blessing we have regarding spiritual connection. We think perhaps together, we are one of those supporting ligaments described in Ephesians. Let’s look in Chapter 4:16 “From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part.” God has graciously given hubby and I that kind of connection. Praise Him. 🙌 Now, we can both be as stubborn and determined to get our own way as the next guy, but we know that the Lord put us together for a purpose. 

However, if your marriage is bumpy or shaky, maybe you could start to pray that God will create between you and your spouse the perfect joint, so that each side can function well, fully supported by the other one. Jesus is the greatest cartilage we could ever ask for to keep us from rubbing our end of the other joint raw. Put Him between you and your spouse, or prayer partner – it is not wise to tolerate friction, that is destructive. However, Love will not put all the work on the other person either. Remember, we are meant to support each other, this is not a one way deal – with one partner drowning in the other one’s ministry.

If you happen to be single, then find someone you trust to pray with, and support them. Paul had Timothy, and Silas – he supported them and they supported him. Today is the time to fix any dislocated joints we know about so we can begin to move cohesively together. As we are Christians this means repairing things to the Holy Spirit’s satisfaction, as well as both of the parties. Otherwise, we will push that joining together out of alignment by ourselves. We need to deal with any dislocation immediately. Serving one another and supplying each other’s needs, helps the body to function smoothly.

This has, recently, become so apparent to Hubby and I because of my accident on Saturday.  In difficult times, one part of that joint may need to serve as a ‘splint’ for the other one so the repairing process can take place. Many times I have noticed the reason for marriages struggling is because one partner is forced into trying to maintain the joint but without the other partner’s contribution.

Think about it like this:  even in our fingers, health for our digit relies on the blood supply being able to get through.  In spiritual matters, we can hold up the growth process for both people by restricting the blood supply – the Holy Spirit’s input.  The bible tells us one half of the joint supplies the other under His guidance, and hubby and I have seen that work many, many times. I cannot do what I do without him.  And he cannot do what he does without me.  Ministry of any sort, is not supposed to divide.

Hubby is typing this blog for me, he is taking dictation, because I need both hands to type. When we are on the road, giving away bibles etc, God might give me a word of knowledge that sets hubby off on the Lord’s pathway when he meets the stranger. It is astonishing to me that I can give him a word of knowledge, and he can act on it, and it all turns out wonderfully – but not at all the way I think it will.

This is where trust comes in, I trust my husband and he  trusts me. This kind of supply for the other person is based totally on trust.  Sometimes he says, “I’m going to do thus and thus..”, and in my mind, I’m thinking, “That will never work” – but it always does.  We need to learn to have faith in each other, to have faith in Jesus IN the other person.  It appears that trust and ‘submitting to one another’ go hand-in-hand, and that creates a spiritual flow just like the veins in our hands – blood goes up, it comes back down.  The important part is the Blood.  We must not restrict the flow of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

He is the star on this stage.  The two people involved have laid aside their own egos and attitudes … even the things they have learnt from their family of origin, when they do not align with the bible. The Holy Spirit loves to flow, but He needs yielded vessels that want to submit to Him and to each other, for the greater good.  Always remember LOVE IS THE UMPIRE. 👋🏻 Bye.

P 2260 Kingdom farming!

/ DVH

Matthew 13:31-32 “He (Jesus) told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

The kingdom of God it is described by the Lord, as being like many things: a treasure, a pearl, many seeds, family treasure, leaven, sprouting seeds, a net, and for today’s blog – a mustard seed. The more we tend to His kingdom in our lives, the bigger it grows. The more we cultivate, acknowledge, and obediently interact with His kingdom in our lives, the more we will grow. This means that other people can come to our little ‘kingdom of God mustard tree’ and shelter in its safety.

We don’t make this tree grow by ourselves – the ground it is planted in does. A whole lot of people move around from one church to another in Christian circles, because they decide they don’t like the soil they were planted in! Imagine a tree that moves around?? In His kingdom we do not grow because of the soil – we grow as we accept that it is our destiny to grow, and dry ground or rocks provide us with the opportunity to adapt and grow stronger. 

Every time you and I do whatever the Lord says in the book, on purpose, His way … we are nourishing the kingdom of God within us. Just like we would fertilise and water a mustard seed plant. That seed inside us is nurtured by  obedience and by us choosing to abide where we were planted. Saying ‘no’ to yourself in difficult moments, and ‘yes’ to God’s way, can seem very insignificant, but when we live that way, we are providing the right atmosphere for the Kingdom of God to grow inside us. We are abiding!

Sadly, we can’t just speak about growth and claim it, and hope it will magically appear. Like I said a tree when it has been planted – does not pull up its roots if it doesn’t like the spot it is in and go walk-about. It yields to and adapts to its circumstances. This means WE will need to change. The major point of this parable is that this particular seed is destined for greater things. It is there to grow and provide safety for others. When we have deep roots, our ‘tree’ won’t just flop over when a storm hits. Storms, I have decided, are inevitable. We cannot prevent them. Despite all our efforts to the contrary, we can’t control much of anything. Sadly, in some circumstances, we can’t even control ourselves!

It is also important to take the time to meditate on the fact that His kingdom has no end. So every time we co-operate with His kingdom coming into our lives, we are touching the eternal… and the eternal is touching us. Like I said before, we are providing for others when we live this way. I’ve watched this happen through my husband’s attitude toward strangers. He believes in the kingdom of God within Him and He knows God wants to touch others! 

Recently our bank changed its system. Yay! We were told if we did thus and thus all would be well. Naturally, we promptly did thus and thus – BUT … all was not well! The bank had provided for this time of change by listing a number we could call. Hubby called the number. But as he was talking with the bank operator, he empathised with her about what a tough day she must be having, because she had to deal with so many calls. Hubby cared for her, instead of getting grumpy because this new system inconvenienced us. She opened up to him like a sunflower. The young lady came into his mustard tree’s shade and was able to rest. For a few minutes she was free from having to explain her work’s policy and she was able to be herself. They had a great chat and in the end, all was finally well!

Matthew 13:10-12 says this: “The disciples came to Him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance…”

The way to get an abundance of His love to give away, and provide shelter for others, is to cherish and nurture His kingdom within us. His kingdom must go deep inside us – this means it will challenge and expose flaws and hindrances to growth. But many many people will find rest, comfort, encouragement, healing and a greater knowledge of God Himself in our own personal mustard tree. This is why we need to be good Kingdom farmers – so people can personally, “…taste and see that the Lord is good!” 🌳 Bye 👋🏻

P 2259 My own personal kryptonite.

/ DVH

I have found, over the years, there is at least one person in my life that is like kryptonite to me. I trust the Lord and lean on His strength in many, many places … but, unfortunately, this one person weakens me instantly with just one sentence or look. That person is a very close relative. The night before last, I spent part of the evening dreaming I was shrieking and screaming at them for what seemed like hours. I woke up, agitated, still inwardly reciting everything they ever did against me, as well as mentally telling them what an awful person I think they are.

I realise I am not responsible for my dreams, but I am aware that in my heart, whenever this person hurts me … there is this continual, resounding phrase. “They did it again!” Now Jesus was very clear, people get 490 opportunities to shoot us down every single day. Because of our new heart, which we have been given, our response is to be forgiveness. Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure the Lord wasn’t saying that when we get to 491 offences we can let ‘er rip! 😳 There are 1440 minutes in a day – this means that somebody has to hurt us regularly every 2.9 minutes to qualify for us to quit! OK we can see that ain’t gunna happen, anyway, most of us sleep some of that time! 

However, I personally know that there are some people who go out of their way to push that number as far as they can! In my life this person is one of those. They can pole axe me with a sentence. This morning I realised that despite the fact that I practice forgiveness toward them, over and over again! I am still inwardly angry with them because they are disturbing the nice picture of who I am inside my head. Plus I’m mad because they don’t seem to try to understand me at all. We just keep bumping heads. They consistently tread all over my feelings, and I have to wrangle with myself so I can calm down again. 

Now, I know that God put this person in my life.  Their presence is not an accident, they are a relative – and we definitely do not choose our relatives! But I can also see clearly that I am not coming from the kingdom of God when I am around them. Instead I am coming from a defensive position. Fight or flight. I have gone so far over into offence, despite forgiving them over and over again, I actually anticipate trouble whenever I am around them! In other words, I live expecting them to sin against me … mainly because their track record ain’t great.

BTW I don’t think this person is doing any better in our relationship than I am – they too are puzzled, hurt, and betrayed by the fact that we do not get along. I decided that although I understand the principle of forgiveness – I was failing in the prac! The Lord told us to forgive others over and over again, so let’s assume that you and I probably have more than one person who drives us crazy. That’s a whole lot of ongoing forgiveness we need to participate in … every single day.

I came to the conclusion that somehow I was missing a key point in what Jesus told us to do. Here’s what I think, I think the Lord’s greatly exaggerated number means that I am meant to live a life of forgiveness toward everyone I interact with. This is great news … and no, I haven’t lost my mind! First of all, I know that I cannot possibly do that stuff all the time in my own strength. So, there must be a way for me to live like that … after all, Jesus is my physical, emotional and spiritual example. He lived that way – He lived a life full of forgiveness. 

After praying and thinking about it I realised sometimes scriptures need to be digested and acted upon in some sort of  order. EG: “I need to seek His kingdom FIRST… and then… all these (other) things (like true forgiveness) will be added unto me.” It’s simple. ‘Other things’ include forgiveness. My primary focus was wrong. I was seeking to give away forgiveness before seeking His kingdom. In His kingdom there IS pure forgiveness. So I started praying that I will seek His kingdom before everything else from now on! Living with His kingdom inside me changes everything.To start with, forgiveness, love and purity are part of that kingdom. Not to mention healing and transformation!

In conclusion I just want to mention something else I’ve noticed about ‘kryptonite.’  Anyone else who looks, sounds, or acts like this person I struggle with, can often provoke a reaction from me, toward them. Maybe not even outwardly, but definitely inwardly. That is another sign-post that I have not truly forgiven this primary person who hurts me.  I can see that I am holding onto any hurt or wounding as a defensive weapon, because of the fear of exposing my inner self around unsafe people. Trying to protect myself against further ‘attacks.’  BUT – in God’s kingdom the bible says: … “My God is my protection and with HIM I am safe.”

As I’ve said before, fear and love are mutually opposed, one excludes the other. To deflect satan’s kryptonite in our lives – we need to be hidden in Christ, living in His kingdom, not our own. Food for thought. 👋🏻

P 2258 So many denominations

/ DVH

Yeah, let’s established first up, on this blog you have one older lady’s opinion … right? I’m not a theologian, I haven’t been to bible school, I simply met Jesus Christ eons ago, and I’ve been following Him ever since. IF I know anything at all – HE taught me. Sadly there were some times that I ignored Him in favour of what my denomination taught me,  and yes I’ve repented! My point is, my opinions are limited.

I saw the above cartoon and I loved it. It seemed to me that it was the best explanation for why there are so many Christian denominations in this world. We are all looking at the same thing, we are just standing in different places. Please forgive me for intimating our Heavenly Father is like an elephant, that is not what I am trying to say! I am commenting on the fact that we all have so many different doctrines.

Some denominations even have sub-denominations! 😳 It also seems if you are in a denomination and want to make a splash, then you can skive off and start your own. Especially if what you believe seems important enough. That’s like expecting our arm to work by itself. Can’t happen! The Body of Christ is fragmented by its belief systems.  

The best I can offer by way of explanation is this – even if you have only two people you will still have a whole heap of different opinions. BTW, that could be why some marriages don’t work – people fall in love, but they don’t share the same basic beliefs and opinions. It’s the nitty gritty stuff that divides us, and “true love” often blinds us all! Well that was free! Moo-ving on …

… The fact is Almighty God is too big, too wise, too wonderful to be explained by any, or all of us. He is so much bigger than we have allowed Him to be. We are not acquainted with the fact that we don’t have to understand Him to relate to Him. And we don’t have to think like Him to explain Him – I suggest we let Him explain Himself. He’s so big He can say one thing to one person and something else to someone else. And both things are true. We must return to the place of wonder. It’s OK to not know stuff – instead let’s just fall in love with the God Who made it all.

If we think we can explain Him, no matter how clever we are, or how many words we take to do it, we are fooling ourselves. A truly wise person lets God explain Himself. And that’s called revelation. “We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing Him directly just as He knows us!” 1 Corinthians 13:12.

We need to be in a relationship with Him, and treasure His Presence far more than we need to understand how He thinks. People grab at this thing and that thing and think … “Aha! I finally have the Answer.” Denominations occur when we start trying to explain God. Even though some of those explanations or revelations are fantastic … but those things are not all there is. As soon as we think we have some sort of basic idea that sums up Almighty God – we just limited Him. We keep trying to fit  Almighty God into our teeny tiny boxes, and because He truly IS God, He will burst out of them!

We don’t have to prove Him. Let Him prove Himself! I don’t have to prove the sun is out when it is daytime or nighttime. Even if it is raining or cloudy – the SUN is still there. I just need to position myself into a place where I can see beyond my earthly restrictions. Like board a plane, or climb up above the clouds. Our position before Him is what matters, and to stand in the right place we need to realise that He is God and we are not. It is OK to have a Daddy Who knows more than we do. 

God forgave us all. He does not see the restrictions and boundaries and doctrines the way we see them – He sees people. And He loves them. Read the book! It is all about God relating to His people. Because of Jesus Christ, we are all now His people. No matter what denomination we belong to. We waste our time on this earth fighting, or abusing one another over things that won’t last. Father God does not care what colour skin we have, what sort of accent we have, what we believe – or not, HE JUST LOVES HIS KIDS. It’s in the book.

He’s so glorious He loves the people who actively hate Him. Imagine that. Not just loving your enemies, but deliberately actioning a plan to save them from themselves and then sacrificing Your only Son to provide the way to do it. That blows my mind. Let’s just agree that we don’t have to understand Him to love Him back. They will know we are Christians by our love … not by our denomination. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2255 A true intercessor.

/ DVH

In Genesis 18:23-25. Almighty God and Abraham are dialoguing about Sodom and Gomorrah. “Then Abraham approached Him and said: “Will You sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

This is, by far, one of my very favourite verses in all the bible. This mighty man, Abraham, the Father of our Faith, has such incredible confidence in the Character of God! We all need this kind of confidence in Who our God is, and know His Ways, intimately. I pray the people of these current generations know the Lord so well, that they cannot comprehend Him doing anything evil! We all need that kind of confidence and knowledge about Him, desperately. Abraham is extremely respectful, but he insists.

This passage in Genesis is what I think that an intercessor looks like. I know many people think intercessors spend hours on their faces praying and interceding for the lost – and I praise God for that kind of gift! However I’d be overjoyed to have 5 minutes of someone praying for me, for my life and future, with this sort of confidence in God Himself. 

Abraham was interceding for the people in Sodom and Gomorrah, and they didn’t even know their fate. However God knew their hearts, and He had purposed to deal with the evil in this city. But one man stood in the breach and had a conversation with God about their destruction. Abraham’s point of intercession was not about the people, or their wickedness, or deeds … it was all about HIS CONFIDENCE IN THE CHARACTER OF GOD – He challenged God to do right.

If you read Chapter 18 you will see he gets pretty overwhelmed somewhere in the middle of this conversation. It is almost like he’s kind of got his big toe almost outside the door, ready to run, 😐 but he still talking and still bargaining for these lives. We need this kind of intercessor, today, people who hold God to His word. We can see that this man learnt the Father’s Ways as he journeyed with Him from Haran to Canaan.

However, the basis of Abraham’s prayers are about Who God is! The Father’s reputation. I have heard it taught before that perhaps Abraham did not bargain hard enough for these people to be saved. I don’t know about that – but I love this man who stood toe to toe with Almighty God and pleaded for the lives of these people, whether they deserved it or not. Please do not tell me that God doesn’t love or care about everybody – I don’t believe you. This is what He is like, right here in these few verses – He doesn’t just love good people – He loves all of mankind. Jesus died for all. The penalty that was paid indicates Almighty God’s estimation of worth!

Jesus Christ Himself prays and intercedes for us with even more fervency than Abraham shows here – we are so blessed to be alive NOW! I think you can see Father God’s righteous loving Character so clearly through Abraham’s confidence in Him, when this man speaks and negotiates with God. If the Lord had disagreed with him, He would have told Abraham not to bother praying for them. In my heart this is what real prayer looks like! It looks like this kind of confidence in God’s goodness. The Body of Christ must go far, far beyond the places we’ve already been before – right into His heart, and gain further understanding of His love for everyone. 

Meanwhile, just prior to the above verses God says this, in Genesis 18:17 “Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” I think that this is what true intimacy between God and man looks like. Father God regards Abraham with respect. This shows us over and over again, that the Lord loves to dialogue with mankind. What you and I can hear throughout the the pages of the bible, is His disappointment that the man He made doesn’t love Him back!

The wonderful old Patriarchs, Abraham and Moses, knew God in ways we can only imagine. However, we are so blessed to be alive today in this world we live in. Praise God we have the joy of knowing the Answer – Jesus! We can know the Father through Christ, even better than these men did. Jesus Christ is now our perfect intercessor. Let’s not live in the shallows, let’s dive deeper into the Bible, together with prayer, so we can know and understand Who He is, and what He wants, and fight for it. 

We need to learn how to pray with understanding for His heart, and His desires and passions. Let’s AIM bigger. We’ve been aiming at too little for too long. We need men and women who intercede like Abraham! 👋🏻

P 2254 Advice about ‘open’ doors.

/ DVH

Doors are for going through, from one place to somewhere else. 😊 You don’t need a degree to go through a door or love people! As Christians we can spend a lot of our time waiting for God to sovereignly intervene in our lives… waiting for a door to open. Today I want to say this – don’t just stand there… hoping to be noticed …DO something! Show the Lord that you want to be transformed by His love, and start living this life, the one you already have – by giving that love away to others. Don’t wait to be empowered – OBEY instead!  Show God your willingness to be His vessel. 

Pick one or two difficult people in your vicinity and love on them and plan on not giving up on them – no matter what! Anyone can find something loving to do for strangers and do it … if you can do it in secret, even better! Visit the sick, talk to people in the supermarket. Help the poor, teach little kids, lead a bible study group … do something. It is easier to steer a moving object than a stationary one. It’s when we sit down, arms folded, almost daring Him to interrupt our well-made life-plans, that our lives become static and lifeless.  

The kind of life this world presents consists mainly of plodding along, day after day, doing pretty much the same stuff over and over again. If you want things to change, then see a need and do something about it. Open doors don’t just suddenly appear. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you find your purpose, while you are doing your bible study and praying. Nag Him about it. Show the Lord you mean business. There are unmotivated people everywhere. Instead, make a quality decision to learn His Ways – and start practising them. Start living like everything in the bible is true… because it is.  

Scare your pastor – volunteer to help out at church! Movement is a sign of life… um …that’s why they shake people who appear lifeless! You and I can debate spiritual theories about anything, up one hill and down the other. The truth is that His truth will always win…not my opinion, not your opinion, not your fav preacher’s opinion – His truth. One day all our theological errors will be revealed – because Christ will appear. And He will simply blow our theories away.  

At the same time, study the bible, but don’t study it so hard that your brain takes over from using your faith. Faith is an action word, and we need to show our faith a whole lot more than we tell it. “For the one who has will be given more, until he overflows with abundance. And the one with hardly anything, even what little he has will be taken from him.’” Matthew 25:29. Learn to overflow with love toward other people. Get rid of NICE, and go for real love. And if you get it wrong. Repent. Start again. Remember, love always looks like something.

Quit staring at, or ‘following,’ all those bright, shiny people in Christian circles, as if they have something you don’t! Phooey. They have the same Holy Spirit-Helper you do. If God withdraws His hand from their lives they will look just like everyone else. What you can see is the fire of God within!  Isn’t He so beautiful? So go after Him for yourself. Thinking about Jesus and what He likes, needs to be encouraged. Also remember to be grateful, even for little things.

There are great exploits awaiting any of His kids that dare to stand up and say: “Here I am Lord, send me!” Even if it is just two doors down the road, to the depressed guy whose yard looks like a tip! You don’t have to be anyone to love people – just HIS! Sometimes we sit around, mouths open like baby birds waiting to be fed. Read the book, Paul says, ‘come off milk, and get into meat!’ 

Meanwhile, don’t just sit about and hope and wait for someone else to tell you what your spiritual gift is. Instead, work on loving people, forgiving them, helping them. Gifts turn up when you do what He said – on purpose. Nobody told me what my gifts were for over 30 years. Nobody cared – they were too busy looking for their own. 😂 The church at large is often so busy that they need people to do practical jobs. Sadly they aren’t always looking for blossoming gifts .. Here’s a thought …stop using the pastor and love on him instead.

We need to stop making the wheels of routine relentlessly turn, and pick up His yoke. Whatever your gift from God is, it is not about you – your spiritual prowess, your calling. God doesn’t need our help – He needs our obedience! Everything, everything, EVERYTHING is about Him. “What do we have that was not given to us?”Last of all, please don’t settle for less. Open doors appear as we go along, doing good wherever we can. Real faith involves taking risks. 👋🏻

P 2252 Trust is more than a word!

/ DVH

Genesis 15:6 “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” I think this is one of the most important verses in the Old Testament.  Paul says this about Abraham in Galatians 3:6-9 TPT:“Abraham, our father of faith, believed God, and the substance of his faith released God’s righteousness to him. So the true children of Abraham have the same faith as their father! And the Scripture prophesied that on the basis of faith God would declare Gentiles to be righteous. God announced the good news ahead of time to Abraham: ““Through your example of faith, all the nations will be blessed!” And so the blessing of Abraham’s faith is now our blessing too!”

Abraham’s example of faith and trust is an illustration of our new place of freedom in Christ. We accept that what Christ did for us, was complete. Being subject or powerless to avoid any kind of sin is living in slavery!  Christ set us free to choose to follow Him and the Holy Spirit leads us into a new way to live. Just like Abraham chose to follow God to a new land – we choose to follow Christ into our eternal destination – living in His kingdom right here, right now. We use our faith to live this life differently, as the Holy Spirit leads us.

Abraham’s decision to follow God’s instructions, implicitly, even to the point of sacrificing his only son, Isaac, shows us the focus of this man’s heart. He utterly trusted God. In conversation with Isaac about where they would find a lamb for the sacrifice – Abraham said this: “…“God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”And the two of them went on together.” That was a faith statement and it also pointed toward Christ, 4,000 years later! Jesus is our Lamb of provision – He is our way out of serving sin… His Spirit leads us into serving God.

We need to actively learn, day by day, to trust our God … and that means we will do some dying to self along the way! To live in Christ’s freedom means we leave our old life behind, and we use our faith to live the life that God has prepared for us. Sin is not our main focus – what He wants for our lives is. We know that God Himself has provided the sacrifice for our sin, just like He did, on Mount Moriah, with Abraham and Isaac. So we press on, following in the footsteps of Christ, denying ourselves the things we want, in favour of the things HE wants. We’ve decided, once and for all, that what He said He did, He did. It’s finished. It’s done. 

Now it is our responsibility to live our lives, every single day, for love’s sake. Because of our devotion and allegiance to Jesus we accept that the things that happen to us, around us, and in us, are opportunities for change. That change consists of finding out what Jesus wants us to do in any kind of situation, for His kingdom to come. That’s the way we live now – we choose Him. He chose us, and now we choose Him right back. 

Sometimes that may mean that our days pass uneventfully, but those are the days that we need to stay focussed. Because we’ve learnt, that when we least expect it, we are going to need our faith … in the heat of sudden battle. We’ve learnt that our faith is developed by the everyday choices we make. It is strengthened every time we use it. Our faith will be tested, just like it was for Abraham! And he is called the father of our faith – he did it first. This is why we need to practice letting go of what we want, and learn to trust God instead. True freedom comes when we live in that trust because we are not driven about by our own sinful desires.

However, there is no real working faith if we simply let life happen to us. Instead we need to purpose in our hearts to rely upon God’s Grace to only do those things we need to do – and some of those things will involve sacrifices. That is part of our new life, our commitment to Christ. We cannot serve our God part-time or half-heartedly. We will end up disappointed and we will miss out on the freedom Christ died to give us. As Christians we need to pay attention to developing our trust in His ways. 👋🏻

Titus 2:11-12,14.“God’s marvellous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone. This same grace teaches us how to live each day as we turn our backs on ungodliness and indulgent lifestyles, and it equips us to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age.”…  … “He sacrificed Himself for us that He might purchase our freedom from every lawless deed and to purify for Himself a people who are His very own, passionate to do what is beautiful in His eyes.”

P 2251 About sin.

/ DVH

Yes, I know I talked about this subject yesterday, but I am not done yet … apparently! 😶 Sin is not a whoopsie, a boo-boo;  a mistake;  or something that happened when I wasn’t looking;  or even a momentary suspension in my concentration! It is not an accident;  or something I just kind of sort of fell into;  or even something someone else made me do; and it is definitely not my snappy response to someone else’s sin against me, either! 

Sin is governed by my own choices. We can blame our mother, father, cousin, auntie, sister, friend or brother but if we read the bible carefully, we will find that… that kind of thinking don’t cut no mustard with God. Neither does … the devil made me do it. Sin is an attitude that has been embedded inside human hearts as normal – something everyone does. That is how it negates what God has said, in favour of what we want, or what is expedient to us.

Most people don’t tell the truth, and I am not just talking about the guys in jail, or terrorists! We all sin all the time, and we are so used to it, we don’t notice – or maybe we have convinced ourselves that after all we aren’t perfect. 😳 Then, because we are too busy excusing ourselves, we miss the opportunity to repent. The truth is – sin has no power over us anymore, it only has perceived power. That comes from a lack of understanding that we don’t have to sin now! We settle for less. Jesus said that like this: “I will not talk with you much more, for the prince (evil genius, ruler of the world is coming. And He has no claim on Me. (He has nothing in common with Me: there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and He has no power over Me.” John 14:30. 

Jesus died to give us the same power He used to overcome our common enemy. His righteousness with God exchanged for our sin. The reason sin trips us up is we don’t actually understand what Christ gave us. Unfortunately, we are incapable of deciding for ourselves whether this or that is actually sin. We need the bible! Personally, I’ve found if anything is not motivated by LOVE, it is sin. 🧐 However, often people think if it looks or seems OK, it is OK. Just because we’ve always lived this way, that doesn’t make the things we do spiritually sound.

Now let’s get to the good bit. Because you and I have given our lives to Christ, we don’t have to worry about sin anymore. Jesus became like US, so we could become like HIM. “This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment:… because as He is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17. Jesus died to give us the Holy Spirit’s power to live this life like He did. This thought needs to be uppermost in our minds. It was an exchange. Jesus paid for all our sins, past, present and future, and He gave us His position with Almighty God instead. It was given, we didn’t earn it or deserve it. However, tolerating sin renders us spiritually deaf, a little bit at a time. 

When God looks at you and I, now He sees us IN Christ. We will stay in that new position, covered by Jesus’ shed blood, when we live our lives the way Jesus Christ would live them. Living like that, gives us total freedom – but any rebellion against how Christ told us to live, makes us vulnerable to deception. Deception will make sin look OK. Understanding now we have a choice, helps us rise above this kind of rebellion. Instead, we step out of the boat of our old behaviour, (our old self), onto the water of Christ’s loving provision, and begin to use our God-given faith. We now have heavenly help at any given moment.

The bible says: “IF(!!) we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1John 1:9. Freedom from sin comes from confession and repentance – not just pretending things didn’t happen, or blaming someone else. Blame is a dangerous thing, it can destroy people’s faith. Instead, we give up our right to excuse ourselves. So if someone accuses us, we repent. Then we go on to humbly apologise, and acknowledge what we did. After that we need to revise our behaviour when the next opportunity turns up – using our faith.  

Christians need to learn to repent, not debate whether it is sin or not. What we think does not matter – we must let the Holy Spirit vindicate us. This is because we have died and we want Jesus to live in us more than we want anything else. We cannot afford to let pride give sin permission to hold us captive – because that will limit our ability to live in His kingdom. I’ve found regularly renewing my mind, together with prayer, and fellowshipping with the Lord and others, keeps me on track.👋🏻