Love

P 2149 We just gotta learn how to love like this….

/ DVH

… SO … I suggest we make love our aim, and daily pray for the Lord to give us His strength to live that way, because His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses. Plus we can use all the help we can get! The other day I was watching a non-Christian fictional story about a surfing manufacturer’s beginnings. I shan’t bother you with the plot, except it was set somewhere that hubby and I have been to, and we’ve seen those particular waves. Sooo cool and incredibly beautiful – just like jade jelly. 😊 

Anyhoo, back to the film. There were these two brothers who loved each other deeply … it took half the film to establish that fact. And one of them is out surfing in a surfing competition and the other is watching in the crowd on the beach. Man that surf is so-oo bad … it is like … out there!!  And the surfing brother gets dumped by this massive wave, and he does not come up. He is drowning. 

Instantly his older brother starts running. He strips off his outer clothes and he leaps into the incredibly dangerous surf to go and rescue his brother. A crowd of people are watching the surfers and someone yells at him -“What do you think you are doing man? You’ll die too. That’s nuts!” The older brother hits the water and yells back: “THAT’S MY BROTHER OUT THERE!”  …  … I cried! That whole scene hit me right in the spirit;  because that’s what God Himself did for all of us. Ya might want to stop and thank Him for it.

Meanwhile, back to the surfing saga, the older brother saved his sibling, of course … because it was fictional! And I started to think that it was a shame that lately, the only illustration of the power, strength and steadfastness of Love, the way God sees it, had to be fictional. Why are Christians settling for jovial, pleasant and nice, when there is more? One of the most deadly things we can do to our faith is to be comfortable and safe, and yet we all strive for that end. 🤔  

Lately I’ve been watching the rocks cry out in some of the story lines that have come up in whatever I’m reading or watching. I’ve come to the conclusion that this world’s rocks are now shouting at the top of their lungs, because we are very bad at communicating what love and faith look like to the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet! We are often all talk and no action. And so the Lord has to use the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet to teach and inspire US. Have we forgotten the story of the Good Samaritan already?? You know, Jews looked down on Samaritans, I think that’s why the Lord Jesus picked them for an illustration! Sadly, when we make Christian movies, we don’t seem to be able to produce stuff with strong, pithy story lines, so we end up looking weak, soft, soppy and wobbly. 

More’s the pity. We have the greatest story of all, and it’s true. As we both know, Calvary’s story is not about Jesus looking like some kind of a softie! Christ was a strong powerful man that strode into that temple with only a whip in His hands and scared the greed and avarice right out of those money lenders and closed down their miserable businesses. It was a real man who faced that cross, and bore all that pain, and still loved the people who did it to Him! We simply must stop thinking of the Lord Jesus as a nice man with blonde hair and blue eyes in an oversized nightie. He held His own with fishermen. Meanwhile I don’t know too many people who could have kept up with His schedule for three and a half years!

Back to my point! That surfing movie I watched illustrates the kind of love the Lord Jesus is looking for from us. The kind of love that would run unreservedly into danger, without thought, because our brother or sister in Christ is in danger. We just gotta learn to love each other like that. That’s the place where your problem becomes my problem – where I care about your soul, and your life, more than my own safety and reputation. We won’t be able to keep people out of our churches when we love like that. 

John 15:12-13. “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 13:34&35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

Can you see that the way we love each another is the very best kind of advertising – ever! We cannot pretend this kind of love because it is HIS KIND OF LOVE. And we can’t skip over the process, either. Father God has been so generous to His family. Most of us have interesting  (??) immediate earthly family members we can practice on. Because if we can’t love our families of origin then the church family is in big trouble.

And yes, I know personally from my own experience, that most of us have origin family stories that would blow anyone’s mind. Moving on… we must always remember that He’s the God of the impossible. He simply loo-oo-oo-oo-oo-ves 💕 doing stuff we think He can’t do. 💕 Just to prove us wrong … teehee. 🤣 Let’s start each new day asking Him to be strong in us in the area of loving, because we are all weak there. 👋🏻

‘Lord, please give us all Your kind of love. A love that is willing to die for our brothers and sisters. We are not good at Your kind of love Lord and we need Your help, thank you. Amen.

P 2148 The Body of Christ must learn to deal with itself.

/ DVH

There have been some articles in the press lately, about this sin in this church and another sin in that one. I believe that our churches need to be a well-cleaned window into the ways of our God. Nothing inside our lives together should be offensive to God or man. However, that does not mean we won’t make mistakes but it does mean keeping our lives clean, honest and open, is essential.

1 Corinthians 5: 1-3 “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this…” 

Please note Paul is not just saying: “Give this man a smack on the wrist and tell him to stop.” He is telling the church to deal with these things, swiftly and decisively. This guy’s sin has affected their church. Our God has tied His reputation to ours, and that should mean something to us. Jesus Christ made Himself of no reputation – He had to – to identify with us! Sadly, we ferret about trying to hide this thing and that circumstance, and hope it will all just disappear into the ether. It won’t. The church at large has a terrible reputation because we keep sweeping stuff under a rug. That pile under the rug has started to smell and, guess what? Other people have noticed that we are drowning in our own hypocrisy.

However, let us not just dismiss stuff as being some other denomination’s problem … because … whisper whisper … we always knew they were a bit off. The bible says we are members of each other. In other words my sin is your sin and your sin is mine! I get spasms in my hands sometimes, but that does not mean that my hands don’t belong to me, just because they keep doing stuff without my permission. Some denominations have been highlighted in terrible ways … but we can’t just write that stuff off as not being our particular church’s problem! Or say things like: “Our denomination is not like them.” That’s pride, judgment, and a huge lack of love. And if we don’t have love we are bonging away like Big Ben. The Lord is telling us to deal with our own garbage out of respect for Himself and the Body of Christ … not to mention caring for the souls of the people committing these sins. 

Just because some stuff is tolerated in our societies, that does not mean we should live in hope that it will fade away. Or maybe stay hidden. We need His heart, He loves the sinner, and hates the sin. Our problem seems to be the way we deal with things, not just the stuff going on. What’s wrong with repentance, whether we belong to that denomination or not? Plus supporting our brothers and sisters in prayer until they have His plan for dealing with things. Paul reacts here with swift discipline, and then compassion.

I admire Pastor Juan Carlos Ortiz from Argentina – his books are terrific. In one of them he tells the story of someone at his church who was caught cooking the books  – this person stole a heap of money. Pastor Ortiz’ immediate reaction was to put him out of the church, sending the man and his innocent family into jail and abject poverty … a-n-d … serve him right! However, Juan is a man who listens to God, and so the Lord began to deal with him about what he had done with the thief. 

To make a long precious story very short – in the end after much prayer, he went to the thief and said: “I will not put you out of my church, your disgrace will be my disgrace I will stand right beside you and bear your shame with you.” The thief was immediately deeply convicted of his sin, and suddenly he understood that what he had done had affected everyone else. That story sounds just like Jesus to me. The Lord came and owned us before we even knew we were sinners. He stood beside us and said to the world: “They are with Me!”

I am not talking about dismissing sin, or disregarding its consequences, or even feeling sorry for the sinner. I am talking about being His love in action. I think the reason we often take the supposed high moral ground is because we have absolutely no idea what love looks like and we are not living close enough to the Lord’s heartbeat to hear what He thinks. Sadly, we care more for appearances.  Here is the second half of that story in 1 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 2:5-8 “If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.  I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.”

The Body of Christ world-wide needs the kind of wisdom that Paul exhibits here, to manage those things that are remaining hidden inside our churches. We also need to make it clear to the world around us that our churches are full of forgiven sinners. For too long the Body of Christ has avoided confronting the things that need to be confronted. We simply must learn to deal with ourselves, because one day… the book says …we will judge the angels. 👋🏻

P 2145 Some very interesting questions.

/ DVH

The Lord asked my lovely husband some questions recently, when he was praying in his quiet time and he shared them with me. The questions were all so good I thought I would include them in today’s blog, with hubby’s permission. Maybe we can both give them some further thought, so I’ve put them here for you to think on too. Please bear in mind that the first part of each question relates to law and the second half of the question relates to Grace. I think it is very useful to have questions to use to help us understand the way the Lord thinks.

First of all, He asked hubby to consider: “Do you want to be defined by Law or Grace?  One system is defined by ‘justice,’ and the other by ‘mercy.’  One system embraces ‘punishment’, the other ‘redemption.’ …  

Sometimes we can’t leave our anger at someone else behind us, because, deep down, we want them to be punished. Those thoughts are not just childish – they are dangerous. However, that’s also when we can see that we are clinging to a system that leaves Grace out. For the other person as well as us. Our God is so gracious, He will find a way to bless that other person even while we are withholding forgiveness. But we will miss out on seeing and comprehending what He is like, when we imprison ourselves within spite, revenge, hatred and unforgiveness etc. Personally, I don’t want justice … I need mercy. Like I’ve said once before, what comes out when we’ve been squeezed tightly is what is actually IN there – don’t be condemned, but let’s not excuse ourselves either!

The Lord also said this: “One system ‘imprisons’ people, the other ‘restores their freedom.’ One ‘limits’ potential, and the other ‘extends it way beyond belief.’ One system depends on ‘past performance’, and the other hangs everything on our ‘hope in Christ.’ 

There is no prison as strong as the one we foster and create for ourselves, by expecting the world around us to conform to our standards. However freedom actually becomes something tangible when we value it enough to give it away to someone who will never deserve it!. We can’t afford to put our hope in anything else but the blood of Jesus. As soon as we start thinking “I’m right and you are wrong” – we’ve missed it. We have flipped over into performance and left our own hope in the power of Christ’s blood to redeem behind us. Let’s not limit our spiritual potential by things that will weigh us down.

Here are some more things the Lord said: “One system rewards us for ‘merit’, the other ‘empowers us for what is to come.’  One ‘judges’ others, the other ‘prophesies good’ wherever it can. The former builds on what is ‘seen’, the latter builds on the ‘unseen, and the eternal’ and speaks life into situations that look dead and finished.  

When we live our lives expecting to be treated fairly and kindly, we are denying the fact that the founder of our faith was treated appallingly, without any remorse – and He was utterly innocent. We have the power of God residing inside us, so NOW we can speak His life into desperate situations and hearts. These things are about simply making quality decisions – they are not about feelings. It is way past the time when we should start prophesying His life into the darkness around us, as He leads us. Personally I can’t face this life at all without His Spirit empowering me, minute by minute, daily. 

Lastly the Lord said to hubby: “The focal point of the Ark/Presence of God, is the MERCY SEAT.  Not a judge’s seat.” He concluded their conversation by saying: “All that sounds like LOVE to Me.” Amen! 

Mercy is a precious thing, if we want to enjoy it ourselves, then we need to give it away freely to other people. I love it when our Heavenly Father clarifies the things we think we know, with some well-placed, thought provoking questions! It seems to me that it would be a good thing if we revised all our thoughts in favour of Grace and Mercy … as a way to live. I’ve found that walking in His Grace opens my eyes more, spiritually. Instead of looking for places to criticise others, or protect myself, now l want to look for ways to bless them as He encourages me to do it. When I live that way it changes my view of everything around me as well.

I want to be defined by the Grace He gives me, so I live realising that I have and need plenty of Grace myself, so I can easily give it away to others. That will keep me humble! Every single time I red flag things that I am saying or thinking – I know that something is going on that will lead me into spiritual deafness if  I continue down that path. It means I’ve stopped listening to the Holy Spirit and obeying Him. AcknowledgIng that I cannot live my life like Jesus’ lived His, without His Grace, is the beginning of transformation. 👋🏻

“Abandon every display of selfishness. Possess a greater concern for what matters to others instead of your own interests. And consider the example that Jesus, the Anointed One, has set before us. Let His mindset become your motivation.” “He existed in the form of God, yet He gave no thought to seizing equality with God as His supreme prize. Instead He emptied Himself of His outward glory by reducing Himself to the form of a lowly servant. He became human! He humbled Himself and became vulnerable, choosing to be revealed as a man and was obedient. He was a perfect example, even in His death—a criminal’s death by crucifixion!” Philippians 2:4-8

P 2144 The Faithful One.

/ DVH

“We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 TPT

Our God is so faithful, HE LOVES US … whatever happens to us is not proof of His love or even a sign that He is angry with us. He put all His anger on Christ. He loves mankind because He says so – in the book! Here is one of my favourite verses: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful [true to His word and His righteous character], for He cannot deny Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13. 🥰 Unfortunately we can be faithless, often … and we are!  What makes you and I the same as everyone else in this world, is the blood we all have coursing through our veins. Colour, size, age, sex, race and religion none of that matters because we are all human. Human beings assess things by performance, but we dare not assess the Lord that way. We must learn to take Him at His word! 

The above verse tells us the Lord God Almighty IS always faithful – let us pray that we will begin to understand just how faithful He is! Just like our blood is a part of humanity we have in common, His faithfulness is a part of Who He is!  He is faithful through and through. Those qualities we sometimes think of as passing human characteristics, are permanently, FOREVER, HIS! Love, joy, peace, etc – these things are not whimsical, or seasonal, or subject to change with Him – our God is always the same. Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” And Malachi 3:6: “For I am the Lord, I do not change; …” 

We need to do more than nod our heads or even say Amen to verses like that. They are not just there to cheer us up when we feel down. They are there to reveal His heart. We must start living our lives treating whatever He says, in the book, as the truth, because it is. HE CANNOT CHANGE. When we try to elevate humanity up to His level, we are running the very real risk of lowering His status down to human standards. Jesus is God, and He is like us – but Almighty God is like no-one else.

And I’m just going to let that statement sit there by itself because we must do more than simply agree with it. We need to start living our lives depending on how permanently dependable He is. Our lives have become more and more unstable because the things we’ve stood on – or gave our attention to – started to wobble. Misunderstanding the Lord God’s motivation means we are in danger of attributing Him with our human characteristics. Even though Christ came as one of us – He did something human beings cannot do – He was purity Personified. After that He chose to become sin. In these matters we cannot trust our own understanding. The mysteries of our God are beyond our understanding … and that’s a good thing!  

We need SomeOne wiser, kinder, more loving, and more committed to us, than we can ever be to each other – otherwise we are sunk. We will all be stuck in a rut of trying to be better people and failing. Whether I like you or not, or you like me or not, we need to start to know and see each other after the Spirit. “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.” 2 Corinthians 5:16. In other words I begin to see the Holy Spirit active in you, and you see Him active and working in and ON me. That will not happen when we spend our time trying to impress one another with our spirituality. Rather it happens as a byproduct of working together for a common cause as we submit to His ways. 

When we actively look for and take particular notice of the signs of His faithfulness in our lives, and store all those things in our hearts –  like a squirrel stores up nuts for the winter – we will begin to know one another after the Spirit! The power of God is not a reward for good behaviour, or super spirituality. As we let the Holy Spirit develop who we are, we will be transformed to look like Jesus. Jesus didn’t have to try to do this or that – HE JUST DID IT. It is time to deliberately transfer our trust, from what we think, see and know, into simply trusting in WHO He is. 

We must put aside the prayers of “please fix this and that thing, or everything that matters to me Lord” and start to pray: “Why am I here Lord, what is Your purpose for my life?” Whether you or I are the head pastor or the janitor – all those things are up to Him. The things that are weighing heavily on each of our hearts will be: “…ADDED UNTO US … as we seek His kingdom FIRST.” He cannot be anything else but faithful to us, and He is looking for us to be faithful to Him in the midst of a faithless generation. 👋🏻

P 2141 Mercy and compassion

/ DVH

You and I know all about mercy, it’s that thing we sometimes want from the Lord  when we need Him to be compassionate toward us! Even though there are times when we actually don’t want to give those things to other people. One of the hardest things about being human is that we think we have very good reasons to be hurt, angry, bitter and resentful. And, sadly, if you were to ask us, we can tell you all about what happened to us because we have a list. Hmmm. What part of that sentence sounds biblical? 😶

Today, I want to talk about two important Godly Graces. They are personal expressions of the Love of God in action. Please feel free to pray that God enlarges the boundaries of my own tent in these things because I will always be grateful for more. My own heart desperately needs this kind of stretching and exercise. When you are older and ill – you can easily get wrapped up in your own needs. However, mercy and compassion are God-qualities – they are His Grace in action for those who are undeserving, and those who are trapped. They have nothing to do with the health and well-being of the one called to minister to others. The body of Christ today needs these qualities because they are so powerful – they can heal other people’s hearts quicker than we can say: “Be healed in Jesus’ Name.” 

There are even times when the-people-who-do-not-know-Jesus-yet, can display them. We must stop thinking that God only speaks to this world through the church. Ordinary human beings who don’t know Jesus, leap into the ocean to save a stranger, sometimes they die trying, or they run into burning buildings and save other people’s lives, every single day! The bible says that the Lord once used a donkey, and a whale to save people! Our God loves human beings so much even dogs and dolphins have miraculously saved lives. That is how important these Graces are!  

Mercy and compassion aren’t just about feeling sad for someone else’s suffering, or even trying our best to help them. Those feelings can occur when we have distanced ourselves from the people we know who are suffering. Instead mercy participates in situations, not caring about its own welfare – it runs into danger or difficulty for the benefit of others – even the people who hurt us. ‘Mercy is forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.’ (Dictionary definition.) Hate kills, mercy and compassion bring life.

Compassion isn’t just about thinking: ’oh you poor thing,’  Actually that’s called pity. Compassion has feet on it! “Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering…” (Dictionary) The bible says that Jesus Himself always had compassion for the suffering people around Him and He showed them mercy. IF we allow our bad circumstances to teach us, over and over again, that we need His Grace, then we will receive something that is real to give away.

The Lord wants these qualities to flow out of our lives like an endless river of His Love  expressed through us. Meanwhile this also means that whatever He does for any of us, is done through His endless mercy and compassion. That love is not forced or coerced – it is given freely to us – and we have been reborn so we can give those things freely to other people. We are no longer of this world – we have qualities they often don’t have! Mercy and compassion voluntarily run toward suffering. These two things in the church are often represented by giving money, or time, but Christ came to us in Person. 

Sometimes I think we would rather pray at a distance than go to the bedside of someone who is desperate and suffering. We can get so obsessed about using His miraculous power to show others how spiritual we are, we forget that we have been given this power to bring healing, reconciliation, kindness, mercy, forgiveness, and compassion to others. Those things are not mutually exclusive they are inter-reliant upon each other. Helping someone else who doesn’t deserve help, as He leads us, marks US as His people. Taking other people’s pain personally is part of flowing in His love.  

Mercy and compassion are incredibly powerful – those qualities led to feeding thousands of hungry people, on two occasions. Mercy even forgave a sinful man hanging next to Jesus – while Christ Himself was suffering incredible pain! Any Christians who represent Him have eyes to see, and ears to hear – they always see or hear the one with a need. And in the Lord’s personal earthly ministry – those qualities in Him, also responded to the suffering of the friends and family around the patient, or the one tormented.

The point I want to make is that the closer we get to the Lord, the more mercy and compassion will leak out of us onto everybody around us. They are HIS qualities, not ours. Hang around the cross! We will find loads of mercy and compassion when we hang around it. Jesus loved, and died for the people who killed Him. That’s pure mercy. Forgiving people who do not know they need to be forgiven is not about obligation – it is a quality that flows from a heart filled with love – that heart treasures what it has been given so much, it can’t wait to give it away.. And it is the same with compassion. Compassion stooped down to write in the dust for a woman who had no hope of a reprieve, and Compassion walked across the city, to the mat of a man who had lain ill for 35 years. 

These qualities are part of the activities of love in action, and they are seeable. They are not just a passing sad feeling, or hoping someone feels better – they are love in action. Mercy and compassion engage in the disease ridden soil of mankind’s sin and the results of it – with the aim of bringing healing. With no strings attached. 👋🏻

P 2140 I will show you THE most excellent way….

/ DVH

I Corinthians 12:31”Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.” 1 Corinthians 13:1 “And yet I will show you the most excellent way.”

The most incredible thing about those two separate verses is that Paul previously described some of the most important gifts God ever gave the body of Christ, in them. I mean apostles, pastors, teachers, prophets etc. etc. These roles are a show case for the Love of God through His people! They are gifts from God Himself. And Paul says we should eagerly desire them. There is no shame if we want to bless God’s people with the gifts He gave us. Unfortunately sometimes we’ve elevated those gifts to rock star status, and we’ve forgotten Love is our catch-cry!

Absolutely everything hangs on the phrase ..  without love those gifts are rendered useless. And worse still … unfortunately the vehicles God designed to showcase His Love, have sometimes become instruments of control. That ought not to be so. Sometimes I think we are like children in a toy shop, we want the bright shiny brand new ‘IN’ thing, not the thing that will last, and truly bring heaven to earth. LOVE LASTS. Everything else will fade away. Only Love will remain when this world is rolled up like a scroll.

Love is described as the most excellent way, and it is not a feeling, because Paul goes on to tell us what it looks like when it is present and none of those things are feelings. Instead they are bodily actions and attitudes in our hearts. A number of years ago the Lord taught me to turn the coin over whenever I read the scriptures. That process looks like this to me – if it fails then it wasn’t love. We all might want to take a seat and think on that. 🤔 The thing I have learnt about HIS kind of love is that it knows the way through any and every problem – and everybody will get blessed … except for the devil. Sometimes when His love comes, because we don’t understand it, we don’t see it.

I just want to pause for a moment to be clear, sometimes things in our lives LOOK terrible, but afterward .. suddenly we get a glimpse of what was happening. God was working everything together for everyone’s good. The cross is an incredible example of that. Christ warned His disciples, over and over again that He was going to die, and they definitely didn’t like that teaching!  They were shattered, so much so that when they were told Jesus was alive after they had seen Him dead – they didn’t believe what they heard. Like I said, feelings aren’t the whole story. Sometimes feelings don’t even enter into our FAITH stories … 

Jesus taught many hard things, and even His own disciples didn’t understand what He said, and they didn’t like it either, until afterward… After He had left them … then they thought about everything He said. That’s because God’s Ways are not our ways. No wonder Jesus stood up at that great feast and said: “I AM THE WAY.” But since the dawn of time, human beings have kept right on looking for alternatives  … even when God Himself handed us HIS way to relate to Him, we ignored Him. It seems all we care about is our own pleasure. You know, Eve thought that fruit looked and smelled pretty good!

Over the years, we have mistakenly thought that whenever God is speaking to us – we are going to love it.  So we dismissed any of the things we didn’t like, as things that didn’t come from Him. He had to invade our space to change our minds. The bible clearly shows us the way God loves: “the Lord disciplines those Whom He loves..” (Proverbs 3:12; Hebrews 12:4-11) EVEN HIS SON! So God’s idea of love is absolutely different from ours. Especially in this permissive, anybody-can-do-whatever-makes-them-feel-good, age! However, right now we have an opportunity to learn His ways.  Maybe we need to revise how we see Him, as more light comes to us – instead of steadfastly maintaining our man-made traditions.

It is unfortunate that the church has decided that something that is GRACE, is only meant to be an outward appearance. The Lord could care less about appearances – He wants the things we do to come from faith expressed with love. And we can’t pretend His kind of love, no matter how hard we try. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us to help us. Thank you Lord!  I practically wake up saying “Help Help!” I know I’m going to need His help at any given moment! The Lord Jesus is the embodiment of this passage, check it out for yourself. He had infinite patience with His disciples who didn’t listen to Him,  He was kind to everyone and met their needs. He never boasted about Who He is or where He came from, and He never even spoke badly about His enemies.

As a human being He felt the pain of betrayal and rejection, as well as the whip of jealousy and hatred, like we all do. At any given moment in all that suffering, Jesus could have left us to our own devices. Instead, He took ALL our records of wrong with Him, and nailed them to that cross through His own body – never to be seen again. Evil broke His dear pure heart, because Christ loved truth. He IS truth personified. And Love is an action – we can see it over and over again in the book. Talk is cheap and it fades. Love remains forever. 👋🏻

P 2139 Our feelings can control our lives and oppose faith

/ DVH

Our feelings fight for control of our thinking and eventually our faith, because we have learnt, from this world’s society, to listen to what makes me feel good. Jesus Christ was born into the sort of captivity that some people in this world face today, His nation was under the control of the Roman Empire. However, Christ understood what real freedom is. It is about who we are INSIDE. He understood that even though we are all free to hate, that means we are also free to love. Jesus Christ understood the power of choice. I’m not sure humanity understands this concept much – our feelings have been kind of, over- indulged.

Our world is tied up with owning things, because we have a lot of freedom to choose. Over the years I’ve learnt that I don’t have to like people to pray for them. Which is why Jesus told us to pray for our enemies and do them good whenever we can. Our actions do not have to be guided by our feelings. However, our feelings certainly know how to put up a good fight at times – especially if someone else jumps up and down on them! But those feelings can be a problem, and giving in to them is a mistake – because feelings cloud faith.

I cannot tell you how many times I have had to take my own feelings by the scruff of the neck and tell them – “You are not the boss of me, JESUS IS.” That statement comes with a warning label … ⚠️ …because doing it hurts. It hurts because in my lifetime I have learnt to live by my feelings, so some things feel natural. Just because it feels natural that doesn’t make it good, right and profitable. Actually my feelings lie to me all the time. They tell me that it is not fair when I am sick, or I can’t do stuff I want to do, or eat what I like. Have you ever noticed that your feelings rarely give you a solution? I have! 😳

Moving on …There are times when I feel like I deserve all this fabulous stuff I don’t have. 😂 Yeah. Howzat working out for you baby?  I also feel like everybody should love me because I’m a nice person. But they don’t. My feelings are not accurate, and when I indulge them they take over, and they demand to be fed. Mainly because I have stepped out of the realm of reality. I actually can’t control anything but ME and feelings can shoot that in the foot too!  Hypothetically, I might get cross if someone else does not give me the approval I think I need. Or I can get angry because I know what I want, and you won’t give it to me (!!) 😱… Meanwhile, I can also feel that if you would just do what I want, then everybody would be happy. Well, I’d be happy anyway! And if you dare to make me unhappy, then I will make you PAY.  Like I said, my feelings are totally unrealistic and they lie to me.

Feelings can be cruel taskmasters. They demand this and that, and if people don’t get what they want when they want it, then their feelings will make you get your own straw (Exodus 5:6-20)  just to make sure you know who is IN CHARGE. That sounds a lot like Pharaoh to me!! I know many people who live by their feelings and being around them like is living on a roller coaster. U-P, down …looping the loop …and hanging upside down. 🤢 I get giddy trying to talk to them because I never know what is going to offend them next. It’s like you are walking along with someone chatting away, and suddenly you hit a very deep hole and you can’t figure out how you fell in! 

People who live by their feelings are utterly unpredictable. Many poor souls are so trapped by their feelings that they let their feelings influence their choices. How I feel is a part of who I am, but it is not all of who I am. I am  a person of faith. Faith and feelings rarely coincide. I’ve practiced ignoring my feelings when my feelings told me that I hate someone. I know I can’t do that anymore, because I belong to Jesus! Actually, I found out, as time went on, I  didn’t really hate them – I just didn’t understand them, or the way those people thought. Living by our feelings is a childish indulgence – living by faith means you take big steps into better behaviour. We are led by SomeOne wiser than we are..

There are people in this world who make every effort to try to control every single thing around them. They take over entire countries or people groups just so they can feel powerful or important. Napoleon felt important, and it didn’t work out well for him. Alternatively, it also seems that there are people have never ever heard the word NO! in their lives… and when they do finally hear it they want to take an ax or a knife or a gun and do something appalling with it. Like James says:  ‘…my brothers… this ought not to be so!’ Some actions or attitudes are diagnostic tools, and if we do them, we are exhibiting our lack of our awareness that there is a God and we are answerable to Him. Our feelings are not ever meant to be bigger than our faith.

We simply cannot afford to live our lives the way this world does – living that way will kill off faith. Let’s look at money for a moment. Hubby and I changed our banking system. We give our money to Jesus and use it the way He tells us to use it. When we do that, we are storing our financial security up in heaven where thieves and greedy people can’t get to it. This means we don’t have much down here, so we can’t buy lots of things we don’t need. YAY!  Unless the Lord Jesus, Who is now our banker, decides we need it.  We consult Him about every purchase and if He says NO then we don’t get it. 

Instead, we’ve learnt to thank God that we have somewhere to live, because so many people in this world don’t. Some people even live in fear for their lives daily. Everything in this world depends on how you and I look at things. We can see loss, and sadness, or see opportunities to change our POV and think like Jesus did.  Like I said, feelings oppose faith. 👋🏻 

P 2138 God deliberately chose mankind – despite our obvious flaws.

/ DVH

“But now thus says the LORD, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine.” Isaiah 43:1–3. These verses remind us of God’s promised Presence always. (More on the one-of-a-kind-Ferrari later!)

“God’s people will face trials, but we have the promises of God’s presence and salvation. So I … want you to just let these words fall on your heart, to hear God saying to you, fear not, I have redeemed you. I have saved you from your sin. I have made you my son or daughter.” (David Platt)

When I read these words today, they were like cool water pouring over me after a long, dry, thirsty day/week/month/year/lifetime! I just love the way the Lord Jesus changed our lives for us, forever. To quote a colloquial saying: Jesus Christ was a total game changer! God’s plan in sending His only Son to die for our sins, meant everything changed – forever. These words in Isaiah were actually written for the Jewish nation, the Israelites. Yet despite who we are – most of us are Gentiles – Father God included us by saving everyone – and He always planned to do it. Read the book. 

In the bible we have the strong and enduring promise of a Saviour who died for all our sins! And we have it in writing! … 🤔 …That is one very handy book! Yet, the wonder of our God is this … He has never given up on His beloved Israel! She is His first love All throughout the Old Testament I marvel at His incredible loyalty and forbearance with these people who were, and still are … just like me …  wilful, afraid, rebellious and selfish! 

We have a saying in our family, that we got from reading C.S. Lewis’ book about Narnia, called ‘The Last Battle.’ It goes like this: “The dwarfs are for the dwarfs!” Quite simply it means most people are for themselves … a-n-d … bad luck about everybody else. 😶 No wonder we must read the bible all the time to change the way we think. 

The Lord Jesus arrived here on earth as a vulnerable Jewish infant, and He lived His life here, physically illustrating and teaching everyone He met about His Father’s will. Plus He did everything He did, His Father’s Way, which means any kind of selfish ambition went right out of the window!  And then Jesus went on to die in our place so He could completely save mankind, like … forever. THEN, after His death, He went back to heaven, and left us with our own free will – our own dumb choices! He did all that for us. You might want to Selah those thoughts for a few minutes – our choices are very important to God.

Now we must choose to live like Jesus did. Here’s the kicker … Jesus knew we couldn’t change our own minds and hearts by ourselves, so He sent back the precious Holy Spirit to help us. The Holy Spirit helped the Lord Jesus while He was here, and now He is here for us – to help us. But, absolutely everything depends on our choices. In other words, He didn’t only choose us – He gives us the freedom to choose Him … or not. That teaches me that Almighty God wants us to love Him without any fear at all, voluntarily. 

Generosity like this astonishes me.  Why? Well, I know where I’ve been and what I’ve done, and He has never ever closed the door on me. Other people have been so angry at me that they can hardly bear to speak to me anymore … but Jesus is always there for me. Waiting. Waiting for me to turn around and see that there is nothing to be afraid of because His face is full of love. Christ Jesus is God’s love personified. Read the book! And you can take all that to the bank – and put it in your heart … and please take it there often!! 😊

There is a scripture that says:“Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God! …” 1 John 3:1a. What John is saying here is this: ‘Look at the WAY God loves you. Can you believe the kind of love that Almighty God has for us ?? How astonishing that He loves us like this? He not only saves us, but He has made us His very own sons and daughters.’ That’s you and me. In a world when people disown each other all the time, because of this bad thing and that – God says: “These guys chose Me and they are MINE.” And it doesn’t matter what colour I am, or you are, or where we were born. What matters is our choices. He made us His choice and we choose Him back – DAILY. In this world’s eyes we are nobody, but to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords we mean everything. We need to reflect on this scripture in 1 John, because it is not even remotely about us being entitled, instead it is all about Father God’s generosity. 

If someone gave me a beat-up, rusty – but mostly still working – old car, I suppose I would appreciate it. But God Himself gave us ALL, the equivalent of a personally designed by Him, custom built Ferrari – free and clear of obligation. He has designed a new life for each one of us. (I told you I’d go back to that fantastic car!) God gave us so much, so over abundantly, so we could be and feel safe – here and now – before we ever get into eternity. That is generosity without equal and worthy of worship. Not because we have to, but because it blesses Him.

I often ask people – why on earth would you follow SomeOne else? Is there a catch to all this wonderfulness? Yes. His life for ours. He chose me and I choose Him. And with the Holy Spirit’s help – I live the WAY Jesus did. Dying to self daily, and I live loving others – whether they like or love me  – or not. 👋🏻

P 2135 Wake up! This is no time to sleep in the light.

/ DVH

As the Body of Christ in this world, we must stop trying to pray away the kind of stuff we need to fight our way through, and start using our faith to tell those mountains to MOVE. The power we use to get free, is the power we have at hand to prevail on the battlefield. That battlefield is right outside our doors, and sometimes sadly, even inside them. Only a bad, uncaring commander would send untrained, inexperienced soldiers out into the field, to fight a rampant, cunning, and deceitful enemy. The Lord Jesus is not that sort of commander! However, do not fall into the trap of dismissing satan lightly. We know our side HAS already won, but, sadly, the other guy’s biggest strategies have been entrenched inside our gates. The Body has gone to sleep, in the light.

The Captain of the hosts is Jesus Christ and He is the most brilliant leader ever, because He leads by example. He does not simply issue instructions and sit back and wait for us to follow them – He faced humanity’s battles daily, like we do. He showed us how to continually walk in love. Jesus Christ did not live a separate and aloof life, instead He lived with ordinary people every single day and He constantly demonstrated God’s power everywhere He went. Plus He personally illustrated and taught people Who Our Heavenly Father really is. The biggest battle we will ever face is to remove the enemy’s lies from within our own thinking.

The way the world is lately, it has become very easy to forget about love, and to spend our time concentrating on our own survival instead. But we have the Holy Spirit to help us and He is the most incredible strategist this world will ever know! We must understand God’s ways far better than the stuff going on around us so we can discern what is good right and just, and what is hot air and a waste of our time. We are stronger than we realise – because “greater is He within us .”… 

God does not set us up to be defeated by our difficulties. Instead those things that assault us have been allowed, to train us in righteousness. The bible needs to so penetrate our souls right down  “into the joints and marrow,” that our first response is to trust Him. That’s intimacy! We have SomeOne Who knows about the good the bad and the ugly around us – as well as within us – and yet He loves and will NOT leave us! He won’t indulge us, but He will lead, protect, guide and shelter us and ‘train our hands for war…”. This is our time to  learn how to march behind Jesus in our appointed place in His body.

God is looking for our obedience to His already revealed ways in His book. It’s not like we have to guess, anything we ever need to know is in the bible. Our biggest problem is we want to pre-design the answers to our prayers. If we read the bible carefully, we will soon see, particularly in the Old Testament, that God’s answers to prayer did not look the way His people thought they would. He can get us through the maze of our own thoughts, wishes, hopes and dreams into a much, much wider place than we have ever dreamt about. BUT … we simply must stop trying to program what we think His responses will look like. Our minds are limited, because we are finite, so when we submit, obey and follow the limitless One, our whole perspective changes. 

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 NIV)

This Scripture holds a huge importance to us as His Body.  It is the basis for any evangelism and missions, plus it is a call to our own personal responsibility. It is a command to go forth to all nations and spread the gospel. How? Fearlessly – because we know He will be with us.  Our job is to…’triumph over our enemy by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.’ (Revelation 12:11). That’s what a witness does, they testify. Death is no longer our enemy. Like Esther said to Mordecai : “If I die, I die! … WIN WIN!” OK. we both know she didn’t say that, like that, but she lived thousands of years ago. Boy has our language changed since Esther.

Our Church cultures have become careless, now we think going to church Sunday by Sunday, or whatever day you go on, is doing our bit.  We want the benefits of knowing Him, but not the sacrifices.  Plus we have been deceived in our thinking that living for Christ only is for ‘special’ people … famous ones. The Western Body of Christ has been lulled into thinking it is OK for us to live in safety and comfort, because we are not meant to suffer for the Gospel’s sake – we’ll just pray for the ones who ARE suffering – that’s our job. Sadly, we pray and give and live removed lives. Discomfort is meant to tell us something – we must listen, pay attention, and wake up! Our enemy is upon us and we’ve been lulled asleep in the light. It’s time to take back what the enemy has stolen from us …PEOPLE! 👋🏻

“So then, surrender to God. Stand up to the devil and resist him and he will flee in agony.”James 4:7 TPT

P 2134 How old are we, again?

/ DVH

“Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance. Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honour. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offense. Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up.

When I was a child, I spoke about childish matters, for I saw things like a child and reasoned like a child. But the day came when I matured, and I SET ASIDE my childish ways. For now we see but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries as though reflected in a mirror, but one day we will see face-to-face. My understanding is incomplete now, but one day I will understand everything, just as everything about me has been fully understood. Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.”  1 Corinthians  13:4-13 TPT

Here is a further point from that same chapter -V31b: “And now I will show you a superior way to live that is beyond comparison …”  That verse comes under the heading: ‘LOVE IS INDISPENSABLE.’  Hmmm. All this could need a great deal of thought and prayer. I put the biggest part of this chapter in Corinthians here today because we need to constantly revise what love looks like to Father God. We don’t get to define it, He does. And just because we don’t always feel like it, that doesn’t mean He didn’t give it! ✝️ We will have to exercise our faith.

However, love does not look like tolerating someone. Sometimes the childish things we bring into adulthood, come from inter-personal attitudes we’ve developed over the years from having to deal with difficult people who did not want to change. Maybe they did not understand us, or we did not understand them … and yet we need to still interact with them. Some of us will want to fight with them, and others are resigned to letting them win because, sigh, it seems like they always do. Suffice to say neither of those responses qualify as the kind of love the Lord is looking for! What to do? Choose to grow up! Realise that your bad temper or pouting as a child had a limited shelf-life …a-n-d …determine in your heart to put it away. The Holy Spirit will help you, but He won’t do it for you!

Just because your teacher, parent, pastor, youth leader hadn’t met someone like you before, that does not mean you must remain stuck back there with that kind of disapproval from the past. Hold the Holy Spirit’s hand and walk out of that childish place, forgiving these people with every single step you take. However, don’t be like many people  who are constantly being healed from their past, but they never actually arrive at being whole in the present! Sometimes you’ve just got to be bigger than that other person! That’s what maturity looks like, and it can hurt like crazy. But otherwise you will stay stuck in the prison that someone else designed for you, to keep you under control, and you will give up your God-given freedom to bloom where He planted you. 

There is nothing sadder than a mature person with childish manipulations and attitudes. Our new life of love is not meant to be controlled by anyone but Jesus. And He started out as a baby and then He grew up to be a MAN. He had plenty happen to Him that He could have let limit His personhood! Somewhere in there Jesus Christ, who started His life as a poor refugee, and went on to become the family bread winner, who was raised by a single mother. Let the bible decide who you are, not your feelings.

The Lord’s kind of Love is a tall order and it isn’t weak or able to be manipulated. Jesus believed in absolutes so He didn’t tack codicils onto the end of the laws given by Moses! Things like: “Of course you are exempt from being  changed because your parent didn’t care about you when you were little. Poor you.” God saved us because He loved us like 1 Corinthians 13 says, and the cross was His final word on that subject. I’ve seen so many bright and shiny Christian stars fall from the sky because they did not learn to deal with themselves. It takes humility to put away the past and be changed, and it will continue to take humility until we die. Learning to be humble is not fun…

… and forgiving the people who hurt you is just the beginning. After that we have to go past forgiveness and march right on into God’s kind of Love – by our choices. We are so blessed to have an on-the-spot Helper Who knows how to get us there! Father God daily gives us His love, grace and forgiveness so we can give it away to other people who don’t deserve it either. There are no small sins or big sins – there is remaining in Christ Jesus in fellowship with the Holy Spirit – or not. Just because the Lord does not shout at us to stop behaving like a three year old, that does not mean He is winking at the way we treat other people! We can’t blame Mummy or Daddy or the State any more. We are responsible for our own responses and the way we treat others. 

Personally, I have to repent, and backtrack all the time because my own unresolved childish responses can get in the way. But we are destined for far more – so we cannot get stuck in the past: Ephesians 4:13, NIV: ‘… until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Let us not let our earlier bumpy life catch us up in childish responses that prevent us from going on into why we are still here on earth! 👋🏻