Loving-kindness

P 3384 Not done yet.  

/ DVH

Apparently, I am not done with yesterday’s theme. Here are some verses to chew on, and Jesus Himself is speaking – actually, He’s praying, for us!  “I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” John 17:14-20.

Did you notice that our Saviour did not pray for us to be taken out of the world, but rather that we would be protected from the evil one while we are in it. A lot of lovely Christians kind of clump together, forming a sub-group in society. I’m not sure that’s a faith step – actually I think it’s more like opting out! It means we hardly ever interact with the people-who-don’t-know-the-Lord-yet. Jesus loves us so much, He prayed this prayer for His family, (us!), long before we ever arrived here. That prayer is still out there, protecting us. Instead of clumping, maybe we could listen to Him and learn to use our faith daily.

When we were born again, we entered a new kingdom – HIS!  We left behind all the temptations and irritations of this world around us and started out on a journey to learn how to live in His kingdom. This is why we are IN this world but not OF this world. We no longer need what the world has to offer, it has no appeal to us, because we have something far better! That’s why we don’t have to hide together all the time – what the world has we don’t want! We quit hiding when the Holy Spirit came! We live here, but we don’t belong here. Our ‘true home’ is with the Lord, wherever He is and whatever He is doing. 

Just like Ruth with Naomi – wherever Jesus IS, that’s now our home. When our Lord came here, He lived the way He did sacrificially, for our sanctification, but He did not live like a monk. He had no fear regarding this world and what it could do to Him – He believed that the “… steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord…” This world could not even kill Him, He prayed about it with our Father and then He went out and laid His life down. The Lord is with you while you are reading this, and He’s with me while I’m typing it!

The Spirit of God is with us, to be IN us. He gives us the power, minute by minute, to live this life, from day to day, differently. We can’t, and should not do a thing without Him. The Holy Spirit speaks faith, fluently. Now we are learning from Him how to speak faith too. We learn His kind of faith from being obedient. Heavenly languages are things like faith, hope, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Why? There is no law against those things in heaven or on earth. Father God speaks them, that’s why we can hear Him – if we can’t hear Him, then we aren’t speaking His languages. Let’s go out and BE what we say we believe.

Our new life is not just about going to heaven when we die, our lives now are about bringing heaven down here, to one person at a time, challenging their perspectives. Just the same way His Presence in our lives is changing ours! Despite our often outward appearances – Christianity is not a secret society – nor is it a bunch of do-gooders who love to ruin other people’s fun. 

I’m just going to leave that remark there, laying around staring at all of us. 👀 … We are a people on a mission. It’s not just the pastor who participates, it’s all of US. So, let’s make a plan to obey what the Lord has already told us to do in His book. We need to follow our Leader and do what He would do. In the bible I cannot find once where Jesus shot, stabbed, maimed, punched or blew up someone else in the Name of God. I don’t care what David did to His enemies, I’m following Jesus. He forgave His.

In the following scripture we have a fabulous example of someone who had no idea where he was going, and no clue how to find what he went to find. It seemed an impossible task — but He obeyed His master (Abraham) and went! “And said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, Who has not left my master bereft and destitute of His loving-kindness and steadfastness. As for me, going on the way [of obedience and faith] the Lord led me to the house of my master’s kinsmen.” Genesis 24:27. 

The God of Abraham is still guiding people to this day. He didn’t quit talking to us after He sent His only Son to spell stuff out — instead, He turned up the volume, exponentially. He gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us, a book full of instructions, plus the things Jesus taught. Take a risk: find someone to help. Give to someone in need. Tell someone Jesus loves them. Do something different. because we aren’t done yet. Bye 🙏.

P 3312 Staying in the river!

/ DVH

“Believe in ME so that rivers of living water will burst out from within you, flowing from your innermost being, just like the Scripture says!””  John 7:38 TPT. Great scripture! … I love to watch things on YouTube that many people might think are a bit boring. Every morning we put on one of those supposedly, sappy Christian music videos, that feature pretty pictures of nature. They can stream away for like 11 hours. And then I just let that stuff quietly run, so I can be engaged with my blog, bible reading, prayers and thoughts. You might like just plain silence!

I’ve personally found I’m far more likely to recognise His ‘rivers of living water’ when I am not distracted by other noises, or things that fly past on the TV screen trying to capture my attention! Meanwhile, I’m incredibly blessed and grateful that my time is my own, and how I spend it is up to me. Many people reading this don’t have that kind of freedom. But I think the secret to staying in the river of God begins with staying aware of Him and giving Him my attention. Have you ever watched a well trained sheep dog? The dog never takes its eyes off its Master. Meeting with Jesus is the place where we can ‘let it all hang out,’ because He knows our junk anyway!

Today, I want to talk about the importance of spiritual breathing. Living this new life the way God Himself has designed it, is a natural process with no striving involved. It’s just as natural as breathing IN and OUT. After all we do that without even thinking about it – unless we have some sort of disease or obstruction – we just do it!  “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 3:12-14. 

Jesus has taken hold of my life for a reason, He will help me find my real life in Him. I am greatly cheered up by the fact that the Apostle Paul, who wrote most of the Epistles — who was, some say, taken up into the 3rd heaven  — told us, he hadn’t arrived at that goal yet! This means that the best bits are still out in front of each one of us. However, just because this goal can seem unattainable, that doesn’t mean we should give up on aiming at it! It simply means we are in the best company, so I shouldn’t give up I should press on! He is now my focus.

Pressing on involves dogged dedication. So does finding out,  knowing and liking the same things the Lord likes! Plus doing whatever Jesus would do in any situation. All that takes focus, time and energy. To do this we need to sort out our priorities. Is it to be God – or the washing first? Jesus has to be more real to us than the people around us. Be assured that I don’t always get it right, that’s why I keep pressing on. However, I have learnt over the years that when my heart is pointed in His direction, the Lord is incredibly loving and tolerant of my muddles and misses, and ‘He makes my paths smooth.’ 

His infinite patience lovingly watches over us. He despatches angels to catch us when we fall, or fail. He can redeem everything and anything. “Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, Who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercy;…” Psalm 103:4. In other words, to the Lord, human beings are not just a hobby, or a pastime – we are the focus of His attention and affections. Let’s not relegate Him to the back burner as SomeOne we call on when the ceiling falls in. He is our refuge, not our emergency standby. 

“But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9a. What does that scripture mean when we are talking about the River of God? I think we can often put an accent on one bit of scripture over another, and in this instance that means we will be skipping over the best bit. The River bit. The bit that says: ‘My grace is sufficient for you…’ that is the important bit. His Grace is always enough! We just need to return our focus to Him when distracted, and GRACE WILL BE THERE.  Instead of looking into our hearts and seeing our inner cupboards bare and bankrupt—choose to look into Jesus’ eyes and heart, and see the abundance He has for you. We dare not try to manage the weakness we see in ourselves without looking at the greatness of His Grace toward us. Despite our whimsical feelings, we are not poverty stricken!

His power is made perfect in our weakness, but we can’t afford to be distracted by those weaknesses! Instead,let’s pray that He will give us the Grace to comprehend the incredible POWER that was released through the cross.  Our weaknesses cannot stand in the face of that power. Let’s not focus on the negative, let’s focus on Jesus and what He already did. The only thing that can negate His power from releasing itself into our situations, is our decision, or choice, to believe that our badness can possibly be bigger than His goodness!

The Lord Jesus did not just emerge from that grave ‘alive’ like Lazarus did! He was filled with so much Grace and power, He instantly saved the world! That included those Who believed before He came and all those who came afterward. The Grace He gives us is without limit. We need to cherish it with every part of us. The river of God is always available to us, so let’s jump into His love and grace, and stay there on floating on our backs. If we fall out of the river, then we need to jump back in again. Bye.👋

P 2901 Walking in love means …

/ DVH

… that I will probably never get my own way! According to 1 Corinthians 13, this kind of heart attitude is now my NEW priority… Now I will need to rely upon God to help me be patient in the middle of unpleasant circumstances. The Lord has promised He will help us. There is no reason to be envious of your fruit, because I’m way too busy growing my own! At the same time I will cultivate a caring concern for your well-being, while I’m putting my own needs on His altar. Also I no longer want to keep records of all the dumb things you’ve done!

Pardon me a minute, now I need to dash off and look in His mirror, (His Word) and see if there is any chance my reflection there backs up what I just said! Meanwhile, fake fruit looks a lot like the real deal nowadays, until you take a bite out of it! Here’s an interesting side note: fake fruit is too shiny. Just like those fake plastic smiles we slap on when somebody has stepped on our heart for the 15th time and we lie and tell them, “Oh I’m OK, really!” It’s a wonder that my nose isn’t longer than Pinnochio’s. Why do we do that? Here’s my answer … a lack of humility. An aversion to correction and connection, plus I’m deathly afraid you will continue to tell me the truth about myself … and… I don’t want to hear that, thank you!

Here is my point for today, this life is constantly taking bites out of us – our response to those bites is a much better thermometer or diagnosis, than even any reflection could be. Instead, now we want to make His Word flesh in our lives – that happens when we do it to obey Him. Living like Jesus’ told us to, means we learn to be quiet when someone else is utterly wrong and we can prove it to them but instead we choose not to do that. We won’t even brag about the fact that we’ve resisted temptation, because we know, that the Holy Spirit helped us through it. 

Let’s be clear — it is not our behaviour that is at fault – it’s our belief system. We use our experiences to validate what we believe, instead of His Word. This side of the cross we need to believe in His love IN US more than we believe the lies that flourish around us. I can’t do anything without Him, because I know I will dive straight back into looking after ME. I can make pretty good excuses for doing that. Sadly, sometimes we keep right on using our own understanding, instead of acknowledging Him in all our ways.

We must continually revisit truths from the bible. looking for things for us to apply into our lives. Jesus did all this work for us, all by Himself, at Calvary …once and for all! If I give you a brand new house with everything you ever personally wanted or needed in it, and you still chose to continue to live in falling down rented digs – because you are too proud to say “thank you” — whose fault is that? The Lord has already deposited everything we will ever need to be transformed, in our forever account.We just need to learn to live in forever, instead of the immediate. Otherwise the immediate takes over.

Romans 4:20–25: “Yet he (Abraham) did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for US, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” 

Those words: ‘fully persuaded that God had power’ …matter. We’ve met SomeOne Who is not like anyone else we’ve ever met. He doesn’t just tear up any record of our sins, at the same time, He deposits His love, righteousness, goodness, compassion, mercy, loving-kindness etc. inside of us. We already have whatever we need for this way of life. Jesus did not just empty out the bad, He is in the process, with our co-operation, of loading in the good. Abraham believed God and He acted on His belief, and God said: Now that’s righteous.”

Now we choose to stop doing things the way this world does them, and we ask Him how He wants us to handle everything that comes our way. Loving others is our permanent focus. Instead of asking the Lord to make you patient, (generic wish thought) you and I ask Him – ‘Who am I being impatient with, Lord?’  (Specific attitude check.) And we don’t argue with whatever He suggests, even if it happens to be someone we can’t stand! We go to them and humble ourselves. If we wait for that other person to deserve it … it will never happen! 

LOVE ACTS. It is unafraid of the consequences. Walking in love means my whole life changes! Bless ya 👋

P 2433 Food for thought.

/ DVH

“Escort me into Your truth; take me by the hand and teach me. For You are the God of my salvation; I have wrapped my heart into Yours all day long!” Psalms 25:5 TPT. Today the above scripture made me think about wrapping up parcels… I guess it is the time of year when wrapping things becomes a priority. I never know why we do it – you only tear the paper off to get at what is inside!! Maybe it is the surprise element?  

However, I just l💕ve giving gifts, it’s my all time favourite thing to do. I watch for the person’s happy face with great anticipation. That happy face is my pay-off.  It makes all the effort of carefully wrapping things worth it. Meanwhile sticky tape and I have always been mortal enemies. That danged stuff always manages to stick to itself! Sigh. I never was one of those people who could take paper, ribbon and a bow and make a dazzling creation. 🎁 OK I got sidetracked… Back to today’s point …

Somebody told me this once;  it gave me food for thought. People who are wrapped up in themselves make a very small parcel. Sigh. I think I’ve met a few small parcels recently. Sadly, they can be very tiring people to know. Every single thing is about them and their troubles and woes. It’s like trying to get close to a vacuum cleaner – everything goes in but nothing comes out. Or if it does accidentally come out – it makes a huge mess!  I think that this Psalm is a prayer as well as a declaration. This Psalmist knows what it means to have personal involvement from the Lord and he is reminding himself of what God is like. He finds no loss in Almighty God.

The Lord’s personal teaching helps this man to be intimately engaged with God.That last line impacted me: “I have wrapped my heart into Yours all day long!”  What a promise … and a challenge! When I read something like that, it kind of just seems like beautiful poetry to me. However, I’m not actually sure what it actually means for me today, right here, right now. I’m big on stuff that has significance, stuff that gives me something to DO!  That’s when I remembered that Almighty God chose to wrap Himself in skin and enter my life —HE did something for me. He’s no vacuum cleaner, if He never did anything else, that was enough.

He came here to live amongst us. As a result, the Lord Jesus, Who only made the world (!) was cold, tired, thirsty, wet, fed-up … He was also ignored, maltreated, abused, criticised, and hungry (read the book!) … all that for our sake ….and .. He chose to die. Man you could just sit and meditate on those thoughts for a lifetime. It shows me and helps me comprehend what being wrapped up in something means! He is wrapped up in us.

There is so much beauty and personal engagement in what God did when He sent Jesus Christ here. Sometimes the overall concept of God saving the world, is too far away from where we live every single day to benefit us. To be wrapped up in Him, what what He did needs to impact me every day. Maybe a clearer picture might sound like this – God cared enough to come here to save me. Because He did that, He impacted my own little world – and that impact included everybody I know and care about. Nothing about my life is trivial to Him.

When I read the bible, sometimes one word or a phrase catches me in the heart. I like that little word “escort.”. To me that means SomeOne incredible is helping me to find my way in this life, and He is extremely dedicated and personal about it. This is not a formal escort – that person just gives you an arm to hold onto. No, the Holy Spirit takes me by the heart and hand and teaches me, personally. No wonder this Psalmist has wrapped his heart into God – He can see that God has wrapped His heart into us!

Our God is active in every intimate detail of our lives. Our loves, our losses, our sadnesses, our joy. That’s because as we wrap our heart into His, He continually wraps His heart into our lives, giving them meaning beyond the mundane. Here’s another Psalm, 138:8 AMPC “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, endure forever–forsake not the works of Your own hands.” He cares about the things I care about! And He cares enough to make sure nothing is left out. Nothing about me and my life, is insignificant to Him. 

Here’s my last food-for-thought verse from a Psalm:  ““He heals the wounds of every shattered heart.” Psalm 147:3 TPT.  Just in case you think you have not found that to be true – think on this …He doesn’t say WHEN our hearts will be healed … it just says He WILL do it.👋🏻