Master

P 2442 What are we wearing?

/ DVH

“So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offence. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.” Colossians 3:12-14 (MSG) 

First of all, please don’t go past that word ‘chosen’ in the first line of this scripture. We’ve been chosen to be these people, who choose to dress like this. It’s not a requirement – it’s a blessing! Feel free to pause and thank Him. 🙌 Jesus loves thank You. Meanwhile it’s good to meditate on the fact that we were chosen for something. The way I’ve heard some people talk about Christianity, it is as if we were chosen to be the people who don’t do lots of stuff. Christianity is not a list of dos and don’ts … it is about walking with Jesus. We get to walk with Him like His disciples did thousands of years ago.

The first bit of clothing I like to put on is … my under wear. Yeah pass the sharp stick so you can poke out your eye! I’m talking about beginning with gratefulness. I find gratefulness helps me to prepare for what God wants me to wear today. I want to be clear right at the beginning of this blog. I could end up getting changed spiritually speaking a number of times during a day – depending on what happens at my house and which quality I need most at any one time! There are times I am careless, and I end up repenting because I haven’t chosen to wear what the Lord chose for me … I was too busy feeling sorry for myself, or something similar. 

So let’s quickly look at our spiritual clothes.  The first five attributes set us up, so we know how to wear the next ones. “Compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline.”I put these on by asking for them. To start with I know I haven’t got these things inside me, but I have found that being disabled is a fantastic teacher… if I let Him help me. So I ask the One Who is perfect in these things for help. My prayer goes like this: “Holy Spirit I can’t do this day unless You help me, please.” Otherwise I’m sunk. I will get judgmental at the drop of a hat, and kindness becomes something I expect other people to give me! 

Sad sack stuff sometimes bubbles up inside first thing in the morning:  ‘Poor me, I can’t do stuff for myself anymore, blah blah blah, woe is me.’ I can get on quite a roll rattling on about those things I think I lack … until the Lord clears His throat … so to speak. However, as the day goes on I don’t always register that I don’t have these precious qualities – until I am tested. And by the time I get to the test, if I am relying on my own strength, it’s often too late!

I just want to say that I’ve learnt that phrase — “too late” is very hard to come back from. By the time I’ve gotten stuck in: “Poor me, it’s too hard, I’m so weak and I don’t want to deal with my own feelings …”  I may as well go back to bed and start that day all over again. I get stuck there otherwise, and there’s my day gone!  Moo-ving on to nicer things like …“Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offence. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you.” 

Have you ever noticed that your temper is the first thing to go, especially when you feel guilty? Me too. Rapidly followed by comparison …EG. “What I did is not as bad as your response was!!” That’s a dumb plan called … ‘let’s quickly shift the focus and blame onto the poor schmuck whose only crime was being in the room at the time!!’ The reason the scripture says be quick to forgive an offence is … if I’m not quick, I will miss my opportunity to escape and then I end up vomiting all over whoever is around, instead. Plus I can end up digging holes all the way to hide from my own chosen attitude. I’ve met people whose lives look like opal mine-fields – they spend so much time avoiding stuff that needs to be changed. These people spend so much time in avoidance they don’t actually get anywhere. 

Which is why those last two lines of Colossians 3 are so brilliant.“And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.” Love is my short-cut thought. Like Paul said .. it is an all-purpose garment.  I have no time to analyse my short comings according to Colossians 3 some days, so I go straight to LOVE AND PARK THERE. “Is it love?” If not repent. If yes, then thank the Holy Spirit for His help. The thing is, I never want to hear Him say: “What IS that you are wearing??” 😶

P 2414 Our own private Tutor.

/ DVH

“But when the Father sends the Spirit of Holiness, the One like Me Who sets you free, He will teach you all things in My name. And He will inspire you to remember every word that I’ve told you.” John 14:26 TPT

Just look at Who is always waiting for you and I when we read His book! I have a really bad short term memory, that appears to have turned up with age. It has required a lot of adjustment, for me as well as my family. It effects my family because I can be in the middle of a sentence and forget where I was going with my thoughts… 😂 … hilarious and humbling … all at the same time. Bonus buy! 

Moving on … I love the above verse because it directly deals with that malady in my life. The Holy Spirit is so faithful, He stands by me patiently and hands me verses when I type this blog daily. And sometimes He says: “look that up” Plus He says  … “read around it.”  Context always matters! So I can personally testify that He is an excellent Teacher. I can be reading away in the bible and He says: “Go back, you missed it.”  OR… “pause and think about this!” 

People make a really big deal out of encounters with the Holy Spirit or prophecies they have been given. It’s like they memorialise them or something. They build a statue, put a label on it and they live the rest of their lives camped at the bottom — hoping for more. 😳 To be strictly honest, perhaps I don’t value encounters that much because I have had hardly any! We must stop camping around a word, and start camping around the Teacher.

The one thing I do value mightily is this — I have this incredible Tutor Who shows up, day after day, time after time after time, and He guides me through the Word of God. He corrects me when I am ‘off-line’  and patiently repeats Himself when I am in thick-as-a-brick mode. He’s my Friend Who knows what I need, and He hands it to me. The bible is like a jigsaw puzzle to me – there are bits that make no sense until I have put together a part of the puzzle. And at other times I start with one piece and all the other pieces fall into place. And I do all that with Him guiding me, so patiently!

At exactly the same time, He shows me how what I am reading is relevant to me. He says things like: “you need to pay attention now!”  I often feel like I am watching a Master at work, creating something incredibly beautiful … because the Holy Spirit can’t help Himself! He’s always doing beautiful things. It is like His nature is always on display, particularly when I read the Word, or when I step out in obedience. I love this book! 

Today I was reading in Joshua, and the Holy Spirit pointed out that He told Joshua four times in the first chapter “to be strong and courageous.”  That repetition kind of got at me, so I wondered what it was about… four times is a lot of times! Then I saw that Joshua was the new leader and Moses had been a truly great leader, so Joshua was stepping into very big shoes … leading very disobedient people!  

God was instructing this young man about how to step into that role and how to apply whatever he was told to do. It takes courage to step out in faith and send a whole lot of Israelites marching around a walled city with no weapons, just musical instruments! Plus they did that seven days in a row!  It also took great courage for that young man to tell that army that’s what God said to do. Those men in the Jewish army were reliant upon Joshua’s ability to hear the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes when the Holy Spirit tells me to do something, it is easy to obey. But sometimes He tells me to tell my husband this or that for the person he’s going to speak to – and that takes faith! Because of my lack of physicality hubby often interacts with the people on the road more than I do, and he is more experienced than I am with dealing with strangers. 

There are times I feel to give a specific bookmark, or say this or that, and hubby goes and does it and the results are miraculous and extraordinary. We have over fifty instances of that on this last mission trip alone. This verse spoke to me today, because we both need to be strong and courageous, plus I need to speak up, otherwise I could simply take a backseat and let hubby do all the work and say nothing. We need each other just like that army needed Joshua’s leadership, plus their commitment.

My dear husband listens to me, and follows the Lord’s leading through me, and most of the time it makes very little sense to either of us – until the person in front of us starts crying their eyes out! That’s when we simply stand back and watch Him work. The best thing Christians can learn to do in this life is to learn to trust our precious Tutor. He knows stuff we do not know — about people we’ve never met. It’s AWESOME! 🕊 🙌

P 2389 Learn to fight for your spiritual rights!

/ DVH

“We CAN demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.” 2 Corinthians 10:5 TPT

Everything in that verse, in my opinion, hinges on that one little word – “can.”  There are times that I forget that I can do whatever He has asked me to do. No matter how I am feeling at the time — the truth is, I can do it. The power to carry out what He says is in the word He has given me… not in my own ability. Our experiences, BTW, never negate what God says! Everything has to bow to Jesus!

Sadly, faith is scary AND costly – but we cannot walk on water inside the boat.  We will have to deliberately climb over the side of it, step away from the safety, and take a risk. That’s what faith does. Now, those dratted waves can seem to be extremely high, when you’ve start to contemplate the things in your life that look impossible … unless He helps you. This is a good time to know that you know, we can do nothing without Him. Our faith cannot just be in the answer to our prayers, it also has to be in the fact that He has promised to take us through and make us stronger while He is doing it! We get to know Him in these times.

Our biggest fear sometimes is this … when will He turn up to help us? That BTW, is insecurity and a lack of trust. I struggle with that one a lot. Even though I have seen Him do fantastic things … I still struggle to trust Him, but the more I exercise trust, the stronger I will get. Meanwhile, we do ourselves a great disservice if we are constantly beating ourselves up for our failures. Instead we need to keep our eyes on the One Who defeated everything for our sake. We aren’t leading, we are following. Even our leaders are following the Lord! And the Master always knew where He was going. 

Life is tough, and the truth be told, it doesn’t matter who punches you in the head – other people, or if you do it to yourself – either way you will end up with a sore head!! The best thing is to forgive others, or yourself, or both … repent and fix whatever is needed, and then just move on. Ask for His help and work with Him toward change, so you don’t end up holding yourself hostage to some dumb thing or other, or some sin or other. You have enough to do without dragging around weights behind you. Remember, Jesus paid the full price for our sins, so sin has no authority over us, to torment us.

There is only one direction for any of us to go in when we are under attack…we get up and keep moving. We must go on. Once we have honestly dealt with the past, we have to leave it behind, because it will just drag us under. Our enemy is only too happy to play his nasty horror stories of past disappointments onto the inner screen of our minds. Close that theatre of pain and shame – pick up the bible – and renew your mind. Even when we are tired, we call on His Name. He will help us because we are His kids. “And He (the Lord Himself) passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin… “ Exodus 34:6-7 NIV

That’s God’s attitude toward US, His kids. Sometimes we end up falling down, and getting up a lot, and weeping while we are doing it. But faith MOVES … it is not static. It is not a theory that we trot out in an emergency – it is the way we have been designed to live now, in this new life He gave us. Everything else is white noise sent to distract us from our main purpose. Our purpose is to glorify Him – in what we do, in what we say, in what we think and in the way we live. Bad stuff happens to everyone. Learn to pick up your God-given sword and hack away at stuff as it comes at you.

BTW, there are some battles that other people will never understand, they are like massive operations that seem to pull everything that is inside you, out, and leave you feeling exposed and vulnerable. 😶  At those times I remind the Lord I am just glorified dust and without His breath in me I will go back to dust again. So I stagger to the book and pick up a sword and slash away at what is trying to demolish me.

This society we live in has learnt to rely upon feelings to the extent that feelings can eclipse everything else when life gets tough – even what God says. But that’s what renewing our mind is for – choosing what He says over what we see, feel, or think. However, we CAN demolish every single argument, that rises up against us, because He gave us that power! Ask the Lord for the right sword (bible verse/s) for the fight you are in, and don’t put that thing down until your enemy is defeated and he leaves. 👋🏻 

P 2388 His will is always our priority.

/ DVH

Matthew 22:1-14 “Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.”

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not DESERVE to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

At this time, Jesus was preaching to the spiritual leaders and the crowds about a King who was holding a wedding feast. Astonishingly, at that moment, the Master of that feast was standing right in front of all of them inviting them all to think differently about God Himself. I think the Lord was giving the religious leaders who were listening, a chance to understand, that although they thought they were so right with God, they were actually rejecting Him in favour of their own more self-important made-up chosen ways! They are the people saying NO in this parable! They are the invited guests who are too busy with their own lives to respond to the honour. He is saying, if they are not careful, the little people, the so-called bad, less-spiritual people that they look down upon, will actually be the ones who end up at this feast – not them. Because the religious people will exclude themselves.

All of these different types of spiritual leaders had presumably come to check out His theology. They enjoyed a prominent spiritual position before God and man, and they were revered because of their place in that society. In His parable, the Lord is saying that they’ve used their privilege to avoid going to the feast – even though they had the invitation first. Because what they wanted, and deemed important, was more important than honouring their agreement. The Master of the feast is always more important than anybody invited to it! However, these men were so entrenched in what they had embraced, they couldn’t see Him and spent all their time trying to catch Him out.

Now, if anyone ought to know about the things of God it should be them! These guys studied the truth for a living … yet they still missed it when the Truth was standing in front of them. They did not see the value of their invitation to be His chosen people, and they blew it off. Even though the food, everything needed was all ready for them, and the Master of the feast would have to waste it … they still said no. Their religious ideas had grown so big, so all encompassing and powerful, that they thought their theology was more important to them than what He was saying. Just to be clear, the feast is actually God Himself, knowing Him … and He was standing right in front of them. But their pride in what they knew, said they knew better. They were too greatly invested in proving Him wrong and themselves right!

Now, you and I — who were never going to be a part of that elite group without Christ’s sacrifice — have been temporarily given their place. Let’s be clear, MAN cannot dictate the terms of any agreement between God and us. Almighty God does. And if He says ‘come’ we come – and if He says ‘GO,’ we go! Otherwise we are acting like we are in charge and we are not. Actually, when we think we are in charge, satan takes advantage of us! As outsiders, we have now been compelled by His love to be His honoured guests at that bridal supper. He personally sent the Holy Spirit to bring us in! We’ve been given brand new bridal garments washed in Jesus’ blood – because our own clothes will not do. 🙌

Our Heavenly Father God wants His house full of people who are glad to be included, and they are rejoicing because they know they are so blessed to be asked to His feast. In the mean time …let’s not ever forget how easily we can exclude ourselves, like these religious men in Matthew did. We must not use good-sounding excuses … they show the Lord our hearts, and reveal our lesser priorities. We’ve been invited to live the Way Christ lived this life. He is our priority. We must not ever make our personal priorities bigger than His. His free Grace is not permission to do what WE want.👋🏻

P 2285 Ambassadors for His kingdom.

/ DVH

We all know this song, some of us probably learnt it way back in children’s church…“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33. 

So what does it mean to seek His kingdom first? In most instances, it means when His kingdom comes, that means MY kingdom will GO!  We are Jesus’ delegated ambassadors in this world of ours. We are here, in this time, and in this place, to be living examples of the kingdom of God in action. In effect, any sort of ambassador is a walking, talking, active representative from somewhere else.

And if you find that thought daunting, or even a little bit overpowering, then you are in exactly the right place. It is not in us, as human beings, to bring His kingdom everywhere we go, by ourselves, but when we walk with the Holy Spirit, we go, wherever HE goes. The Holy Spirit takes the kingdom of God everywhere. He simply cannot help it. It is His nature.

Some earthly ambassadors serve abroad, and they take advantage of their power and position in their new community. This can also be true in the kingdom of God too. It is up to us how, where, and IF we serve His kingdom wherever He has called us to be. Our King is not a despot, He does not demand that we must serve Him, that choice is always ours. But we owe it to the King of Kings not to forget for a minute Who we re-present – and to keep in mind how we represent Him. 

It is a tragedy when we see salvation as the end point of our interaction with Almighty God, and put aside the reason we were saved – we were saved to serve Him, and others. If all we do with what we have been given, is use it to serve ourselves and our own agendas, then we have not understood the gospel. So who do we serve? The people around us, families, friends, strangers, whoever comes across our path. 

Jesus told a large number of parables about servants serving their Master – either well, or badly. And the point of each one was that when their Master was missing, there were some servants who did not carry out His wishes. How we carry out what He has given us to do, hinges on the talents, gifts and abilities the Lord has given to each one of us. But it is up to us to activate them and use them for the good of the rest of mankind. 

In effect, we should not treat the check-out girl in the supermarket any differently than we treat Brother ‘Everybody-knows-his-name!’ We should be the same person in our homes, even under pressure, that we are in our churches when we are smiling and saying ‘good morning’ to each other. God did not promise us a safe life, but He did promise to protect us. The lack of perceived safety in situations, is a poor excuse for disobedience. He promises all of us wisdom, guidance and provision among other things.

Jesus also spent a great deal of time teaching: ”the kingdom of God is like …” So we cannot say we do not know what His kingdom looks like because Christ described it over and over again. Read the book! If we miss doing what He asks us to do, then we need to repent before Him and others, and that’s what keeps us humble. In the past we have spent way too much time trying to make ourselves feel comfortable, trying to fix our past, and organise the future so we will be fit to serve Him. We work hard to be fit for the Master’s use but never actually get around to doing something.

It is the Holy Spirit’s role to equip us, along with His gifts operating in our churches. This demonstrates to me, that in the main we have not comprehended our role in His kingdom. Every single gift is important because each gift facilitates others. Our role is to obey Him as He leads us through His word, His inner voice and our circumstances. The bible doesn’t come with an opt out button if it doesn’t suit us. Not applying it to our lives is rebellion. 

When we look at Moses, Gideon, Samson, Ezekiel, Amos, Jeremiah and other prominent figures from His book, we can quickly see that obedience puts us in a position to succeed in our earthly role for His kingdom. We cannot pick and choose what we want to obey and what we don’t, because that is like standing with one foot in His kingdom, and one foot in the enemy’s kingdom. That will divide our mind and hearts, and blur our God-appointed roles.

It is a privilege to be an ambassador for Christ wherever we serve. Our main aim should be to seek and serve His kingdom, not build our own. Bye 👋🏻

P 2239 The peril of ignoring our faults…

/ DVH

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 

But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 24:45-51.

‘If Jesus came back today would you repent or worship?’ Someone asked me that question once, and … big spiritual giant that I am … I said: “… um … probably … BOTH!” It may now be obvious to you that I like to cover all my bases. 😶 Time and apathy are forces that can wear away most good intentions. This means we desperately need the Holy Spirit, not just good intentions! I know many people make resolutions every New Year but I gave that up decades ago. I found I couldn’t make it past a week before I fell over and became disappointed in myself.

When there is no active revival around us, our impetus to remain focussed and in love with Jesus – and what He wants – becomes down-right cloudy … with a chance of extreme coldness … bordering on self-centredness. We could easily revert to the same old same old – and hope that will do. It will take the ripe fruits of faithfulness, and self-control … plus we might need to throw in a few boxes of patience … to keep us … keeping on. Otherwise we can easily give up too quickly – like the guy in the parable. 

Pressure, boredom, and a distinct lack of visible supervision is the thing our enemy employs to distract us from where we want to be. I strongly suspect the master in this parable was angry because he trusted that servant to do the right thing. AHA! That means we can’t blame our poor old pastor then doesn’t it? After all we are responsible for our own spiritual well-being and choices.

You know, this little story is so accurate, it hurts to read it. I find myself avoiding parables like this one in the same way I avoid mirrors. Mainly because I don’t like what I see … but … way up in the back of my mind … I kid myself that I would ne-v-er do that! The thing about Jesus is that through these stories, He exposes what is really in our hearts. So instead of dismissing the possibility that I might behave as badly as that servant did – I’ve learnt to ask the Lord to: ‘please show me where I fall into that exact same hole.’ 

That’s the kind of prayer that always gets answered … trust me! Instead of acquitting myself of any possibility of blame, I’ve learnt that I have no idea what I will do when the ‘nice’ wears off, and I am shoved against the wall by adverse circumstances. However, I must admit, I also have no immediate plans to bash up anyone who lives at my house and looks after me. The other person who lives here makes my meals etc! My mother didn’t raise no stupid children!! 

However, the guy in this parable proves my often stated point – none of us know what is INSIDE us – until the passing of time, and life itself, or a lack of visible supervision, puts our lives under pressure and we get distracted from our original goal. Then watch out! All kinds of ugly leaks out around the edges. Nobody plans to live like that guy did, it just kind of crept up on him because time passed and his supervisor was missing.

Our Master lives inside us – our biggest problem is, He’s so gentle, He is easy to ignore. But the rewards for faithfulness and wisdom are much better traits. Living for Jesus means active participation in His processes. Meanwhile, when was the last time you heard someone talk about this particular parable? Yeah, we both know what that means, the pastor doesn’t like it much either. It’s not easy to get a positive message out of this one!

The Lord highlighted two words to me today when I read it – faithful and wise. Meanwhile the opposite of that is pretty much unreliable and stupid – I really don’t want to come into that category. What to do? Well, I believe in honest maintenance. You see, we have a beloved Redeemer, so there is no need to hide from myself anymore. It’s time to own up and repent, and ask for His Grace to change my behaviour. That’s when I decide to make faith-filed, bible inspired, choices. Right at the point when I want to do the opposite, or even pretend … I’m ‘all good” really ...😳 

I think we have to monitor our own spiritual lives day by day, sometimes second by second! It is so easy to judge this guy who behaved so badly, without stopping to look in the mirror – but we will do that at our own peril. Who knows what might creep up on us one day to tempt us to behave the same way? Finally, here’s a great deliverance prayer: “…and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil …” Amen. 👋🏻 “It’s the little foxes that spoil the vines.” Song of songs.

P 2235 Activate your faith with your obedience.

/ DVH

We will never walk on the water of our faith, until we decide to get out of the boat of perceived safety, and walk on the water that might drown us. Activated faith produces substance. Let’s quickly look at Peter. He could only walk on that water, that day, because he was walking on his faith in Christ’s word. Jesus said: “Come” and Peter came!  When he took his eyes off the Lord and faltered, Jesus said: “Where did your faith go?”  When Peter took his eyes off Jesus, and looked down at the sea around him – he lost the substance he was standing on. This is a good place to mention that the Lord did not let him drown. He won’t let US drown either. 

Faith in Jesus exists in a much higher reality than the things we can see around us. Now we have been born again, to ‘walk by faith, not by sight.’ Here’s something to read and think about in Matthew 25:14-30 (edited) “For it will be like a man …who called his servants and entrusted to them his property….He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.”Hiding from trouble won’t produce anything but fear, because that action has its roots in fear.

“Now after a long time the master of those servants … settled accounts with them. And he who had …five talents came forward,… ’Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents …saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’…  … Enter into the joy of your master.’ 

He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant!  …you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has, will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

Our faith is always IN something. Ourselves, others, circumstances, failure, or Christ. For us as Christians, our faith needs to be in Jesus;  what He did for us is all the proof we need. We must to stop looking at ourselves, and the sea of trouble around us or in us, to see whether we feel like we have enough faith. Then ask the Lord to show us how to invest the faith we’ve already been given – because we have all been given a measure of faith.

The amount of faith does not matter, BUT … who or what we put our faith in does! Think on this … this parable is a faith parable. Each one of those servants had various levels of faith – they wanted to obey and please their master. Their obedience activated their faith and the one who had five talents got more. USING our faith will help it grow! Not using it leads to FEAR. How we look at Jesus matters. Personally, I always feel afraid when the Lord asks me to do something – however – when I obey, fear takes a backseat. Suddenly I am investing in my faith’s future.

This parable is not just about managing money, or what we do with our various talents and gifts, it is also about how these men regarded their master. The guy who doubted His master’s goodwill let FEAR stop him from doing anything with what he was given. Our faith is not in what WE think we can do – it is in WHO WE THINK JESUS CHRIST IS. And whether we obey Him … or not. 

Sometimes, hubby and I appear to be doing very little with our seed sowing trips, because we don’t always see huge outstanding results. But our faith is IN Jesus. We know the Lord will follow up the people who responded to Him – the results are still pending – eternity will reveal them. 👋🏻

P 2233 There is no light like His light.

/ DVH

The world we live in today does not like the light, so it has hidden and distracted itself away from it. Maybe they like to think it is more fun in the dark … but the real truth is, they don’t know any better. I am of the opinion that the church needs to stop throwing rocks and abuse at the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet, and begin to realise that we are also guilty of ignoring the light of God! What’s our excuse? We know the truth, and the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet don’t even know exactly WHO they are rejecting!

John 1:9-12 “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.”

Just because we’ve been blessed by the Holy Spirit with spiritual insight that Jesus Christ IS Who He says He is – that does not mean we can skate merrily on by waiting for our turn to go to heaven one day. We act like salvation is the Lord’s final goal. His goal is transformation – which is a very b-i-g step beyond salvation. It’s called total surrender and it’s not just for the pastor or the evangelist.  Every single Christian has a purpose, a role in His plan. Let us recognise what we are here for and go and do it.

The power of recognition relies upon sight, and sight relies upon LIGHT. Sadly, the people of this world cannot see Christ, because the church is not being the LIGHT. Yet, the bible tells us clearly that we are to be the light of this world … Jesus said so: in Matthew 5:14:“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.”  However, being the light doesn’t mean we just run about constantly pointing out the dark – it means we shine with the reality of Christ IN us. We glow with His light and love, and that ushers in illumination and revelation. The people around us will see the darkness when we shine.. “But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” Luke 5:8. Take the time to learn how to shine.

So, how does the Lord’s church in 2023 manage to remain hidden? By our personal, and denominational choices. We’ve said ‘yes’ over time to so many things that the Lord does not agree with, that this world hardly knows what we actually stand for. Sadly, when we do stand up and say: ‘Well, you can’t do that, that’s against our religion” … This world turns around and says – “Good gracious, are YOU still here?? I thought you’d all died off years ago.”

The world around us does not know Who Christ is because we’ve failed Him. Time to repent. We reduced the Living Word of Almighty God to images. A baby in a manger, a cross on a chain, a big black book. We are here to be His Word in this world, alive and visible to everyone around us. That’s what light does. It shows up what’s in the darkness by illuminating stuff.

In this current age, Christians would much rather tell this world where it is WRONG – than love them – we say: “it’s too hard to love them, they are impossible.” Instead of blaming them – it is time to examine ourselves! We need to live this life shining with His love for others. “They will know we are Christians by our love …”  For us that means ‘show’ as well as ‘tell.’  You know if we want to truly follow Jesus, like the disciples did, then we will have to walk down the same roads He walked on. Transformation into light happens on that journey. 

Christianity is not meant to be a walk in the park, or a trip to a fun fair – with lots of groovy rides. We are on a death march. Our reward is not in this life. We have watered down the gospel to make it somehow more palatable, and doing that has diminished what Christ died to do. We need to repent before it is too late, or we will never reach our full potential in this life. Sadly humanity habitually thinks that we all have more time.

Our times are always in His hands … however, let’s remember that it is always time to be about our Master’s business. Even when we are very busy walking down some dusty road and we see someone bruised and bleeding in the dirt. We are never too busy to serve humanity. Christ wasn’t ever too busy – and being His light means we don’t have that option either.  👋🏻

P 2185 Hard questions.

/ DVH

Jesus preached on the theme of the Master and His servants, so many times in the bible.  Here are a few FYI: Matthew 25:14-30, Luke, 19:11-27, Luke 16:1-13, Matthew 21:33-46, and Luke 12:43-47. It is easy to read these parables as separate individual stories, and challenges, but, today, I think the Lord wants us to look at them, AS A THEME. BTW – there is a pretty awful result if we are found to be unfaithful servants!

Here’s what I mean when I call these things a theme. Things like God’s love, eternity, redemption, they are all themes. A thread runs through the entire bible about those subjects. Themes are even stronger than the individual stories because of the repetition, so we need to take particular notice of them. It hit me the other day that when I am reading the parable of the unjust servant;  or about the shonky manager of a vineyard; or even those servants with numerous bags of gold – the thing these parables had in common was THE MASTER WAS ABSENT. 🧐 Yes, I know Jesus comes to your church. But here’s a question … do the people around your church know that?

Here is something else I have learnt over the years – if the Lord says something three times or MORE, then we need to pay attention. The theme in these parables is about still being faithful – when the Master is not visibly present but He has left clear instructions. I realised that there are times, in our churches and our own lives, when we cannot see the Lord at work. When the Word of the Lord is scarce in the land we can end up concentrating on maintaining our own lives. But let’s look at this another way –  what happens in our church groups when we’ve been left in charge?

Today, the Holy Spirit’s question to me was this: “Will you be faithful to what I’ve told you in My book when it seems like I am not there watching over your shoulder? That’s what these parables are about. They are about the servants remaining faithful to what the Master told them to do … the way they should live … even when they cannot easily access Him.”

Do you know I had never noticed how many times He talked about US being faithful? I have become so used to being spoon-fed by what the people-much-smarter-than-me said – that I just didn’t see it. That shocked me. Because faithfulness is part of His Character and He wants it to be a part of ours. So when He asks us to think about our faithfulness, He is actually asking us if His character is being formed in us. Now there’s another good place to pause and think!😳

Faithfulness can also be said like this – Full.Of.Faith. The Lord Jesus wants His servants to be so full of faith every day, that there is no room for doubt, unbelief, or disobedience. That sounds like a good aim to me!  Here’s another parable for thought: in the one about the Master going on a journey – those servants have been left in charge of the Master’s riches! We all need to think on that for about 20 years or so – I know I will!

There is an old saying: “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.” Perhaps we’ve accidentally been doing the same old same old at church rather than stewarding and multiplying what Jesus has given us? Maybe we think going to church is the same as being active at church? The result could be that we are allowing those pesky little foxes to spoil our vines. If our meetings do seem the same week by week, then maybe it is US who got stale? Routine is great for maintenance – but forward movement is better for advancement and momentum. Plus, we all need to obey the word collectively, not just individually. 

Being faithful means we are increasing our faith from where it is, up to, and including, FULL. It looks like this – have we got more faith today than we had yesterday? Last week? Last year?? Are our churches growing and producing strong trees like the mustard seed parable? And I don’t mean in numbers, I mean in dedication. AND lastly … “Are we catching any fish, boys?” Maybe someone needs to show me in the book where it says we have to be inactive. Instead of waiting for revival – perhaps we all need to be one. Otherwise we are like the guy who buried what he was given in the dirt because he was too scared.

We pray for revival, but maybe we need resuscitation? You know, we simply must stop expecting our poor pastors to pull the rabbit out of the hat week by week. The pastor is not a magician! If we all want to be found to be faithful, then we need to collectively, and prayerfully, do something about it  …ourselves. 👋🏻