Mercy

P 2275 It is essential to practise mercy.

/ DVH

“So we must both speak and act in every respect like those who are destined to be tried by the perfect law of liberty, and remember that judgment is merciless for the one who judges others without mercy. So by showing mercy, you take dominion over judgment!” James 2:12-13 TPT

The reason the phrase mercy triumphs over judgment is often accurate, is that the human mind leans toward the side of justice. Do the words; ‘that’s not fair’ ring any bells?’ Look, if someone pinches your parking spot, then you can easily lean on mercy, but, if someone pinches the car or burns down our house most of us could easily tip over into judgment! The severity of the sin against us can create harsher responses. Unfortunately unforgiveness is deadly, it’s a no-brainer. Repentance clears away our guilt, but it does not take away the need for reparation and restoration.

The thing about Mercy is it has to become our permanent state of mind, not just something we try to find on the spot when something bad has happened. When things happen, our emotions become engaged, and we are more likely to go with how we feel at that moment, instead of leaning into being merciful. 

Memorising scriptures is a great way to know what the bible says – but the very best way to change our hearts for good is to continually choose the harder thing and do it. Doing what the bible says takes God’s Word out of the realm of knowledge, and puts it firmly into the place of our own experience. Other people will benefit from our learning curves but the main benefit is to US. That stretching, the feeling that you can’t bear whatever is going on any longer, is normal. Don’t  believe what you feel, instead, pray for help and maintain the new merciful attitude.

I am not saying that letting Mercy triumph is an easy thing to do. As a matter of fact I think it’s probably one of the hardest things … like, ever! But we are not just simply learning a way to live – we are giving the Holy Spirit room to transform our hearts. This means we have an opportunity to change or  soften our hardened heart… by believing His word to the point where we act on it. A changed heart has no problem with mercy. This person knows from experiencing His grace when they’ve needed it, that growing and changing can be painful. Plus they understand the principle of giving away what they need. 

The Bible says: “Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, [be diligently active, make thoughtful decisions], for you will find it after many days.” Ecclesiastes 11:1 Amp. This means that we will often give away what we need over and over again before we see any change in our response, but remember – God is no man’s debtor! Now if we are still actively hostile inside our brain two days later … eventually that bubbling pot of anger and resentment will boil over!  Often it is at some poor schmuck who said the wrong thing at the wrong time. We have all the grace and power we will need to overcome the things that come at us, or even the things that are already inside us – simply by practising His word as He reveals it to us. Hallelujah!

Human beings see things in terms of big and small.  To the Lord sin is not something big or small – it’s the thing that separates us from Him. It causes us to hide from Him right when we need Him the most.  When Jesus died for our sins He utterly cleared away the pathway between us and sin – we don’t have to sin any more. We need to remember this verse: “If we sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanses from all unrighteousness.” 

In the old Testament when Rebecca gave birth to twins, the twins were wrestling inside her for supremacy. That’s what happens inside us – either in our minds or in our emotions or both. The new you – that is who you are now in Christ Jesus – is now inside you. But the old us, our old habits and indulgences are wrestling against the person that God wants to release. This fight is ongoing, we don’t just fight against what the enemy throws at us, we are fighting our old ways of thinking, being, and doing with the Holy Spirit helping us.

Just because something is hard that does not mean it isn’t God’s will. We are in a wrestling match daily, sometimes minute by minute to make the choices Christ would make … Dying is hard but it is extremely powerful!  👋🏻

P 2229 ‘Help help’ is a great prayer!

/ DVH

I read this today in Psalm 91:1”Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Today I just want to mention God’s provision of rest for His kids is the only way human beings can manage this life and all its pressures. The Lord is wonderful, when we live this life for Him – He blesses everything.

We are not alone. We need to learn to progressively and intentionally “rest in the shadow of the Almighty…whose power no-one can withstand!” Our enemy has no power over us in that place of peace-rest. The Lord Jesus Himself said the same thing in Matthew 11: “Then Jesus said, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. Let Me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  Jesus Christ understands humanity – He understands how hard this life is. We can LEARN THIS, He will teach us.

The best place of shelter, EVER, is IN God Himself. We hide in what Christ already did for our sake. We can try to hide away from trouble by staying busy, or actively choosing to forget stuff, but hiding in God is the only place we will find the kind of real safety, and solutions that last. Everything else is temporary. So, how do we do that? Learn to run to Jesus immediately when things go upside down – and tell Him He is your refuge. 

I do that out loud! Even before I lift the phone to get others to pray – I start running toward Him inside – yelling help help all the way. I understand that we’ve all developed independent … not-so-great habits … of relying upon ourselves – but I have found personally, that when I try to figure things out … the line of admitting defeat moves away from me, and so does inner peace and sleep. And my brain starts to feel like messy mush. 😂 I get exhausted. That’s why I’ve learnt it’s easier to give up and ask for help immediately. When I see God acting on my behalf, that miraculously reminds me that GOD LOVES HIS KIDS. Real peace and safety in this life is an illusion. Our Father wants to help us. 

The older hubby and I get, the less enchanted we are with our own brain power and memory bank.  We seem to have developed a super-power of forgetting most things ten seconds later! This Psalmist knew how to stay safe until disaster had passed by Him. Because of what Christ did, WE can live in that place permanently. Jesus gave us that when He died for us, that’s why He mentioned it. Praise God we all live on the other side of the cross!  We have a safe place to run where we will always be welcome, and that is God’s ever-active MERCY toward us.

We all get beaten down by this life and some of the people in it. That’s the time to pick up those burdens and give it ALL to Jesus. Then we do whatever He says, in the book – and then…we  leave everything with Him. Tell yourself ‘God is looking after that!’  If we accidentally revert to worrying and problem solving, then repent, and give it back to Him again. Learn to live relying upon the finished work of Christ’s death on the cross. The more you live like this, the more it becomes the way you think. The technical term is called renewing your mind. Even if you accidentally go back into worry etc.- then give it back to Him, just one more time. Human beings are much too frail to walk around with heavy burdens on their backs.

Listen to this: “Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down.” Isaiah said that 700 years before Christ was born. One day he was praying and he ended up in the throne room and God’s incredible holiness gave this prophet a revelation about who he really was. Isaiah saw his sin. Thank God, he also prophetically saw Jesus coming into this world 700 years later! Isaiah saw God’s provision for his sins and everything else, long before Jesus was ever born. Seeing that changed that man’s POV forever.

This is what Jesus Christ came to earth to do for humanity, to show us another way to live. The bible gives us so many witnesses. Today I have put one from a Psalmist, plus Isaiah, plus Jesus Christ Himself. They all tell us we can come to God, and offload our burdens, troubles and sorrows, because SomeOne has spiritually taken them for us – JESUS Christ took all those things to the cross, 2000+ years ago. Those weighty things in our lives are as gone as our sins!  Let’s ask for His help to continually lay our burdens down, and live in His rest, instead of this world’s turmoil. 👋🏻 

P 2218 Don’t give up!

/ DVH

I want to talk a little bit about seemingly unanswered prayers today. In my lifetime, by the Grace of God only – I have learnt that I don’t have to see something to believe it is true. There are all sorts of illustrations from the bible, of ordinary people who loved God and followed Him. They were just like me. But there have been times when I have been greatly disappointed because my prayers appeared to lay about like limp lettuce leaves. Sadly, the result of chronic sickness is that it takes over this life, and you can start to have a sickness mentality. That becomes a battle all by itself. Plus your faith can take a heck of a beating.

However, I know, that I know, that our God answers our prayers. His book is filled with testimonies on that subject from an unbelievable variety of people. I have chosen to learn to take His Word over my experiences – but that doesn’t mean I don’t wrangle with my feelings on a difficult day! One day, I know I will be healed, up there or down here. But for this moment, I will just keep on asking – and thanking Him. I have learnt that my disappointment does not cancel out His promises. That’s like an ant trying to wrestle an elephant. It’s.Not.Gunna.Happen! 

Jesus Himself told us to: “Ask and keep on asking, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” The saddest thing we can do when we pray about something, or someone, and nothing appears to change, is to give up our belief about the Lord’s Character just because of that unanswered prayer. He loves us. Our God always does things for our good, let’s add to that our hope that He is always listening to us. “… He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”  So my exhortation today is that we need to keep going after the impossible, and don’t give up!

Our human limitations abound, but HE has no limitations and He is not deaf. We must never ever stop our pursuit of Him, so we can deepen our understanding of Who He is. There is always more we can learn about our Heavenly Father, and the way He does things. Just because some prayers we’ve prayed seem to have led to a dead end, that does not mean we should give up. Jesus Himself told us to press IN and keep ON keeping on. “Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Luke 18:1-8.

Meanwhile, if our human relationships are worthy of careful attention and passion – just imagine how much more our relationship with Almighty God is worth! We are His people, and He is always worthy of our attention, passionate love and prayers. He loves to care and provide for us, and that love IS His nature. However, I also know, personally, that when our hope is deferred, it can make our hearts sick. That’s a good place to ask for His help. Total dependance upon the Lord and His mercy is not a weakness or a character flaw – we can rely upon Him to always do what is good, right and profitable in our lives. 

Right now whilst you are reading this – you could be ill, or injured, or something bad has happened to the people you love. Perhaps you are estranged from someone, or you are living in constant fear, or you have major difficulties in your life and you’ve tipped over into despair. Awful things do happen – ‘the rain falls on the just and the unjust.’ However, these circumstances are not God’s punishment. When Jesus died on that cross humanity entered a new Era. The Grace Era. The hard things are simply part of this imperfect life we live.

First of all, please don’t beat yourself up over your flagging faith. Simply ask for our loving Saviour’s help to move past your despair … there are days that I have to pray like that one minute at a time. However, today, I wrote this to remind you that He has heard you and He is not ignoring your desperate cries. I can’t possibly explain the situation you find yourself in or even the delay, but I know the Saviour, He brought Lazarus out of that grave and He has heard your prayers. Hold onto that.

Lastly, I want to say to those who are suffering: please don’t give up. “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.” Hebrews 10:35. At this very minute, Jesus is praying for us, and the Holy Spirit is praying too, that our faith won’t fail. I want to remind everyone that we always need to continue to ‘ask and keep on asking’ and we must not give up and faint –  “…because in due time we will receive our reward.” (See Galatians 6:9-10.)  Bless you and bye for today. 🙏

P 2211 The cross!

/ DVH

The cross is the place where humanity stands totally alone. It is the place where God’s will impacts and challenges ours. That place where Jesus defeated all our stinky self-serving attitudes once and for all – and gave us new soft pliable hearts. We own this new heart bit by bit, as we say no to our own way, and yes, to His.

The cross is the place where sin is simply SIN. At that hallowed place, there are no big or small sins. It is the greatest equaliser ever seen. We were given the power to live in obedience to the One Who died to give us the right to stand in Almighty God’s Presence – unashamed. The cross is the place where our Saviour deliberately submitted Himself to humiliation, punishment, torment and death on our behalf and He left us, clean, forever!  

Now we have the utter freedom to choose to obey Him. Before the cross we had no choice. That is a fact that always astonishes me, no matter how many times I read it in His book. All of us know we were not worthy of everything He did for us during that terrible day.

If you and I look carefully at that wooden cross you will see our names carved there into those precious hands that blessed people and healed them. Our names are somewhat obscured by all the blood running down from His face, His side, as well as His hands and feet. There was so much blood that day, His sacrifice spilled all over  mankind – everyone who has ever been born. That cross was dripping with His blood. That’s where Jesus Christ cleansed us and made us brand new people. 

Christ’s blood was incredibly rare and costly, because the One Who had never ever sinned, became our sin. At that cross Jesus’ goodness, grace, love, joy, peace, patience, mercy, kindness and long-suffering, together with absolute and total purity, was drowned in our sins. And hell was let loose on Him – until Christ died from the sheer agony of it.

After truly seeing and understanding that cross, how could we ever refuse to do whatever Jesus wants us to do for His kingdom’s sake? He will not refuse us. He will not turn us away, even though He knew, like Peter, we would all betray Him. He knew before we ever gave Him our lives that we would walk through some of our days acting like His cross was nothing to us – just an historical record. You and I are blessed because we live after Calvary. Calvary is His-story to all of us. 

Whenever I look at Christ on that cross I marvel that Almighty God would so submit Himself to mankind that He became an infant, and grew up here on earth, in a dusty little town. He walked, talked, lived and breathed around among ordinary people like you and I. He allowed others to treat Him like they treated the rest of humanity, with indifference, disdain and cruelty. Jesus Christ let the Jews and the Romans punish Him like a criminal. Yet He died for them too. 

On this day, I want to pause, and celebrate the cross. Someone … God bless them!!!… told me what Christ did for me. Today, I stand there, in my mind’s eye, and look up at Him … I remember what my life was like without Him in it. I remember all the things He has given back to me, those things that I lost with my own careless, sinful, selfish ways. Jesus Christ freely gave us eternal things, the kind of unearthly qualities and attitudes that humanity never dreamt we could have. 

Standing there, I take the time to remind myself that I will never ever be totally alone again. I will never lack love again. The purest love this world will ever know is hanging right there in front of my eyes. The cross shows all of us that it was always Father God’s plan to be One with mankind, and save all of us from ourselves as well as our enemy. Christ’s love heals every wound, every heartache, every painful moment and His hope calls us into a brand new future. The cross is the day our possibilities became endless. 

This was the day Almighty God made the beginning of His dreams for mankind known. Let’s rejoice! We were born on the other side of that terrible wonderful day and we know the end of this story … it’s in the book. He came and rescued each one of us from ourselves and our humdrum little lives, and nothing can snatch us out of His hands. Our lives can no longer be out of control, because now He is in control. 

Jesus and you and I swapped destinies, our destination was hell and His was heaven. So He died that day in an unrelenting, dreadful, painful fashion – then He went to hell and beat up the devil, and purchased our freedom and gave mankind the promise of heaven, instead. Happy Easter! ✝️

P 2173 The way through to love.

/ DVH

Recently I realised that my inability to love some of the difficult people I know is actually a weakness in my character. Well yay! Boy did I get happy! 🥳 🎉!! No, I haven’t lost my mind – I think I actually finally found it again. The renewed bit anyway. You see, I remembered something from the bible. My bible says – ‘His strength is made PERFECT in my weaknesses.’ The Apostle Paul struggled with this, yet he says in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10. “when I am weak then He is strong!”  Plus it says to ‘rejoice’ or ‘take pleasure’ in our weaknesses! The greater the resistance to change, the more potential I have to build up strength … 

A lack of love in me reminds me that I have an opportunity to throw myself upon His strength, His mercy, His Grace, and all I need to do is to let Him help me. The Holy Spirit won’t sovereignly just take over and do it for me, I have to resist the devil for myself, and draw near to Jesus. Now, with His help, I have positioned myself to become a channel of the Holy Spirit’s love toward that other person. I simply need to follow the His prompts, step by step. Plus I will probably have to do quite a bit of ‘holding my tongue’ as well! That’s when I ask for His Grace.

My husband shared this thought with me the other day, about hearing the Holy Spirit. He said: ‘If we can hear the enemy, inside our heads, accusing us and reminding us of our faults etc. – then we can most definitely hear the Lord of ALL telling us He loves us and guiding us into His ways!’ The bible says our enemy accuses us ‘day and night before the throne of Grace.’ However, the One sitting on that throne IS THE GREATER ONE! Ya might want to think on that for a bit! Moving on …

If we choose to want to see His good in difficult situations, or ask Him to show us something good in them … that is when we cultivate looking through His Eyes of Love. Because: ‘Love hopes all things, believes all things etc.’ Nevertheless, we can’t do that repairing and restoring work by ourselves – we always need Him! When His Presence becomes more important than my opinion and hurt feelings, I am in a prime position to overcome what comes AT me. When we set our hearts to see the good in situations, that’s when He helps us, and we will start to see other people the way He sees them. Looking at sinful humanity through the Lord’s eyes is life transforming. Jesus is incredibly compassionate …

Then I need to remember that the Lord dearly l❤️ves Me, and His love is not based on my performance it is based on His own Character. Whenever I feel rejected and unaccepted, that’s when I can easily react, instead of acting in faith. His new life inside my heart will remind me from His Word, how to give away acceptance in the face of rejection. I always have the power to change my responses, but I need to use my faith to access that power. I have to put down what happened to me, and how I feel about it, and deliberately ask Him for His eternal viewpoint. 

You and I are always able give grace away, because we also need to constantly go to the cross ourselves to receive His grace for our own stinky sinful attitudes. We live this life of faith in a place of utter gratitude, this means I can give away love because I already have His love shed abroad in my heart. Love looks like the cross – and the cross is a place of suffering – you die (to self) there. 

In those moments when we choose to die to self and say nothing – or even proactively extend kindness;  we are refusing to bow down to our own limited understanding. Instead we seek His greater wisdom. It helps me to remember that the other people involved may not be following the Lord’s heaven-made script at this particular unhappy moment in my interaction with them. This is actually my moment to learn …but it may not be theirs.🤗

We don’t always have to like this process – nobody wants to walk with the Lord through the valley of the shadow of death! And dying to self is a form of death. Think about this for a minute, do you need to find God? He is always in that valley! The 23rd Psalm tells us that He is there to comfort us. Let us remember He suffered at the hands of mankind too! 👋🏻

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 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 2132 Reading the bible leads to faith in action.

/ DVH

The Word of God, without His mercy and grace upon it becomes legalistic. John 1:17, ESV: ‘For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The Lord Jesus didn’t change the commandments, instead His life, death and resurrection introduced Almighty God’s GRACE into His truth.

I don’t know if you have thought about this or not, but Jesus took the ten commandments and virtually made them impossible – without the Spirit of the Living God helping us. The Lord made rote obedience harder.

Listen to this in: Matthew 5:22, Jesus is speaking … KJV: “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.”

Of course this verse doesn’t apply to anyone out there in blog land – none of US are ever unreasonable, and we never get mad at other people and call them an idiot… well … maybe … not that often, anyway! 😂 Me neither.  I am not going to offer you any sort of personal explanation, interpretation or application for this verse BTW … it’s in my how the heck do I do that (?) file … see below. BUT, I would like to point out the thing that jumped out at me today – the words – ‘danger of.’  Yeah. Some people find that getting mad means reaching for a baseball bat, and I can see that ending very badly. But I still need to apply that verse to me – so feel free to pray for me. Thank you!

Here’s my advice: never ever give up on understanding anything in the bible. If you don’t ‘get’ it, and you can’t figure out how to action it – then put it down, and take the time to go back to it later and ask Him to help you. I have a lot of things in my I-have-no-clue-how-to-action-this file. But just because I don’t know what to do with some of my automatic bad tempered responses, that does not excuse me from pursuing the answer. Instead I pray then go back and reread them, and I remind the Lord that I still don’t get it. In my opinion the Lord loves it when we follow things up.  

I am currently wading through 1 Corinthians. The thing is – I actually don’t need these verses explained to me, I can read English, I simply need to hear His voice in them. I need a plan of action! I wait for Him to speak, but I don’t excuse myself from obeying if I don’t know what to do about it. I want to change, and I’ve come to understand that God Himself has a WAY for me through the temptation to avoid losing my temper. I need to be changed from the inside out – which takes time and patience from everyone around me. We can all analyse the words but that is not what will change our behaviour – our behaviour changes when we have a plan of activation from HIM.

I don’t want to be surprised by any ugly stuff coming out of me when I am under pressure, because that means that things that have only been changed on the surface of my life. Agreeing with the bible, leads to surface change. However, I badly need my heart to be changed. The new attitudes and actions that the bible talks about need to become so much a part of me that I don’t react to stuff anymore, now I respond to it instead. As you know, I recommend doing what it says because reading it is one thing, and memorising it is another, but I’ve found doing what it says engages my whole body, and that forms a bigger memory cue than just reading it or remembering the words. 

Sometimes I am doing something else when the Lord reminds me about whatever I’ve read that day. He talks to me about what I said or did, and then He reminds me about what He said or did about that subject, in the book. Then I can see the contrast for myself. I must be honest with you … I would love to tell you that I smile and jump up and immediately obey whatever He tells me – but the truth is – I need Him to take what He said and show me how it works in the situation in front of me – otherwise I am stuck. Honesty and humility with other people is the only manageable way to deal with being stuck.”I’m sorry” is a part of the process not the end result.

I need guidance. Actually, I need HIS guidance! I need Him to take that “apple of gold” He just highlighted to me, and have Him help me to put it “into a setting of silver.” Because I want to know to how respond to His word and act in faith on it. A Christian book will tell me how it worked for someone else – but, I want to know how it works for ME in my life. When it comes to relationships, most of the time He tells me to fix things … now! This does not always enchant or delight me. 😶 Most of the time it does not even suit me! Obedience is always costly – humbling yourself when you do not think you are wrong costs even more! 

The Lord told me years ago: “If you let Me correct you, you will hear Me when I direct you.” If we let Him speak to the sin in our lives and act upon what He says in faith, we will hear Him more clearly. People often ask me: ”How do you hear the Holy Spirit?” I obey His corrections. When He corrects me, He is showing me HE LOVES ME. However, I don’t always instantly, passionately fall in love with what He tells me to do! Most of the time I have to humble myself, but the bible says that going after humility means I am on the right road. When I feel resistant to this process, I’ve learnt to do whatever He tells me to do, despite my feelings. I have scripture to back that one up BTW.  Read about the two sons in Matthew 21. It’s a real eye-opener. 

When we digest the bible, it is like eating our food with the chef in the room. The Holy Spirit has prepared that daily bread with us in mind, and He knows what we need to hear. He wrote this book and despite the 724 translations of the entire book and 1617 translations of the New Testament – we all still need a Personal Translator. He will daily apply what it says into our lives so we can obey Him. Reading the bible and applying what it says means we will start using our faith, every single day. 👋🏻