Money

P 2816 Do great exploits.

/ DVH

Matthew 25:14-30 TPT: “It’s also like a man going off on an extended trip. He called his servants together and delegated responsibilities. To one he gave five thousand dollars, to another two thousand, to a third one thousand, depending on their abilities. Then he left. Right off, the first servant went to work and doubled his master’s investment. The second did the same. But the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master’s money.“After a long absence, the master of those three servants came back and settled up with them. The one given five thousand dollars showed him how he had doubled his investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’ “The servant with the two thousand showed how he also had doubled his master’s investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’

“The servant given one thousand said, ‘Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.’“The master was furious. ‘That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest.“‘Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this “play-it-safe” who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.’”

When I read this passage today some things stood out, so I have highlighted them. It always seems to be important to me to place the things the Lord highlights into context. So let’s look at this one the way it happened in the first scripture where it says: “…according to their abilities…”

The servants’ master had taken into account each man’s ability when he handed out the money to be invested. That would be so foreign in today’s society. Grading people into categories would be a no, no. It might even be considered demeaning, and in some instances it could be taken very personally. However, these few words show me that the Lord doesn’t ask us to do anything that we can’t actually do, as we operate in His grace.. And at the same time, He may not test you the same way He tests me, because He knows our frames, He knows how far we can stretch.

The second thing I noticed was this: that man who buried his portion of the money was capable of far more effort than he gave his master. I don’t know if he was lazy, or he underestimated himself, but the point is – he could have done better, if he had just overcome his fear. Instead he was underusing what he had been given.

If we translate this parable into what our part in God’s kingdom looks like  — which is what Jesus intended — then that third servant did as little as possible because of fear. Yeah, I know, that sort of clarity sucks doesn’t it? It’s actually so clear we cannot deny it. Jesus was pointing out to each one of us that fear is never an excuse. This master points out that living in fear and evasiveness is a terrible way to live …Like the man said, nobody else is limiting our capabilities – the reality is that we are doing it to ourselves! I thought about it like this: our next miracle may be right around the corner of us taking a risk, and being obedient to whatever He has told us to do. 

Jesus Himself once used the phrase: “the least of these…”  Not everybody is born with excess talent oozing out of their pores. Whatever we want to do with our lives for His kingdom — we will need a calling, some talent …PLUS .. a whole lotta hard work. Many people like to skip that last bit. Devotion to the task is part of the prerequisite for a kingdom person. Our devotion to Him translates into action on His behalf.

Jesus was God Himself, personified, but He still had to live this life like every other human being. The exchange with our enemy in the wilderness proves that He did not use the Holy Spirit’s power to get things for Himself. He refused to turn a stone to bread – even when He was hungry. What I mean is this – Jesus knows man’s limitations personally.

You know I would much rather try, and fail … than sit and hope heaven will fall on me and motivate me. It is easier to steer a moving vehicle than a stationary one. The Lord is a Redeemer – He can take all the bits of our lives that seem useless and make something glorious out of them.  God can take a man who was killing Christians and make the greatest Christian theologian this world has ever seen. Paul!

Redemption is transformation on steroids. It is outside the realm of our thinking, or our efforts, because our thinking is too small and our efforts cannot be sustained. In His kingdom, redemption is normal. If we are going to invest our lives for His sake, then we need to expect that we will continually undergo the process of redemption. That man who buried his master’s money needed his mind renewed!  So do we, because: “ … the people who do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” Daniel 11:32. Bye. 👋

P 2802 Don’t live like an orphan.

/ DVH

You know, orphans have to find their own way, they have to do everything for themselves. They do not belong to anyone. They have no family, no family to support them and back them up. You and I, we are no longer orphans!… Not only were we re-born into God’s family … then … God Himself adopted us. We must learn to make Him welcome in our hearts!“But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the right [the authority, the privilege] to become children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—…” John 1:12. 

First of all, being adopted by God is a wonderful privilege, it is not a right – and secondly, that privilege becomes ours AS we choose to receive Him. BTW, that word ‘become’ stands out like a sore thumb to me. Christians have not arrived anywhere … yet. While we are still here on this earth, we are becoming …! We are learning His ways, that’s why we read the book. We have entered a life-long process of transformation. We daily walk with the Holy Spirit because we want to look like our Older Brother Jesus. At the same time it is no small thing to be eligible to use His Name – that’s part of our adoptive inheritance. His Name has authority here on earth, as well as in heaven.

Ephesians 1:5 says:“He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will.” Our adoption was always God’s plan. He let humanity have its head … and look where that landed us! Then He personally provided a perfect way back to Him. Almighty God has a plan for each of our lives. He’s a good good Father. He demonstrated how much He loves humanity when He sent His only One-of-a-kind Son here to live, and die, among us. Father God’s plans are always so much better than ours, but human beings have a cultivated, internal independence that often refuses to yield.

God will not take us over – He simply wants help each one of us reach our full potential – just like any good father would. A son or a daughter is an heir – whether they were adopted, or born into a family. The mistake we have made in modern Christianity is to think that being born again, plus being adopted, means that we can have whatever we want. He wants voluntarily yielded vessels for His kingdom. You know, our precious Father is not a despot running a conglomerate, handing out favours to a special few.  He is our ever-loving ever-living Heavenly Father. The One Who made heaven and earth, Who is worthy of praise and glory and honour – every single earth-bound day of our little lives. He gave everything for all.

In the absence of our Father’s Presence on this earth … as His kids, His heirs – we have been delegated to act like He would.  A true son or daughter represents His Father. So we are here to serve, like Jesus served. Even if we LEAD other people, we are still serving. Jesus wasn’t showing off His power when He healed people, delivered them, or raised the dead. Even when He multiplied food, He did that because… “…the people were hungry and they would not have made it home without food!”Jesus is an illustration of how much the Father loves us and cares about our lives.

The Lord disapproved of religious people because they misled others — often for their own benefit. You and I are here on this earth, right here, right now, to pour out His Love on others. Because we are no longer orphans we have a confidence that can willingly share. This is the love that we received when He adopted us. We need to tell others that they can be adopted too. Our whole aim is to love and serve people the way He loved and served us. There are no bright stars in His kingdom – most of us are NOT automatically relegated to be minions! The only star in His kingdom is Christ!

This means the way we treat each other matters: “But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is taking his time in coming,’ and begins to beat the servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk,..” AMPC. We dare not mistreat any of the people Christ died to save! Before Christ came and negated the power of sin, we were powerless to change our self-centred behaviour. Now, because of everything He did and said, we have been given the power to live this life differently. That’s what faith does, it chooses to respect its freedom by laying down its life for others.

There are human beings all over this earth who do not know that they have been set free from sin and death, and they are living their lives as orphans – struggling and straining to make the best of their time here. Cheating, stealing, hurting others to gain things.  (BTW, FYI, death is a door … not an ending! Jesus showed us that.) Most orphans have to learn to fend for themselves. But in a family, one member looks after another. Jesus loves us because we are His family. How many Christians have been fooled into living like they have no inheritance? HE is our inheritance. All that He did and is.

Don’t live your life like an orphan, there is more to this life than having enough money, power, position etc. We have been given His power to usher in change, simply by choosing to love other people into His kingdom. SELAH. 🤔

P 2799 Father God gives to us.

/ DVH

“Give, and it will be given to you. …” Luke 6:38 AMP. I don’t think I have ever felt led to do a ‘follow up’ to something I have written before — but today I strongly felt to continue yesterday’s exhortation, because I believe there are two sides to the coin of giving. We give, and the Lord responds to us, by blessing us, personally, or through other people. However, we need to take note that He does not always respond, in kind.

It is a tremendous blessing in the first place to give, but we also need to understand that His blessings may not come back to us in the form of money etc. That’s the receiving bit of this equation. If we happen to need money, then it is natural to assume God will bless us where we have a need… But I have not found that is always true in every circumstance. Let me explain, using the three women from yesterday’s blog. 

Hannah gave up her first-born son and that child was a gift from God to her. Children are a stated heritage from the Lord, and Hannah had 5 more children after Samuel. This restored her stature within her community! God totally transformed her circumstances. That little widow woman with the two coins did something so spectacular that Jesus used her as an object lesson to His disciples, and it is recorded in the bible, but she knew nothing about it. But we know that God has a soft spot for women who are alone. Now, her giving is an example for all of us, two thousand years later.

The lady who broke her alabaster box for Jesus, received forgiveness for her sins, and Jesus commended her even further by telling His disciples that what she did was going to be remembered and recounted generations past their life-times! Mark 26:7-13. “Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”This woman’s act was so spectacular to the Lord, He memorialised it!

Sometimes when God blesses us in return, we can utterly miss what He does because we are looking for something that we think we need. The bible says: “…give and it shall be given to you …” Here’s a thought …. maybe we need favour more than money! The Lord can sometimes give us favour with other people, and unless we have spiritual eyes we will miss His response and we won’t thank and praise Him for it. The Israelites were given so much favour when they left Egypt they literally looted the place — with the Egyptians’ freely-given permission!

Today I want to highlight, yet again, that God’s ways are not our ways. Our loving Father loves to bless His kids because He’s a good good Father! If we stretch our faith to see beyond our immediately perceived needs, and remain aware of what He is doing, it can help us to ascertain what shape His blessings are taking this time.This means we cultivate eyes to see whatever blessings come our way, as coming from HIM.

Hubby and I have occasionally experienced upgrades to something far more expensive than we can afford. I truly believe when that happens, that the Lord is blessing us – with His blessings pressed down and running over. It all depends on how you look at things. People have given us stuff over the years – things we never asked for or even knew we needed, but those things turned out to be an unforeseen blessing when we regarded them from a different POV. Like I said yesterday, the river of His blessings flows through our lives … it is a river not a dam! If we hold on too tightly to things, we will end up closing our spiritual eyes to what He is doing – NOW.

There have been times when hubby and I were given an undeserved discount on a large, unexpected bill. That’s favour. Everything depends on the way we look at this life. Other people have come and helped us when we were both unwell. That’s favour. Our dear neighbour next door has mowed our front verge, which is huge BTW, for years! Favour!  The bible tells us that the Lord Jesus Himself enjoyed favour:  “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Luke 2:52. The Pharisees etc. didn’t have spiritual eyes so they could not see the favour of God on Him. Mary, Jesus mother was called highly favoured by the Angel Gabriel.

Psalm 41:1-3 talks about blessings that are not monetary: “The favour of God keeps my enemies from defeating me.” But unless we are vigilant and living aware of His goodness, we may not see how God Himself is blessing us by keeping our enemies at bay. Living a life filled with gratitude for all He has done, and is still doing in our lives — will lead us into walking, day by day with His Spirit. As we live with internal peace, when the rest of the world around us is in chaos, then that peace is His gift to us. He is blessing us. If we have less money than we did before, but we are still managing … we are blessed.

I will finish with this thought, the more you SEE His blessings, the more your life will be enriched, despite your circumstances.  Ask for eyes to see Him at work, because Father God is always giving to us! Bye. 👋

P 2786 Risk takers.

/ DVH

Each one of us needs to find our place, our ministry within the Body of Christ. And the Precious Holy Spirit is standing by, waiting, He wants to show you or I what He has for us to do. He dearly wants us to blossom in His kingdom, here and now – starting today.  All we need to do for that to happen is to take a risk, use our faith, and believe He wants to help us. Here’s a clue that I’ve learnt over the years, that can help prime the faith pump. Giving opens all kinds of doors. Holding onto our money carefully has become a necessary lifestyle today, but if we want to start moving in faith, we can start with increasing our giving — beyond the tithe. Generosity attracts the Holy Spirit.

I am talking about this subject of walking in faith from what I’ve seen and learnt myself, and what I’ve seen happening in my husband’s life and the lives, of other people around me. However sooner, and hopefully not later! — we must step out of the boat we have carefully constructed to contain our own little world, and start walking on water. Christianity is about taking risks.

You can check that statement out in Acts 9:10-19 with a man named Ananias who qualified to be an enormous risk taker. Read the book! The book of Acts is filled with risk takers. This man was scared … but he did what God asked him to do anyway, and Paul was healed on the spot. I love Ananias, BTW, the Lord asked this man to go and pray for Paul, and Ananias was like: ‘Is this really you Lord? Haven’t You heard this guy kills Christians?’ Actually, when we use our faith, the assignment doesn’t matter. I  believe we put much too much value upon the assignment bit, by analysing this and discounting that.

When Peter walked on the water Jesus simply said “COME”. What matters is stepping out to do what He has asked us to do. Doubt is not a negative thing unless it acts as a deterrent to faith. My motto is: do it anyway. You might look like a goose, but that helps us with humility … win-win! Jesus wasn’t fazed about making Himself a Man of no reputation!

Most Christians are satisfied with so little when it comes to knowing the Lord. We happily enter His gates, with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise, Sunday by Sunday. Then we sit down on our comfy cushy seats and wait to be instructed … again! Plus we kind of pat ourselves on the back for even going to church, or bringing morning tea, or doing the flowers, or mowing the church lawns, and setting up the auditorium. Without the Holy Spirit’s instructions – these things are essential, but they are fleshly things. Helping is a good beginning but it isn’t the whole ballgame.

The things of the Spirit have His spiritual power in them and we can do far more than we can ever imagine. I always know it is the Holy Spirit when I feel surprised by what happens next! However, not every spiritual gift involves talking. I know someone who has the gift of service and that person is learning to blossom in it. But my hubby gets words of knowledge like he is gathering daisies in a meadow! He gets them, before, during and after His conversations with people-he-never-met-before. Spiritual gifts impact other people’s lives in an astonishing manner. 

Jesus once told us: “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” I look at that verse this way … a yoke is bound to feel strange until you get used to it. We must become used to the Lord talking to us, through His book, and internally, in our heart as well as through others. Christianity is not for experts – it’s for dumb bunnies who dare to believe Him.  As we live this way, we will settle into His yoke.

Repentance is also a wonderful tool to open up the things of the Spirit – because it takes faith to do it! It is very humbling to go to someone else that you have been secretly nursing a grudge against, and confess your fault. Especially if you do it in such a way that the other person doesn’t get condemnation or blame or shame from what you’ve said or done. Operating under the Holy Spirit’s guidance for whatever reason, always takes faith.

When you read the Old Testament, carefully, that whole scared-the-daylights-out-of-them stuff happened to many people when they chose to obey. But they were blessed to be able to see the difference between what God does and the very little we can do by ourselves.

Once, at the beginning of the Lord’s ministry, satan tempted Jesus to jump off the pinnacle of the temple because the bible said God would send angels to catch Him …and Jesus wouldn’t do it. This is why we need to know the Lord’s ways, through the book. That will help us to identify any tricks that other guy might throw at us. You and I can do so much for His kingdom, however, we need to be prepared to risk our reputation for Jesus’ sake – He risked His reputation for ours. Bye. 👋

P 2762 Who are we listening to?

/ DVH

“There are… times when I spend so much time listening to the voice of reason, I’ve forgotten to listen to the voice of LOVE.” (A line from ‘Call the Midwives.’) What a great thought-filled thing to say! I think it sums up an attitude that easily prevails in our society today. Our logic, our reasoning, can overcome our devotion to living a life of love – if we are not paying attention. We have received God’s love and His blessings freely. He commands us to give to others – freely.

We can easily talk ourselves out of doing whatever God says, when reason takes over. God says: ‘Go and see your neighbour they need help.” Reason says:  ‘I just saw my neighbour the other day and they looked fine to me!” Well now, would you look at that?! Everything is all sorted and I didn’t have to embarrass myself, or move an inch. I can still keep on watching the footie or tennis!  I might even pray for my neighbour, which is a good thing, but are we letting good, take the place of best? Or maybe, our reasoning has diminished our love for the Lord and others.

People call loving the unlovely or giving as the Spirit leads us – risk taking. Yes. There’s no doubt about that – it certainly is! But there is a far worse risk we take when we choose to wholeheartedly live this life, the only one we have, ignoring the needs of others. Love looks like something! It is concrete. To a starving person it looks like a bowl of rice. Sometimes we would rather distract ourselves with something else – something we think of as more fun, rather than choose to live this life, the only one we have, loving others. And it actually doesn’t matter what kind of person that other person is, because otherwise we are using our reason to stand in judgment.

Here’s a way to show love that we can sometimes try to avoid. Jesus showed us how love and generosity works. Mark 12:41-44.“Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling His disciples to Him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Giving from what we have left-over, or what we think we can afford, probably won’t stretch our faith – love, on the other hand, gives sacrificially. If we are not prayerful about our own inner attitudes, we can end up limiting our love and subsequently our giving, because … reason says our need must come first. ‘We need money to pay bills, and school fees, plus we need a bigger car etc. God understands that we can’t afford to give any more than this.” 

This little widow woman in Mark 12 had learnt a great secret. She wasn’t selective in her devotion and she wasn’t just giving to the treasury, she was giving to God Himself. I think that’s why she gave all she had!  Colossians 3:23&24: “Work hard and cheerfully at all you do, just as though you were working for the Lord and not merely for your masters, remembering that it is the Lord Christ who is going to pay you, giving you your full portion of all He owns. He is the one you are really working for.” Your boss does not pay you, now you and I are living this life for Christ, and He gives us our daily bread. Our choice is what are we going to do with it?

In this bible story, God Himself, Jesus Christ, sat on a seat and commented on the way people approached giving. Galatians 5:25 TPT.“If the Spirit is the source of our life, we must also allow the Spirit to direct every aspect of our lives.” That’s a very big word at the beginning of that scripture. IF!! If God Himself is our source, then money – or the lack of it, or even plenty of it – is not the issue. REASON IS. We can end up thinking very hard when we are trying to figure out what is reasonable for us. I think the god of reason is greatly underestimated in the church today. That sneaky little devil knows how to stop us from doing many things by comparing what we do, with others, or using the words ‘fair and reasonable’ all over the place.

We desperately need to live in a place where His LOVE prevails, not reason. If I invest in something or someone else, I just sowed my heart into it.“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,…”Matthew 6:21. Christ invested His whole heart in us, unreservedly. To the point where our own questionable priorities broke His heart … and then He died. If we are not attentively prayerful, we can easily let reason drown out love’s still quiet voice. Bye.👋

““The one who faithfully manages the little he has been given will be promoted and trusted with greater responsibilities. But those who cheat with the little they have been given will not be considered trustworthy to receive more.”Luke 16:10.

P 2693 A new perspective on Giving.

/ DVH

“Give generously and generous gifts will be given back to you, shaken down to make room for more. Abundant gifts will pour out upon you with such an overflowing measure that it will run over the top! The measurement of your generosity becomes the measurement of your return.”” Luke 6:38 TPT.

Hubby and I have seen the truth in this verse, personally. The more we give away stuff – time, money, kindness, love – the more we are given back by God Himself. Then that interaction psychologically helps replenish our potential supply of stuff to give away next time. Meanwhile, we get our motivation to give from the Bible as well as the Holy Spirit. After a while, giving becomes a way of life. The thing is, we need those enlightened eyes I talked about yesterday, so we can notice the return waves of blessings from the Lord. Otherwise it can be too easy to miss whatever He is doing, because we are distracted by the busyness of this life. 

Here is what I’ve learnt over the years, which might help you: God does not always reciprocate in kind. In other words, perhaps you gave away apples, but the Lord may simply give you the strength to be kind in the face of someone else’s nasty disposition. The return wave of blessing, won’t necessarily contain the same thing you sent out. This is yet another opportunity to get to know His Ways even more. We can learn a lot about the Lord by the way He meets our needs, as well as the way He blesses us.

Which is why we need those enlightened eyes! Otherwise we won’t relate one thing to the other and we will miss what He is doing entirely. God gives us what He values, that’s how we get to know His Way of doing things – by taking note of what He values. This works when we are reading the bible, or we are using our enlightened eyes. It’s our generosity toward others that opens that particular flood-gate. He is such a giving God and it makes sense to me that the Lord would want His kids – who are re-presenting HIM – to be that way too. Encouragement is a great form of giving.

We can partially hinder the ever-expanding floodgates of His loving kindness toward us, by missing the blessing of giving. Giving is not just about things or money. He is always giving. In my limited opinion, God’s nature is so beautiful, He cannot help Himself! He gives because it is Who He is. Stepping into living a giving kind of life is one the ways I have found that we can ’taste and see that the Lord is good.” Many times we can pin our thoughts and hopes on Him answering our prayers. We think those things  are the only kind of blessing, but He has a myriad ways to give us Himself – I have even seen Him stretch time.

TIME is the most valuable thing we have …You and I woke up this morning, but some people didn’t!  This means our God has given us another day. Praise Him! That day is filled to the brim with opportunities and possibilities for change. We can choose to fix the things in our lives that are broken — EG:  we can choose to be reconciled, no matter who did what! And we can start dying to self, one step at a time. Dying to self is a process — it starts with taking one deliberate step after another. When our time runs out we won’t be able to do that, anymore. Today, I want to call our attention to the fact that there are so many places we can be generous to others.

So we choose not to give an angry answer – and instead we take charge, and take personal responsibility for a moment – instead of retaliating badly. We choose to say nothing, or give a soft answer instead. I have found nothing diffuses somebody else’s grumpy attitude better than apologising, even if you don’t think whatever it is was your fault! And yes, that means with some people you are always going to be the one who apologises, but this life is not a competition – we lose when we live that way. This life we now lead we lead by faith. We walk in another realm, a realm where giving away undeserved GRACE away flourishes.

Christians are not meant to walk around dishing out judgment. We died with Him, and we are now living a new life, filled with His power to overcome the old ways. When we get into how right we think we are and how wrong the other person is … even if that stuff is only going on in our thoughts, then sadly, we just hit judgment! That junk is going to come out of our mouth, today, tomorrow, a year from now. Judgment, when it is not dealt with, does not have a shelf life – it will pop out of our mouths at the darndest times. But blessing others becomes a way of life.

Leaving judgment to the Lord is another form of giving. We are giving away what He freely gave us. We have a personal responsibility to live like Christ did, and He lived a giving life. If we think about giving as simply sending out money or things, we’ve missed the greater revelation. JESUS LOVED, HE GAVE. Then giving becomes our way of life. Now we love, and we give – no matter what comes back at us. It’s His way to live. I think it is also part of that narrow gate, Jesus mentioned  – be warned …. few find it. 👋

P 2658 The possibilities are endless.

/ DVH

Our ever-present, ongoing motivation, needs to come from an active desire to please God. The body of Christ simply must understand this truth, because that means we will be moved beyond comprehension into action. Acting on what we believe helps our experiences change. We get a HIS-story with Almighty God! And that transforms the way we think. Untested theories will just continue to rattle about in our brain box! Talking about stuff is not the same as doing it. At the same time the Lord can do trillions, if not gazillions of things, all at the same time. Think about that! What happens to us most of the time is this … we let our immediate need overtake His input – and miss opportunities.. 

As we all know, many people ran to the shops during Covid because they didn’t want to run out of toilet paper! Hubby confided in me that it took all his effort to simply buy only what we needed during that time. He was stretching his faith that God would provide for us. It’s the little things that raise our awareness of His Presence in our lives. Even now, a lot of the medicines I take have disappeared from most pharmacies in our area, and we have had to go all over our city to find them. Hilariously, this means we have met a whole lot of people we never would have met, simply because of that shortage! God can do more than one thing at a time. He can open doors I’ve never even thought about!

We need to stop viewing inconveniences as a nuisance sent to put us off our game, and start to see them as possibilities! The Lord may be giving us an opportunity to speak to someone new, someone we wouldn’t have met any other way. This year we’ve had all sorts of important appliances in our house suddenly fall over dead on us. We really needed them, so at the time it was a huge inconvenience. Sometimes it even cost us a lot of money we didn’t have – but at the same time, in ways that continue to amaze us – He supplied our needs. Plus He gave us opportunities to talk with people that we would never have met. If He knows that you will ‘STOP for the one in front of you’ – you will be amazed at where that leads you!

At the same time, because of our disabilities, lately our activities have been greatly restricted, so God brought people to us instead! Many Christians pray to see miracles, when there are opportunities for the miraculous all around us. If something happens to your washing machine, it’s normal to pray that God will fix it, we have done that many, MANY times, but please understand … if that stupid thing stays broken … He’s doing something else.  He can do more than one thing at a time. There is no such thing as the secular bit of our lives, as well as the Holy … we gave our lives to Him, IT’S ALL HOLY NOW.

Remember Philip? Philip was doing something else, and God said, “Go and stand on that road”, and along came a chariot with a spiritually hungry man inside. We know this important man was hungry, because he was trying to read the book of Isaiah all by himself! So here comes Philip minding his own business and God says: “Go and stand beside this road and WAIT.”

We can stand on the side of any road we choose, but what happened to Philip won’t happen to us, unless we are listening to the Lord and He sends us! Acts 8:26-29: “Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”  So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

What if nothing happens when we obey? You’ll feel like an idiot, but you’ll live through it – I have!  I think the Lord is tapping His big microphone – He is saying: “Testing testing 1,2,3…”  Does it really matter if nothing happens? Right now we are daily learning to obey by stretching our faith. Our God can do more than one thing at a time. We need to learn to live our every day lives prepared to be interrupted from our train of thought. Some things are much more important than what often preoccupies us.. 

Here is another biblical example of an interruption with a purpose: Jesus was going with a desperate father to pray for a little girl who was very ill. But an equally desperate woman who had also been ill for many years pressed through the crowd and touched His robe. (Read Mark 5:21-43.) There was a really good excuse not to stop, as that little girl was so sick she eventually died! However, the Lord was arrested by the lady’s faith reaching out. He saw her….I mean He REALLY saw her. We need to learn that interruptions can be possibilities.

In your neighbourhood, that old lady in the next flat, who always wants you to stop and talk, may need His comfort through you. Yes, she’s boring and repetitive, yes she takes up your time – but doesn’t she deserve her chance to know Christ loves her? Hubby and I have seen Him reorder our time for us, over and over again. Our God can change and teach us, plus bless someone else, plus transform our hearts and theirs – all at the same time. The possibilities are endless. 👋 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lays down his life…” John 15:13 KJV

P 2655 Reflections

/ DVH

I have recently come to the conclusion our society is no longer living our lives in a holistic, interactive, interpersonal way anymore. We seem to see sex as the same thing as intimacy, and we have contented ourselves with living this life voyeuristically. What I mean is people are watching other people live their fictional lives on TV or social media pages. 

Even if most of what is read is exaggerated or photoshopped – and whether it is true OR NOT — it is, unfortunately, way too easy to live our lives like peeping toms peeking through life’s windows, and occasionally making clever comments. That’s a very poor use of a beautiful God-given gift – insight. People can get so busy trying to impress each other, that they aren’t living the life they actually have, … enjoying the days God has given us, plus interacting with the people who live around us.  

Many years ago, hubby and I were blessed to travel to many other parts of this world. I became so obsessed with taking photos for our memories back home, that in the end … I was looking at all that glorious once-in-a-lifetime scenery through a view finder. The Lord whispered to my heart: “Look UP. You are really here. Enjoy the sun on your face, enjoy the people around you. Enjoy the atmosphere. You can’t live your life through a view finder!” Hilariously, that whole thing had a fascinating ending … we hardly ever looked at those photos when we got home! 

You and I only have now … even the next minute may not be ours. All over this world human beings have died while I am taking the time to type this. Humanity seems to have become quite shallow parodies of who we can really be. Only standing up to demand things, and complain about what we want. We protest, instead of finding ways to contribute! We were made for finer things.

But although we can now plumb the depths of our oceans with clever, specially made vehicles, we can’t plumb the depths of our own souls! Apparently hurting people aren’t very interesting or popular — so most of us have learnt to hide what is really happening inside, where we actually live — because we need to present a successful happy face to the world around us. We’ve stopped participating and now we live our lives spectating. The only thing that can tempt us to participate is MORE MONEY.

This faith life we have been given is to be lived, enjoyed, savoured – not dissected or commented upon. As Christians we will miss the best bits if we don’t appreciate what we have right now. It is in front of us. We all need to turn off our critical responses and start looking for what is good about things and how can I help? I don’t need to be famous to help, I just need to get off my butt and do something.

There are times when we spend our precious time discussing other people and their faults, and pulling them apart with words. If we are clever enough we can make you laugh, and feel bad, all at the same time!! We dissect other people like frogs in a laboratory … but our spiritual eyes are so blind that we cannot see that other people have pain that is beyond their words, and outward appearances. Thank God for our Saviour Who sees beyond our posturing and pretence, right into our hearts.  …“Then we cried out, “Lord, help us! Rescue us!” And He did! His light broke through the darkness and He led us out in freedom from death’s dark shadow and snapped every one of our chains.”  Psalms 107:13-14.

Thank God for Jesus! He specifically came here to show us another way to live. Despite this world’s cynicism, and the need for the next thing or fad to amuse us – we have the power to choose to change and BE changed. We can control our own destiny, by participating in what is good, right and profitable. We simply must deliberately choose to put down all that stuff that is often simply this life’s pollution, destroying the beauty of who we can be. You and I are the pinnacle of God’s creation! I don’t care if you have 5 billion dollars or I have one dollar to my name, we all have the capacity to grow and contribute to this world, even in our old age.  

However, we cannot help others if we present them with a specially crafted front – a parody of real faith. To witness to others, we need to be real. So if we aren’t coping, then we need to tell someone. Pray! Ask for the Lord’s help. Life is a process and nobody is perfected yet!  Lastly, as we live our lives, we cannot afford to live with a skewed reality. That’s the way this world currently lives.  Let’s live this life, the only one we have (!!) … knowing that even our scars can tell wonderful stories about our Saviour. Bye. 👋

P 2639 The hardest thing for a parent to do …

/ DVH

…is to love their grown up child, and hate their kid’s sin. As we all know, little kids are a lot of work, nappies, feeding, tantrums, cuddles, sleeping  – all that stuff is hard physically and mentally. It’s a demanding time. But – the hardest days are ahead — teaching your older kids to obey a God they cannot see is much harder. Unless they are prepared to read His book. 

Every bad habit you ever had or saw in yourself, can start to come out back at you, in their behaviour. As the maturing child grows you might end up judging your own investment in their lives, and feel like you fell short. Years of teaching, talking, redirecting, unselfishness and sacrifice are often forgotten. So when that older kid flops its big toe across the line and stares you right in the eye … while they are living without the Lord, and they refuse to change … that stuff is utterly devastating.

Some kids are so adept at getting what they want, they know exactly what buttons to press. In those moments we need to be careful. We can’t afford to come into agreement with a way of life that is out of agreement with God’s ways. Yet you can be so tempted to agree because you love your kid!

I know a little bit about this subject. Our kids are all now fully-mature functioning adults with grown-up kids of their own. But one of my adult children doesn’t walk with Jesus and they live somewhere else. Let me be very clear – I still miss that kid in my life. The pain from the semi-estrangement can be so hard I choose to refuse to think about it. Because I know that I can get caught up in the details of my own failure, and end up in blame and guilt. I second-guess my much earlier decisions and blame myself for the adult child’s wrong decisions.

Praise Jesus, I’ve learnt to hand this kind of situation over to Him and say: “I failed! Your turn!” The hardest thing for a parent to do is to keep on praying … but walk away. As a parent, you can throw His love over their fence – figuratively – as the Lord leads you, but don’t be tempted to try to change them. Let them come to you. And when and if they repent, do wait to see the fruit of their repentance. Refuse to be blackmailed by sad sack faces, and pleas of ‘it will be different this time, I promise.’  We cannot afford to let torment and guilt drag us around by the heart, we need to be led by HIS LOVE – which never ceases, but has boundaries.

The verse from yesterday really spoke to me: “…they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” Romans 1:32. I have dear friends whose adult kids are living in terrible life-styles, far away from the Lord. Of course they love their kids and hate to disapprove of them, however these grown up kids are light years away from that little child we can still see! Unfortunately, when your kids don’t follow the Lord, blame can follow you around like a rottweiler! It’s ready to grab and bite your ankles and drag you under. The devil is not satisfied with just tormenting you, hurting your kid and hurting you through your kid, he wants to destroy your faith as well.

An adult kid still knows how to get at you – manipulation is often its middle name! It can wind you around its little finger. Sadly, it doesn’t care about right and wrong, it will try every which way to drag your approval out of you. Even when it is clear to everyone else that the way that kid is living is not helping them! Christian parents can get sucked into the vortex of throwing love, lifelines and even money at wayward adult children in the hope that somehow that will convince them that the parent loves them and so does God. The raw truth is – when we do that, we are approving of, and feeding the very behaviour that needs change. 

The thing to do is to make your position, lovingly and clearly, and maybe say stuff like this: “ I am not rejecting you – you are bigger than this sinful lifestyle. I love you, I always will, I will always feed you if you are hungry. But what you are doing, the way you are living, is wrong, and I will not invest my approval, finances, and energy to help you go the WRONG WAY. I will not help you to go to hell!” Parenting is not for the faint-hearted. And sadly our society approves of everything! There is enormous pressure on parents. However, God loves them more than you do. Step out of His way. 

Only you know the maturity of your child. For some kids this relinquishment of responsibility might have to happen earlier rather than later. Don’t EVER stop loving them, but don’t dive in with them and let them run the show when they are clearly living sinful lives. Hold fast to your faith that God hears and He will deliver them. May the Lord give you grace to stand up against the devil’s onslaught. Amen. 🥲

P 2626 What are we investing in?

/ DVH

If we actually happen to have any spare money today, what do we do with it? Some people like to invest it in stuff like blue chip bonds or some such. Me? Not-so-much! I do, however believe in banking, but that’s because I was in the ark!! (I was one of those two donkeys, in case you were wondering.) 

Seriously, 65 years ago I had a Comm Bank tin kid’s bank, (It was an ugly thing!) which they eventually replaced with an ever-so-slightly more aesthetic yellow plastic piggy bank. This meant that we learnt about banking at school. Some of us took money to school, and the Comm bank representative came around to collect it and mark it in our little passbooks. That was useful stuff to learn. Mo-ving on …

Matthew 13:44,45,46 says: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

Just to make sure we are all on the same page, I would like to start out by saying that, yes, we did talk about this scripture a couple of days ago. But then I read it again… and saw something else! So here we go again … hang in there with me please? 😊

What I noticed first of all was that this man was observant. He wasn’t just wandering about not paying attention to what went on around him. He saw something nobody else saw, and he went after it.  After he saw an item he truly wanted, he invested physically in it. He actually went and dug up the treasure … which was no small feat. That means, he assessed the treasure’s value and decided it was worth all that effort. You know, sometimes this life turns on a pin! For this guy it turned on how observant he was, and whether he was prepared to do more than look. 

After he discovered what he had, he physically covered it up again, and then he deliberately went bought the field. Ya might want to think on that… 🤔  And finally, he went back and dug the treasure up again. The last thing this guy did was he invested in what he found, financially … The bible says ‘he sold everything he had.’ That’s a big deal! Imagine selling everything you have for just ONE THING. This guy did! He invested emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually — and the bible said it gave the man JOY to do it!

We both know, that Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God, so this parable is not just about an exciting treasure- hunting story. The important part was that this man invested everything in what he found, not just his money. Obviously he thought it was worth it all. That concept made me think too. I came up with a few questions for all of us, to think about today.

Has the kingdom of God cost you and I everything? Yeah, bring that up!! 🙄 Seriously, what has changed in, and about our lives because we have invested in His kingdom? That man’s life radically changed. He made a commitment to what he found. So much so, if that treasure wasn’t what he thought it was, then he had just ruined his entire life. That thought should stop all of us in our tracks. How have our lives changed since we entered the kingdom of God?

How have I responded to it? What kind of investment have I made in it? Was there a big fuss initially, but then that subsided into a routine? Things like bible study Tuesday, prayer group Wednesday, Church on Sunday, joining the choir, fellowship suppers… etc. You know, that doesn’t sound much like what this man did. This does not sound like a hobby, or club to me. This man knew treasure when he found it and he did not hesitate, instead he gave it everything he had! How much is the kingdom of God worth to me? Do I go out of my way to participate in it? Do I give to it, so it can prosper? Is it my first thought in the morning and my last one at night?

Am I so devoted to it that my thoughts go to it during the day?  What are we actually investing our day to day lives IN?  We can easily think of investments as being about money, financial deals etc. But our investment into the Pearl of Great Price, is not meant to be a passing fad or a funding exercise… Or maybe a free ticket to heaven…. or even a promise of better days to come!  Jesus is telling us through this parable that our investment in God’s kingdom will cost us everything. That’s the way His kingdom works. Sooner or later we need to realise, it is a mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual investment and commitment. 

“… if you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come, follow Me.”Matthew 19:22. SEE… it’s costly! Bye 👋