Obedient

P 2449 About the gifts of the Spirit …

/ DVH

“Every believer has received grace gifts, so use them to serve one another as faithful stewards of the many-coloured tapestry of God’s grace.”1 Peter 4:10 TPT. I have gifts that were given to me, so do you. The point is — what are we doing with them? Peter is telling us to use our gifts for others, they are not for our own self-serving purposes. When we use those gifts the right way, people don’t see US — they see Jesus! That tapestry we are all weaving reveals the Lord Himself.

I don’t have God-given gifts to help me feel better about myself, or to help make me important to my church. No. Those gifts are for others, they keep me humble and obedient to God’s Word. Because Jesus Christ died for me I have an opportunity to live and die for Him. Jesus means everything to our Father, and that means He gave up everything to purchase my life, by His Own dear Son’s death. He did it for all of us because He loves us that much. What a glorious generous Father we have!

Christ’s death and subsequent resurrection is the place we need to build our life on— that is the heavenly reality and we are to live this life making it part of our earthly reality. We don’t build our lives on gifts, or fame — but on Christ and what He did for us. That way the storms of this life will not be able to knock us down. Building on sand means I am building on the things of this world, and they will pass away. But when I build on what Christ did for us, that will stand forever!

Let’s look at Isaiah 11:2&3 – He’s talking about Jesus Christ: “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on HIM—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and He will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what He sees with His eyes or decide by what He hears with His ears;…” 

We can see these words in action in the Gospels, in Christ. He was so wise and so dedicated to His Father’s will. When Jesus dealt with a woman who was adulterous, He did not decide by what He saw or heard from others – He listened to the Spirit. The Spirit of God knows what is in the heart of a man and only He has the wisdom to see through the things human beings stumble over. Jesus walked with the Spirit of God, in Wisdom, so He didn’t give permission for this woman to continue in sin, or tell her she couldn’t help it, He gave her forgiveness and a new beginning.

Today I am talking about spiritual gifts… and you could ask, what am I doing in Isaiah? Everyone knows that spiritual gifts are a New Testament concept! They are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10. And …Romans 12:3-8! Yes, they are;  but Isaiah is pointing us to the One Who was coming, long before He came. He is our example in life and death. Our Leader. He is the illustration of God’s purpose in the Holy Spirit’s Presence in this world. Jesus is the One Who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. As we follow Him, and grow to be like Him, the gifts will follow us.

Before Christ died – the Holy Spirit came and rested on various people at various times for different purposes. However, He was not sent to just anyone … He came for a purpose. Isaiah describes Christ and His ministry, long before Jesus left heaven and came here. This Old Testament prophet is making it clear where the gifts we have today, came from… They came from the One Who was sent back to help us – the Holy Spirit … the Spirit of the Lord … That is the place to start when we think about spiritual gifts. We look at Jesus Who is our example. We don’t covet gifts simply for our needs or to feel important, instead we covet the Presence of the GIVER, like Christ did.

Jesus healed the sick, He raised the dead, He cast out demons. All this and more happened because of the Holy Spirit’s guidance and Presence within Him. Jesus Christ loved the Holy Spirit more than people. Whenever He chose what to do, He chose according to the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Even His brothers and mother could not sway Him from obeying the Spirit. Currying favour with other people can be a stumbling block in our walk with the Holy Spirit, and we need to love His Presence more than anything, or anyone else. Humility is His favourite language. 

We can spend way too much time concentrating on ‘what gift is mine,’ and not enough time focussing on the Giver! And sometimes we can even let those gifts make us seem important. But Jesus Christ cherished the Holy Spirit’s company, and that’s the way we are to walk with Him too. God’s grace manifests itself toward others through those gifts. Because of the Holy Spirit’s Presence, they flow into us … and they  flow out through us. The gifts are not a lake, they are a RIVER. The flow is more important than the results.

To operate in the gifts of God we need to be intimately acquainted with the Holy Spirit in us. He is the same Spirit Who lived in Christ. Now He moves through us, as we actively learn to co-operate with Him. It is His power that empowers us to do what we do for the building up of the saints, and the releasing of God’s Grace into this world. BTW, the Holy Spirit will be friends with ANYONE who is prepared to obey and cherish Him. Don’t seek the gifts, seek the GIVER. – the gifts will find you!  Bye. 👋🏻

P 2424 This is His way.

/ DVH

“So I kneel humbly in awe before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the perfect Father of every father and child in heaven and on the earth. And I pray that He would unveil within you the unlimited riches of His glory and favour until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His divine might and explosive power.Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of His love will become the very source and root of your life. 

Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is His love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!” Ephesians 3:14-19 TPT.

We don’t do the things that Jesus did or the things He asks us to do simply because He needs our hands and feet. We are not His robots, or even His portable advertising!  Christians do what they do to be obedient and their obedience expresses their loving devotion to Him. But at the same time the more we walk with Him in that obedience, the more we will see and experience His incredible Love for us. This is the very heart of these wonderful verses in Ephesians 3.

His love for us, as well as in us, these things are the riches we’ve been promised. Forget gold, silver and precious stones, His love is beyond price! And His Loving heart is toward us. He is like that King, Ahasuerus, who adored his wife, so he held out his sceptre toward Esther even when she  disobeyed the rules of his kingdom. God’s heart reaches toward us, to relieve us of our burdens and to help us with life’s difficulties. There are days when others do not like me or my company, but those days, those feelings, don’t reflect Him. Nothing will alter His love toward me. That is a huge gift. In those moments, I simply must believe what He says, not how I feel.

Years ago on ancient TV in the 1950s, we had an ad in this country for a man’s hair product, called Brylcreem. Its motto was “a little dab’ll do ya.” Father God’s love is NOT like Brylcreem! It is not mingy, or space-saving or economical! Christ’s sacrificial love sustains this universe and beyond. Despite what the scientists say, if God withdrew His loving favour from mankind the stars would fall out of the sky. Read the book of Revelation! You will see written there what happens when His boundless Love is withdrawn from the earth. His love is the incredibly powerful force that holds this world, including us, together.

The more we use our faith by being obedient, the more His love expands within us, until it becomes the very centre of our lives. Slowly His love transforms and replaces any imperfect human love we have that may have done damage to our hearts. Some of our responses are not sin – pain causes reactions too. However, the knowledge of His love is expanded in our hearts as we watch Him touch other people’s lives through us. 

While we were away this time, because of a series of God-ordained events, we managed to give an older cleaning lady a keychain. Her face seemed hardened by age and life, she was tiny but she looked tough. Scary even! But the Lord said to bless her, so we did. And the most amazing thing happened. Her face cracked open, and she looked just like a happy little child. Transformation happened right in front of our eyes. She danced up and down on the spot. This keychain was the most delicate one I have ever made. I probably would not have given her that particular one – my own judgment of how she looked would have gotten in the way! 

None of us know how hardened anyone else can become inside and out, because this life can deal each one of us terrible blows. In order to go on, human beings put on protective armour. That armour often changes our outward appearance, and at the same time it can alter what comes out of our mouths! Just like a barking dog that is scared of a stranger – we can become vicious and mean. But Father God’s love goes right around our disguises and touches hearts. Then we have the privilege of seeing someone else the way He designed them, that utterly transforms both parties, and opens their eyes to new possibilities. 

The bible says:  “perfect love casts out all fear…” The reality is, if we are afraid, it is not enough to just know this verse, that’s simply words. We need to know the heart of the One Who is speaking love over us. Watching Him work in the lives of the people around us opens our eyes to how incredible His love is. It seems upside down to think that in order to get love, we will have to give away Love. But that is His Way. It’s the way of faith. His way forward is for us to learn LOVE. 👋🏻

P 2381 Out with the old and in with the new.

/ DVH

“Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at Him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new.The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and Him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.”

“God put the world square with Himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what He is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses US to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ Himself now: Become friends with God; He’s already a friend with you.”

I think the above scripture from 2 Corinthians 5:17 in the Message bible version is a pip … it’s the bomb! Meanwhile, those Message translators managed to get a whole lot of words out of a single medium-sized sentence in the King James. I think this very large translation is one of the very best versions of the gospel there is, and it is worth knowing and remembering what it says. It’s a fantastic summary of what happens when someone is changed by meeting Christ.

This new life we have now is not one of ticks and crosses. ✔️Tick, this is good behaviour, ❌cross, this is bad behaviour. This new life is an attitude of the heart followed by obedient, appropriately God-ordained actions. That’s why we need to take the time to get to know the Holy Spirit. He is our God-appointed Leader and Guide, as well as our Helper. After all, Jesus deliberately went away so the Holy Spirit could come here, so that ought to tell us something!  The Holy Spirit can be everywhere, with everyone, all at once …

The place this fantastic system falls down is on our watch. At this moment in His-tory WE are the only messengers of this gospel. Isn’t it amazing that God should trust you and I to be the people to tell everyone around us what happened in our life when we met Him? We can drag miserable, grumpy Aunt Minnie, to a thousand church meetings, but unless the Holy Spirit kisses that time — she will judge Christianity by the way we treat her. And that, my friend is a very sobering thought. One we should not take lightly.

We can pray: “Dear Jesus please save grouchy Aunt Minnie, Amen.” And then go away and think that we’ve done all we can to expose her to the gospel – because we prayed, and she’s so difficult and dangerous – just saying ‘hello’ is like running with the bulls in Pamploma! Some people are so nasty it is definitely a risk to life and limb just to get into their cage with them! So we blindly go along trying hard to be nice to her whenever we can, but she’s truly such a grouch it is almost impossible. However, this means we are basically leaving the responsibility we have to be Jesus to her … behind – and we are denying the power of His Word. No faith in that! I also think it is good to focus on the fact that tolerating Aunt Minnie is not the same as loving her. Holding in 4,000+ biting words when she rails on you isn’t either. I’m just saying … !!!

Because we are now in the process of being transformed, that life-style choice means someone who used to see grumpy Aunt Minnie as a matter of familial responsibility, now sees her as God’s gift in their life to give them opportunities for their transformation. After all, we have been told that Jesus loved the cross, He regarded it as a joy, because He saw what the result of the cross would be for this world. We need to learn to love the Auntie Minnies etc. in our lives, because they are now our personal tutors into His kingdom. It is incredibly easily for people like this to diagnose, and disclose our ugly hidden side.

In that process I will discover that the difference between Auntie Min and me, is that she is honestly horrid … however I think, and probably hope that I am not! The reality is, I just know how to hide my horrid far better than she does. Auntie M is actually my new best friend, and she comes complete with active provocation and mega annoyance. I don’t have to like her behaviour, but I must learn from my response to her behaviour, or my new life in Him will cease to flourish.

The Holy Spirit will use Auntie Minnie to show me sides of myself I never knew were there. But that only happens if I stop excusing myself and accusing her! So, because the gospel is always the issue … here’s a knotty question —  if your life was a gospel tract on witnessing what would it say? “I got saved, and now I have a Saviour Who answers my prayers?” Hmmm. A truly transformed and changed life is a powerful thing. 

It is time for us to take off the self-protective glasses and learn who we really are, so we can love the people who have been even more badly hurt than we have … and at the same time we need to pay attention to our responses and reactions so we can cultivate our new nature by walking with Him. 👋🏻

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20

P 2342 Learning to catch the wind.

/ DVH

This morning I thought about three different scriptures I’ve read recently that touched my heart … but none of them seemed right for today’s blog. Some days I have no idea what I want to write about. So it was utterly amazing that I came up with three extremely different things on the same day! You’d think that gave me heaps of choices… but NO! … not one of them seemed right. In the end I gave up trying to bam a square peg into a round hole and wrote this instead.😂 

We can get so intensely fixated upon a task that we forget: “His yoke is easy and His burden is light.” My immediate response to that thought is – if it ain’t easy then it ain’t God! And today, with those three different thoughts, none of them were simply right for now! We are not bull-dozers, we follow the wind. His Presence is in that task, and He lifts the weight or the burden for us. 

Today I want to talk about the similarities between writing this blog and witnessing. Facing a blank page is daunting, knowing that tomorrow total strangers are going to read it, and hopefully understand what you have written. And facing a total stranger and talking about your faith is also very challenging. You feel you must get it right or you will fail the Lord, and mislead that person so badly you will put them off Jesus forever. 😱No pressure of course!!  But that moment also clearly diagnoses that we are trying hard again. We do what we do because we love people, there is no pressure.

So here’s what today’s lesson showed me – when I feel the weight of responsibility to get whatever I am doing right – then I need to back up and …WAIT. I am waiting for Him to prompt me, or until I see an opening I can drive a Mac truck through. I’m waiting for HIM, I’m not waiting for feelings, I’m waiting for some sort of clarity. Sometimes that could be just one word so I go with that. I could look at someone and see anger, or sadness, and I ask them how they have been doing lately. These things, unfold, sometimes one sentence at a time.

Meanwhile, I figure things like witnessing probably will be scary because I am dying to my carefully cultivated life of self-preservation!! In these past few months I’ve noticed an opportunity to talk about what I know about Him, with strangers, a number of times. Those people asked me questions. I like that, it seems way easier than being obedient when He asks me to bring up something He gives me to say.  At those more difficult times I have a clear choice to obey or not …and I don’t always make the right one! Just being truthful …😶

Witnessing is not a rigid thing, it is fluid. In the past few weeks, practitioners in the health profession have asked me what I write about in this blog. I figure they are checking me out, since I fell downstairs quite badly, and they want to make sure my marbles aren’t scrambled, or broken or lost! The first time I simply told the person that it is a Christian blog and then they asked all kinds of questions, and I answered them as clearly and carefully as I could. We had a lovely talk together, and then we went back to my health again. The next time the new person asked exactly the same question and I thought ‘here we go again!’  Except we didn’t. They said “Oh, OK,” and they went straight back to asking health questions.

‘There is no system.’  Seriously, witnessing is a ‘fly by the seat of your pants, always relying on the Holy Spirit’  kind of thing. The Lord is always in charge, and right after His leading, comes the other person’s curiosity. Our job is to remain a safe place for them to ask questions. We are planting seeds, not restructuring their lives! Be prepared to stop in the middle of the most intriguing opportunity ever, to let the whole conversation slide. Even though you might badly wanna shout: “Dag-nab-it we were nearly there!!” We must leave it to Him to turn that conversation around again – if He wants to.

The Holy Spirit is gentle, HE Leads, He does not push – so no shoving please. He is the wind, we are just weather vanes turning to and fro as He blows on us. That’s all for today, maybe I will write about those three things I mentioned another time. Who knows, I’m just trying to catch the wind.👋🏻

P 2317 The power is IN the One Who rescued us.

/ DVH

“He has rescued us completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom realm of His beloved Son. For in the Son all our sins are canceled and we have the release of redemption through His very blood.” Colossians 1:13-14 TPT

THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH BUT…” the free gift of God is eternal life IN Christ Jesus.“ His power released into our lives brings transformation.

If we want to get ‘paid,’ or ‘rewarded’ for having faith;  OR if we view having faith in Him as doing God a favour;  or even if we expect immediate answers to our prayers, or our difficulties fixed, or lifestyle choices magically changed …. then that kind of faith ends in death. That way of thinking will kill off real faith faster than weed killer on a weed. Instead of expecting God to fit in with us and accommodate us… we must learn how to fit in with Him! 

We really must stop anxiously looking for answers to unanswered prayer as proof that He loves us, and start looking for what He IS actually doing – and join in. Right here, right now. Personally, I think we simply can’t have God AND …

… God and a happy carefree life — God and beautiful always obedient children — God and a lovely home/car/job etc. —God and plenty of money to spend — God and the right mate—God and no trials. If you or I do have these things then they are a gift. My advice is share them with others and don’t hold on to anything too tightly. Holding on to stuff is a trap. Always remember that Father God is not content to be an add-in or add-on. His kingdom coming is His first priority.

WHY?  Because HE is God and we are not. We must LET the WORD of God become flesh in us.

Living our lives IN Christ Jesus is not an optional extra. The biggest sin the Israelites committed in the Old Testament was they wanted a god they could manage.  We need to beware of the trap of carelessness and selfishness. It is so easily tip over into expecting our lives to always be carefree and care less. 

The joy of the Lord IS our strength but that joy comes from knowing HIM, not getting what we want. We are now His obedient kids, not spoilt pouty brats! It is up to us to learn His Ways and live like Jesus would, or salvation has not achieved everything the Lord wants to accomplish in us, and through us. 

Our Heavenly Father punished Adam and Eve for eating that forbidden fruit. Then He went on to punish HIS ONLY one-of-a-kind-dearly-beloved-Son for OUR SINS! The cost paid is a huge indication of how important it is to now live our lives His WAY. If that doesn’t make our knees knock together – what will?

We need the reverential fear of the Lord back. We lost it in the touchy feely 90’s and we have not picked it up again.

We’ve been sold a big bag of hot air that is not substantiated in the book. He is absolutely our Father, but He does not ignore sin. And He is not an optional extra, add-on insurance policy .. after-death-cover.  If we think we truly want to know Who God is, then we must first face who we really are. 

We are not sort-of-kind-of nice people who maybe made a mistake but-we-know-better-now people! We are sinners saved by Grace. Grace that cost the Lord His life. We need this kind of balance because true gratitude will lead us away from self-centredness into a lifetime of service. The power to overcome lies in our day to day choices. All we need to be overcomers has been given to us – it is IN HIM. Doing what He would do, going where He would go.👋🏻

P 2284 The undiscovered Person.

/ DVH

Our greatest quest in this new life of learning love is to know the Author of Love intimately. Sometimes, we can focus too much on what we can gain from Him and not enough on Who He is. He is the elusive, but always present, playful Father that some of us always wish we had had IRL. 

We can read the bible with a serious tone of mind or we can read it looking for the God Who has a twinkle in His eye and loves to walk and talk with the man and the woman He made, in the cool of the evening. I think that if we think God is no fun, we are seriously mistaken. 

Right now I’m thinking about Jesus and all the times that His pure theology bumped into the disciples’ squirrelled up theology. He sends them out two by two tells, them to take nothing with them – imagine doing that that with a missionary (!) – tells them to heal the sick and raise the dead, and on the strength of His word, they did it. And oh happy day, it worked!

They came back with a great report  only to fall in the hole of exclusivity, comparison and revenge shortly thereafter. I believe these events were fuelled by His power, because these men were obedient to what Jesus told them to do. And I think obedience carries a lot of weight with God. BUT …the time was coming when these men were to be filled with the very power and life of the precious Holy Spirit, the One Who raises us all from the dead. And they had a heart transplant … on the spot! Hard heart out – soft heart in!

That doesn’t mean they still didn’t make mistakes, they were still human, but the Holy Spirit’s presence became so vital, so important to these men that they knew that without Him they were nothing, but with Him, anything was possible. 

I love the playfulness of God, in His encounters with mankind. In Acts, Eutychus is so bored by Paul’s sermon … pause and think on that … that he fell out of the window, bored into sleep, stone dead, and Paul had to go downstairs to raise him up again! Hopefully, the brief trip to heaven changed him so he wasn’t bored anymore! There would be a whole lot of dead bored people in our churches if we applied that particular scripture today. 😂

What about Peter, who was so passionately outspoken, he was beaten and thrown in jail. And this mighty man of God, full of paste and flour, could not believe that the angel standing in front of him was setting him free! He thought he was dreaming. And back where everyone was fervently praying for his release, when he banged on the door – those guys were so filled with faith they thought he was a ghost!

These people who followed the Lord and His instructions all of the days of their lives were so changed by their walk with the Person of the Holy Spirit, that they didn’t only meet the Him, they chose every opportunity to know His ways. I believe the Holy Spirit is hidden from us for a reason. His insight, wisdom and love offer us a doorway into a different way to see this life.

When Paul met Him, He knocked him to the ground, blind. Suddenly this man’s outward condition mirrored his inward one. Paul was full of religious zeal and fervour. Ripe and ready to kill more Christians, when an encounter with the Ever-Living One bashed the wind out of his sails. Suddenly, this man who knew the law so brilliantly, is following a Voice. That happy encounter instantly showed him the difference between theory and REALITY. He saw everything he had been zealously following, in a totally different light. 

That’s my prayer for anyone who reads this blog, that God would blow away all our neatly constructed boxes and introduce us to His wider, ever-expanding, always delightful kingdom, and blow our puny minds, so that we are forever changed. I think my voice on this blog is one of so many all over the world. There are thousands of men, women and children that the Lord has working for Him. They push on the edges of our boxes, and He stands playfully right there – at the very edge of where that box used to be, and says, “Come and follow Me, I will make you fishers of men.”

Abram followed God’s leading to a Promised Land. That journey totally changed his life, his family, his name, and his future – I pray that the Holy Spirit will so impact every single person who reads here that they will also begin a journey to discover Who He is and what He has in store for each one of us. This undiscovered Person IS OUR PROMISED LAND! 🤗 Amen.

P 2237 Becoming like Jesus is meant to be costly.

/ DVH

Philippians 2:5-11 “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,… 

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,  in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Jesus is our example.The bible tells us that He had a singular mindset. He had a job to do and He did it. Even though He IS God, He did not use that fact to His own advantage. Imagine that. He had a special place with Almighty God’s favour and He did not use it to benefit Himself. Wow. That sure turns some theology on its head eh? Not only did He centre His thoughts on His Father’s agenda for His life, and subsequent death, Christ actively made Himself nothing. Some people around Him at that time were so unimpressed by Him that they could not accept who He was … because His Facebook page was not well liked. He only had 12 followers!

God Himself becoming a man is HUGE. Then Jesus topped that by serving us while He was here, and after He left! I get annoyed at people who take what the Lord did and use it to try and nag Him to give them this that or the other. How can we call ourselves His followers when we are looking for some benefit or angle? We are here to serve, both the Lord as well as each other – anything else is classified as… ‘all these things shall be added unto you …!’ 

But first, comes the kingdom. The Christian life is about focus. Every now and then we all need a reality check, what is our central focus? Devotion to Christ and His words – or –  whatever will be to my advantage? Christianity is not a gimme club. It is a conscious conviction and choice that this life is not all there is, so we choose to use our time here to do the things we’ve personally been assigned, to further His kingdom. Whatever that looks like, wherever you happen to be. 

In the past 8 days His love looked like my husband cooking all the meals, and driving 1500 kms with a sore hand. Unfortunately I was unwell for most of the time we were away, I am still wrangling with my health now, so I was no help to him. He did all of it so gladly without complaining. Plus he did stuff like loading up the car, then unloading it. 

He has to help me with showers – showers are often the wrong shape for someone like me – climbing into a bath to take a shower is like climbing Mt. Everest – forget about how slippery it is! He prepares all the food, we do not eat the same things, so he prepares 2 meals for every single meal. He got up at least twice during the night for 5 nights in a row to get cold packs for my vastly overheated face. Yet he STILL stopped for the one in front of us over and over again, as the Lord led us. My hubby is my inspiration. He has visibly taught me to love others in a sacrificial fashion because of his daily efforts to facilitate my life. 

In our time away we gave away 386 things, in 6 days – I was so unwell for 2 other days he had to look after me. Those thing included 285 bibles, 21 bookmarks, plus three $30 supermarket cards, 4 thank you cards with $5 for coffee for the maids and cleaners. We spoke to people in caravan parks, motels, as well as a women’s refuge, and a shelter for the homeless. We left at least three people who had never ever read the bible before, with a bible and they said they were going to read it right away. I wonder if we realise that it is not easy for non-Christians to find a bible in today’s society. Even if the person went looking for one there are too many other things to distract them!

Hubby also gave away 9 of his paintings. The recipients cried. Some of them had tears dripping off their faces, and others started to cry the minute he began to speak. We also gave 12 prophetic words to totally unchurched people. I said all that to finally say this – if we do not go – who will tell them? Jesus humbled Himself, and became a man just like us, to give us the power to humble ourselves and become like Him. You won’t find a finer destiny than that one. 👋🏻

P 2209 Easter is an invitation to transformation.

/ DVH

Like I said yesterday, rest and faith are essential parts of a Christian’s walk with the Lord. The Israelites missed their opportunity to live that way – because they preferred to complain about, and critique His provisions, plus they demanded their own way. Bad move. My advice is this:  when the food falls out of the sky, and your clothes and shoes don’t wear out, plus nobody gets sick for 40 years – give thanks, and follow the Leader!  (Read Deuteronomy.)

The bible talks about resting in what Jesus has done for us in Hebrews chapters 3&4. Our rest in what He did begins the very moment we ask Jesus to be our Lord and Saviour. His active Presence in our lives guarantees change. We can now rely upon the fact that our sins have been washed away by His life’s blood. Now we’ve started to live a new life, using our faith that what Christ said He did at Calvary – He did. And that door flew open for everyone. Knowing Him personally, and walking with Him, is the door into peace, rest and a brand new way to live this life we have right here and now. Christ gave us the ability – the power –  but He also gives us a choice whether to follow Him… or not.

Now we live our lives believing that what He did on the cross was utterly comprehensive. It covered our past sins, present sins and even those stupid things we haven’t done yet! Why would the Lord Jesus do such a thing? … It sounds like we have carte blanche to be able to do whatever we like – and indulge our base natures? (Paul talks about this extensively in Romans.) The thing is: sin is dangerous. It is like quick sand, it sucks you in and drags you down. When I look after myself, and I don’t care about you, and how much living like this hurts you – that’s sin. When I live by the rules and I don’t use my faith, every day, to obey Him – that’s sin!

When Christ died, He paid the ultimate price for every human being’s forgiveness. And after He returned to heaven, He sent back the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Person Who helped Christ to walk out His earthly life in purity, holiness, and passionate devotion to His Father. He will help us to live that way too, in exactly the same way He helped Jesus. Now, we do what is Godly by following Him and using our faith. Second by second, minute by minute. We simply need to be obedient to what He asks us to do, in our hearts – and in the book. The power to overcome anything, including our own sinful habits and attitudes, was released that day long ago, at the cross. Now, we can participate in that power in the same way we received salvation – using our faith.

Sadly, many Christians want Jesus to save them, but they reject His daily government, and consequently their lives are now devoted to keeping rules. Rules are easier to follow – you can write them down or look them up! But the bible is not a set of rules, it is a personal invitation to know God and live this life, right here and now, His way. It is an invitation into a relationship. You cannot regulate a real loving relationship, instead you have to live it out, by making hard choices, and you do that … day by day. FEAR keeps more people out of that freedom than anything else.

As Easter draws near, we celebrate the fact that Jesus not only died in our place – He came out of that grave and personally illustrated that a new life walking in His Ways is available to us. That new life transforms His people  from the inside OUT. You can’t kill human beings. Our bodies die, but the real person, inside, lives forever. We choose where we will live after we die by the way we live this life, here and now. Christ made an exchange, His life for ours. Every day we live out that exchange by making the sort of choices Jesus would make … living this life for Him, here and now. 

Father God has asked us to be obedient and pay attention to what He wrote in the bible. Just like the Israelites in the wilderness, we have a choice. We can do things His way – or continue to walk round and round going nowhere – wasting the time He has given us. As we walk with Him – His way, we will be transformed. Now we can join in with whatever He is doing, because Jesus is working all over this earth, today – through us.

None of us can claim that we are powerless to change any longer – because the power to change came into this world when the Holy Spirit came into this world at Pentecost. He’s here … and He’s here to help us overcome!  Transformation is the only way ahead. 👋🏻