Offence

P 3270 The impossible is easy for the Lord …

/ DVH

but it is also very challenging to our faith. In the gospel  of Mark 2:1-12, some men tore off a house-roof so they could lower down a paralytic friend in front of Jesus…. Did you get that? They tore up some poor guy’s roof! This hospitable family man offers his home for a meeting and that’s the thanks he gets?! I suppose the man could have used the resulting hole for a skylight…? !

The details we are given in the Word make this story extraordinary. Mainly because I don’t imagine digging a hole in any kind of roof would be easy. But these men were so devoted to their friend, in their desire to get him to Jesus, that they would have done anything. Meanwhile nobody seemed to care too much about what the occupant of the house thought when they burrowed into his nice little house like gophers either. Why not?! Somebody got healed and they all saw it.

 Are we willing to risk possibly offending people in order to bring someone into the Lord’s Presence? (Remember wherever we go, He goes.) The fear of retaliation or offence is very real in our society. Nowadays if somebody tore off a church roof to get a sick person to Jesus, they’d probably sue them for a replacement roof!  Plus they’d grizzle at them — ‘don’t you know how to use a door?!?’ But these friends were undaunted by societal rules, and motivated by love for their sick friend, instead. I’d like to be a friend like that, and boy would I like to have a friend like that myself!

Jesus didn’t really seem to care who He offended. The Lord did not ever set out to be offensive but if that happened, well, it happened. He didn’t even pause to explain Himself, or His motivation etc … He just moved on. His priority was  His Father’s will. How can we possibly imagine how incredibly difficult it must have been for Him to carry out the Father’s will, even when it included His own suffering and death?  

Not to mention the fact that when it came to the time of His death, Jesus did everything He did, without the comforting Presence of the precious Holy Spirit. He was SomeOne the Lord had always known intimately. It must have been so painful for the Father, and the Spirit stand back and not rescue Jesus from such villainous wickedness. But there was a higher purpose. Meanwhile it is not hard to imagine satan firing mental missiles at Jesus while he was tormenting the Lord inwardly and outwardly on the cross.   

Today I want to remember how very much the Holy Spirit loves to help, comfort, and guide. And yet at that point in history, He had to step away. The Father’s Will could only be accomplished if the Holy Spirit didn’t step in. The Lord Jesus did all that He did for us, so we can be sons and daughters of God!  Otherwise the doors of heaven would have stayed shut to the likes of you and I! Jesus chose to do this so we would never have to be separated from the Holy Spirit’s loving kindness, and wisdom ever again. It stands to reason that His devotion to mankind is so huge – HE WON’T EVER LEAVE US. The Spirit of God loves us the way He loves Christ. Imagine that. He freely shares with us  His life-giving ways. If it is not love, then it is not Him. 

The Spirit of the Living God creatively uses the power of love and grace in ways we cannot imagine, over and over again. To one person He says, “consider Jesus” … to someone else He says: “you have been forgiven” and to another He says: “the Father loves you with an everlasting love.” No matter what the Holy Spirit says: there is always  unimaginable, overwhelming love in it. He chooses to meet some people in their dreams, others while they are reading the bible, or through someone else’s books. He met with me in front of a clothes line! His originality is mind boggling.  

Someone else might say what I just said, in a totally different way, and that is just another example of His incredible creativity. He is also out-of-this-world wise. There are so many ways to describe Who He is and what He does – silently -we can easily lose count! That’s why I love Jesus, we can see in Him the things our natural mind couldn’t possibly make up! And the Lord Jesus totally relied on the Holy Spirit’s help – so should WE.

This is Paul speaking to the Ephesians, about the diversity of the things He has for us. 3:8-12: “To me, the least of all the saints, was given this grace: to proclaim the good news of the fathomless riches of Christ to the Gentiles, and to enlighten everyone as to what is the administration of the mystery hidden from the ages by God, Who created all things, in order that the many-sided wisdom of God might be made known now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places through the church, according to the purpose of the ages which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through faith in Him.”

Please do not allow anyone else to minimise the beauty of the One that Jesus Himself chose to entrust with our care. We all matter so much to God, even when our faith is severely stretched, let’s not limit Him. Let’s learn to walk with Him instead. Watch out for evidence of His work in your life as well as around you. Seeing Him at work helps our faith.  He will show us how to repair the things that this life has broken in us, or in our relationships with others. He will tear up and get rid of anything that is holding us back from reaching Jesus, just like those friends tore away the roof in order to get to the Lord that day. Despite challenging our faith, the impossible is so easy to our God.  Bye. 👋

P 3200 Know what you are fighting for.

/ DVH

Today I want to talk about three truths that I think are very important. Things that are worth fighting for. The Body of Christ is a wonderful, growing, messy, precious organism. It isn’t perfect because we – you and I – aren’t perfect, yet! The Lord Jesus simply adores His church, His bride. Unfortunately the body of Christ can sometimes draw lines about who is in and who is out. It is a line that Jesus Himself would never draw! If someone is trusting Him to save them, then they belong to Him, whether they share our overall theology or not. The main problem with division is a distinct lack of humility on everyone’s part! I strongly believe we need to make what Jesus treasured, our treasure. 

The Bible clearly tells us to recognise that: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” Proverbs 4:7. In my limited experience, I have found that the Lord’s wisdom knows precisely what to do with any knowledge I may have picked up in my journey with Him. Jesus Christ Himself, is perfect wisdom, and He takes His wisdom from the bible and brings it down to a personal, practical level of: “what am I going to do about this?” As I see it, the only thing standing in the way of that happening, is our own theology, or penchant for evasion.

Let’s move on to another truth that fits well with wisdom. Reconciliation. Let’s remember that we have ALL been given a spirit of reconciliation. This is not just about helping others who aren’t Christians to see Jesus for themselves. (Who He is, and what He has done for this world.) Reconciliation is designed to work from day-to-day in our everyday relationships and lives.  “All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave US the ministry of reconciliation:…” 2 Corinthians 5:18.

We can reconcile with anybody as long as we follow the Holy Spirit’s leading. That’s because His mandate is now our mandate. It seems to me that many Christians can be reluctant to operate in the ministry of reconciliation. Yet it is part of what we’ve been given, and what’s more, it has a totally complete all-encompassing, world-changing, general application.

Meanwhile, Christians will happily line up for all the other gifts mentioned in several places in the Epistles, but not the ministry of reconciliation! When we received Christ we received the ministry of reconciliation. We will need His help, and wisdom, but it’s a huge part of what we do now. As you can see for yourself, when you read the bible, it is actually everybody’s ministry of reconciliation. We received it from Him, and now we give it away, to the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet. But let us not forget it is for each other as well! And yes, that includes the person who has been rubbing you up the wrong way since you joined that church. 

Our churches are not meant to be divided and carved up all over the place – when we divide churches we are dividing His body. If we refuse to give away what we have been given from the Lord, in the form of loving reconciliation, we are not living like His disciples. Jesus told us over and over to do it, and so did Paul, and yet we still stumble about in the dark, because of perceived differences. Some people keep wandering off out of our churches like clock-work. They think they know more than the people they are leaving behind. What a farce! Breaking up a church shows no wisdom, no reconciliation and no love. We simply must remember what we are fighting for.

And this is my last point. In Roman times, when there was a war, the guy who carried the banner representing his company, carried a great responsibility. If the banner dropped or was lost to the enemy, the whole battle was lost. But when the one carrying the banner went down, another soldier would pick it up. Any soldier who saw that banner was in trouble would battle his way through the existing fighting, to get to the banner and defend it.The banner said who they were and what they represented.

The Bible itself talks about banners. In one instance, it says ‘His banner over me is love.’ LOVE is meant to represent our company of brothers and sisters. We must choose to treat LOVE as our banner, because we cannot afford to lose that banner to our enemy! When we’ve lost love we’ve lost everything. That is not to say that we cannot fight to get it back, but it will be a very large battle, requiring discipline. The best way to live in this world is to do whatever we can to protect our banner of His Love for others.That’s going to mean a whole lot of sacrifice, humility, reconciliation, wisdom and probably even pain. Some people aren’t going to like us. Let’s simply remember what we are fighting for, and in adverse circumstances run to our BANNER.

Please, please … read the Old Testament with New Testament eyes whenever you read it!  The Old shows us what God is like and what we are like when we ignore HIM! We need to seek HIS wisdom like it is gold, and choose to reconcile with everyone we can, and chase after 1 Corinthians 13’s kind of love. Why? Because of Colossians 3:14, otherwise we are wearing the wrong clothes! The clothes this world wants us to wear! 

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

P 3199 Real life.

/ DVH

At our house, we like to watch endless Christmas movies before Christmas. My dear husband loves them… ME? … not-so-much. He likes the soppy, sappy, sometimes sad ones the best. And if we find a funny one, it becomes a classic, and it comes out year after year, after year … …Unfortunately, I’m a Big Bird meets Bambi girl myself, I like to look for movies in the kids department … well, I did, until they became nasty as well!

My daughter explained to me that this situation could be much worse. Lots of men like exploding, guns blazing, blood and gore movies …I think those blow-everybody-up movies should be piled in a heap and burnt. Now there’s a strangely telling response to violence if ever there was one. Any-way … we were suffering through… sorry …’happily watching’ … some totally inane junk … and somebody in one of them actually said something that was worth our attention. 

It took me a little while to recover, because what they said was vastly unexpected!  It actually made sense to me, but we will definitely need His help to do it! When you are watching soppy movies endlessly, the most ridiculous things suddenly seem quite brilliant. It’s called brain damage, and should be listed under the heading of things you should never do to your wife! Hmm, I may have a slight problem with resentment there, I’ll have to look into that.

This is what was said, and it really got me thinking: “Let’s act like the person you want to become.” I mean, like WOW! … Like how cool is that?  U-oh! Please hold…I’ve just realised that I may have been spending wa-ay too much time with my adorable granddaughters, and I’ve picked up the habit of over-using the word “like.” That word now seems to be the new comma. I wonder whatever happened to ENGLISH, and peculiar things like Grammar. Meanwhile it seems good to keep up with the younger generation, they’ll be in charge one day soon. Now, where was I? … ‘acting like the person I want to become’. Well, that got lost in the wash fast didn’t it?  Maybe it is easier said, than done. 

Yet this sentence still has a clear ring of truth in it.  So, today, I want to look at something I learnt from some dumb movie I recently watched to help my spouse enjoy Christmas. After all, hubby endlessly does all the work and all the cooking so that everyone else can have a lovely Christmas. That is now my motivation. However, at the same time, I must honestly say that a teeny tiny bit of the rest of the movie did make me laugh …. 

Here’s the bit — one of the main characters in the movie is asked by their small granddaughter. ‘why there are so many Santas?’And, then she wanted to know all their names because they couldn’t all be Santa! Of course Grandpa didn’t have a clue so he said whatever popped into his head. ‘Santa, Janta and Mylanta…” For some inane, utterly ridiculous reason I found that hilarious. Probably because Mylanta and I have more than a nodding acquaintance. Meanwhile, I think some of my marbles may have given up on me.

Third try to go back to my point… let’s act like the person you want to be.  I have to say that I’m not big on acting at all, because actors get paid incredible amounts of money to LIE for a living! But, I believe the Holy Spirit is delighted to help any one of us, as we begin to take teeny tiny faith steps out onto the choppy dangerous waters of this life.  He can take our intention and make it real.. What would happen if we decided to ignore any and all provocation, and respond with love instead? It could go like this:  someone says something mean because they are angry, but we choose to say something sweet instead: “I’m so sorry, I seem to have offended you,” I have to say I’ve tried that one and it works beautifully.

At the same time there is a chance that others can take great offence if it seems you are able to be more gracious than they are feeling at that moment. That’s why I pray help a lot! I pray like that because everyone needs it. All by myself I can make things far worse than they were ten minutes ago. The Holy Spirit is a wonderful Helper, and He often tells me: “Time to be quiet now.” He’s way too kind to me to tell me to shut up! There are other times when He reminds me that I may be mad in that immediate moment, but I do actually love that other person, so it is not good to injure our relationship by flinging my uncensored opinions about all over the place. 

He is, without a doubt, the very sweetest Person I have ever met. He gently reminds me about what the bible says too. My advice is to watch out for His whisper. He says lovely things like: “Love suffers long… it bears all things …” You know, all that stuff that we can say by heart — but then we find that what we believe is only skin deep. And right now it seems I am tempted to run on hurt feelings, so I’m probably going to choose to go with, ‘I wanna hurt you back!’  That’s not a good plan.

Here is a scripture to refresh everyone’s memory, including mine, about the kind of Love the Lord Himself,  extends to us, all day every day.“…that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them [but canceling them]. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation [that is, restoration to favor with God]. …” 2 Corinthians 5:19. In real life, we may feel like we are pressed hard on all sides. But actually we’ve left our faith behind. Let’s go get it again and choose to find our inheritance and use it instead. Bye. 👋

P 3161 Offences and snares.

/ DVH

Opportunities for taking offence seem to be thundering around everywhere, lately. That trait is causing chaos in relationships, and in our thoughts about other people. It is interfering with us receiving and sharing God’s unconditional love. Then guilt grabs us by the throat, and we sit silently by, because we feel we haven’t got a leg to stand on. Please remember, Jesus paid for all our guilt and shame – but actions speak louder than words. 

Meanwhile offence can come at us through many things, including the media: which isn’t just TV, newspapers, or radio anymore. Today we carry the media around in our pockets so we can read it at the press of a button. If we are not alert to that snare, we can become like jackals, feeding off someone else’s kill, adding to the pile of nasty things said. We dare not sit in the background, passing judgment on things we know nothing about, while we continue to justify getting offended at others.

It is so easy to misunderstand what someone else said, and then become offended. By the time the other person tries to explain what they really said, nobody but the speaker cares anymore. And the offended person is too busy chewing on their own offence. All the while, satan stands by providing us with things from the past, as fuel for the fire of our anger and angst. It occurs to me that when we forgive someone’s sin against us, the point is to forget the injury. We hold things against people, and then use their past to clobber them into submission to make our own point. Scoring points off each other is no way to lovingly relate. “Why not suffer wrong?”

Offence is a trap – the bible calls it a snare. We can easily lose our way and fall or step into it. This subject is is mentioned about 90 times, all over the bible, so we need to pay attention to it. Very few people start out thinking: ‘Oh, I think I will just get snotty and leave this church.’ Most of the time offence grabs them first. That’s why we need to be always on the alert, so we can pay attention and act and avoid the snare. But this kind of wisdom will only happen if we value God’s ways more than our own. If we keep making what I call self-decisions – ‘looking after me, and who cares about you?’ Then we will stay offended.

The thing is, in our churches — we try to be sweet, but we hide stuff. So we don’t actually use nasty words. Instead we use words like; ‘my spouse doesn’t understand me,’ OR ‘I need a church that meets my needs.’  We try so hard to maintain a ‘nice’ image that we use polite words to undergird and excuse our own responses. However, finding out what is at the bottom of our offences can help us discover where we are letting ourselves down. I’ve learnt to ask myself: ‘why am I thinking like that?’  Sometimes I ask: ‘what the heck is that attitude standing on?’ Instead of constantly promoting the kind of self-awareness that favours little old me – why don’t we choose to remember that we died when we gave our lives to Christ? 

Today I want to look at something that is quite commonly used as a measuring stick, and I think it can hurt, offend and alienate others. The idea that Christians have to be ‘born again’ – experientially. That remark has been used to qualify whether people are Christians – or not. It is interesting to note that this subject is only mentioned 3 times in the bible, John 3:3; John 3:7; 1 Peter 1:23! It seems to me that sometimes we elevate some verses over others – but I believe they are ALL important. The Holy Spirit is not a badge we wear to show we belong to the club!  He’s a wonderful Person. I was born again, experientially, 53 years ago, but nevertheless, I still think growing fruit plus a changed life is evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in anyone. 

Elevating some verses over others, can be dangerous. There was a whole movement, a while ago, about asking for anything we wanted and God would give it to us – if we had enough faith. It was based on a couple of verses. It led to error, because it put US in charge instead of the Lord!  Meanwhile, in the gospels, there was once one guy who was told by Jesus to sell everything he had! … Any takers??? … Like I’ve said many times we can’t afford to pick and choose. Otherwise we send people off, trundling about looking for experiences, and neglect to help them to see the Saviour in His Word ... Can you see what I just did there? I gave you an opportunity to be offended with me. It’s now up to you what you do about it. 

Snares can easily become offences. Here are some verses on this subject: “And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” 2 Timothy 2:26. We can be tricked into a  snare! “Be sober-minded;be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8. It is up to US to be watchful, not just the pastor. ”The wicked have laid a snare for me, Yet I have not gone astray from Your precepts.” Offence and snares come upon us whether we are ready, or not, so it’s best to just live ready!! The whole bible was written to profit us. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus, He’s the Author and Finisher of our faith. That will help to keep us out of offence. Bye. 👋

P 3118 We need passionate obedience.

/ DVH

“Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, when you don’t do the things I say?” WEB.“Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not [practice] what I tell you?” AMP. ““So why do you call Me ‘Lord’ when you won’t obey Me?“ TLB. This last one is a doozie! “Why are you so polite with Me, always saying ‘Yes, Sir,’ and ‘That’s right, Sir,’ but never doing a thing I tell you? These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on.” Luke 6:46-49.

Over 50+ years ago, the Lord really challenged me with this scripture. He didn’t mince His words, He told me that there was no point in talking to me if I was just going to block my ears to the things I didn’t like or the things I thought I couldn’t do. He reminded me that He is looking for clean hands and a pure heart, and if I was ever  going to be able to do that in my own strength – it would have happened by now! My flesh can get very noisy and complain a lot. Since that time I have learnt that ‘His Way or the Highway’ is not a threat — it is a promise. The Lord promises us to help us to obey Him, it’s in the book. Obedience is the product of faith.

There is so much about our God that we still do not know because we like to pick and choose what we want to do and what we don’t. And then we call that freedom. Phooey. God is not a Pick and Pay! Although we will pay, spiritually, if we don’t pick His way! Sadly, we can be very easily led away by the enemy’s tricks. Let’s choose to clear away some of the painful debris that clutters up our thought life and the corners of our hearts. and become single minded. By that I mean let’s start with the things that Jesus Himself said. And in the OT it says a number of times:“I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You.”  Psalm 119:11.

We also need to decide to do what It says – on purpose. That means we are making an informed, I’ve-counted-the-cost-and-I-am-doing-it-anyway …decisions. Some people say obeying God unlocks blessings in your life – it probably does – but that thought sure is a rotten reason and a big fat insult to everything Jesus did for us, voluntarily! I think we need to choose to obey because HE told us to.

The point is His kids choose to actively learn how to yield. You and I have been given the power to release people from satan’s grip so they can hear and see the Lord for themselvesI We can’t afford to forget the fact that it doesn’t say … “feel like it first!” Unless I am in a coma! … I can choose to forgive anyone!  It is an act of my will. Then I ask the Holy Spirit to remind me about what I’ve chosen to do, because people can continue to be irritating and annoying, so I need Him to remind me that I already forgave them! That eliminates those nasty rumblings inside me when I need to deal with somebody I’ve been angry at before.

Meanwhile, because I’ve lived a while, I’ve observed that most people have no idea about whatever they say or do toward others  —  they are so chock full of themselves and how they feel. You would be astonished at how little others think about anyone else! You are often just an innocent bystander who happened to cross paths, with someone who is utterly clueless about how other people feel. They don’t actually have room, or time to ruminate on their behaviour, maybe they are too busy scarring other people for life!! Yay Jesus, because of You everybody can be healed!!

My next advice is move on from offence, or other people’s sins, quickly. There is nothing to see there, so stop trying to alter someone else’s behaviour and concentrate on your own responses instead. We can change ourselves because we’ve been given the power to change! Change is always dependent on Him, plus our positive response and choices. Those things are made and sustained with the Holy Spirit’s help, which is great because this is His favourite kind of prayer. Reconciliation. 

Deliberate disobedience often needs a revelation of Who Jesus is, and what He did for us. That can straighten out our thinking. And finally we need to remember Who He is NOW, at the right hand of His Father! That thought alone should empower us. When we choose to not hold on to someone else’s sin, or even revisit it, or talk about it, or think about it – we are practising the skill of obedience under adverse conditions, it makes us ‘…strong in the Lord in the power of HIS MIGHT…’

Despite our common war wounds, the Holy Spirit can and will help us with whatever comes out of our mouths. Letting go of someone else’s sin is letting go of judgment. It is incredibly important to treat offence like a poisonous snake. Fix it immediately, and carefully. It will help us grow our faith as well as spiritually prosper in the things of God that are good, just, right. Jesus talks about obedience with passion in John 14:21, 23..“Those who truly love Me are those who obey My  commands. Whoever passionately loves Me will be passionately loved by my Father. And I will passionately love him in return and will reveal Myself to him.” Jesus replied, “Loving Me empowers you to obey My word. And My Father will love you so deeply that We will come to you and make you Our dwelling place.”

Bye. 👋

P 2964 Offence.

/ DVH

Offence puts a fence between us, other people, and the Lord. That fence often means that we’ve gone back to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and taken a bite out of that life-killing fruit again. Someone has hurt us, and now we are pushing them away so we don’t have to deal with how we feel. Offence is about indulging and expressing the old self, our flesh.

Bless the Lord, because of Jesus, we don’t have to live like that now. You and I have access to the tree of life! ALL THE TIME. The fruit on that tree nourishes us, and our spiritual lives. This means as we talk to the Lord, (in prayer), and read and apply His book (the bible) into our lives, we major on what is really important. Things like: Doing what it says! … Offence can also rear its ugly head because someone has pointed out something we were hoping nobody else saw, and we feel our mistakes have been uncovered. Actually, this means we’ve lost or not valued our LOVE covering. Jesus loves us and that love covers our lives. His Love is our all purpose, everyday garment.

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8.“He has brought me to His banqueting place, And His banner over me is love [waving overhead to protect and comfort me].” Song of songs 2:4. 

“Beyond all these things put on and wrap yourselves in [unselfish] love, which is the perfect bond of unity [for everything is bound together in agreement when each one seeks the best for others].”Colossians 3:14.

Without living under, and releasing His love to others, we will quickly go back to eating the wrong fruit from the wrong tree, resulting in judging others and their actions. We can call it discernment, to make it sound better – but that is actually a lie. Real insight stands between the accused and the accuser – Jesus showed us that..We can’t possibly know why someone else did what they did – only God knows their hearts. Meanwhile, I must say from my own experience, that at least some of the time WE don’t even know why we do what we do and say what we say!

Remember, that human judgment began with Eve’s bad decision, she made a terrible judgment call. She trusted her own eyes and her understanding. And let’s not leave out that snake! She deliberately defied the Lord’s specific instructions.We can easily do this ourselves, when we can’t be bothered to ask the Lord about something. Maybe we don’t have time to pray. (How hard is it to say: ‘help?!’) Maybe we excuse ourselves because this decision is not all that important — after all God gave us a brain and He means for us to use it! Actually, He means for us to be obedient to the Holy Spirit because Jesus sent HIM back to help us – right here, right now! 

At the same time human beings can get offended with God. This can happen when He doesn’t answer our prayers the way we thought He should. We quote this verse and that situation and demand that the Lord meet our expectations. Prayer can be bold, but it also needs to be humble. Almighty God is the Greater One, and He deserves our reverent respect. Otherwise we can get offended with Him when we think we know the answer better than He does. There are times when things get difficult, because He is doing something else.

Sadly there are also times that we analyse the advantages for us in a situation, and decide ‘this will be good for me,’ OR even: ‘this is NOT good for me.’ Often we do that from our own unrenewed mind. That’s called ‘leaning on our own understanding.’ The way to lean on His understanding is to read the book, and then OBEY what we read, whether it is convenient, expedient or not!

I ask Him while I’m reading the bible: ‘Do I do this?’ I don’t want to excuse myself, because I value my relationship with Him over everything else. Plus I don’t trust my own understanding – my understanding can be my flesh protecting itself. Sometimes my mind is guaranteed to try to find some loop-hole or other, so I can continue to distance myself from difficult situations and stay comfortable. 

At the same time, I’ve learnt that it does not profit any of my relationships when I offer conditional apologies, and say things like “IF I have offended you then I am so sorry, please forgive me”- “IF” implies doubt. Um …if the person in front of you is angry, then there is no doubt at all that you have offended them! Duh! Whether it is a misunderstanding or not, it needs to be sweetly and gently sorted out, with the other person – with His wisdom and humility as our guide. Who knows? You might learn something, about yourself and each other.

Offence separates people – sometimes whole families. It breaks friendships, and it can destroy churches and start wars. It can mean we are not prepared to let the other person tell their story, because we have hurt feelings or we have been physically hurt. So now we want to stay mad as some sort of protection against that person hurting us again. Offence is always a stumbling block to learning love the offender. Bye 👋

P 2700 Let’s keep our eyes on forever.

/ DVH

The bible tells us to “… above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.”Proverbs 4:23. When I watch over my heart I am watching over who I am and what I produce!

Sometimes the hardest thing to watch over is our own heart. From my limited experience, other people often tread on someone else’s heart unknowingly. However, whoever started whatever has happened, if someone is offended, it means that there is something we both need to look at..Sadly, we can mistake somebody else’s motivation for evil intent, when the truth is this:… a whole lotta people are just big dummies, (like me), and they talk without thinking.

It goes without saying that forgiveness is the key that opens the door to understanding and reconciliation, but we all have people in our lives who are repeat offenders. So today I want to talk to the offended as well as the offender. Have you noticed how easy it is today to take offence? My first bit of advice to the one who is offended, is that forgiveness will require resolve, it will take self-discipline. There’s a happy thought! However, this is how we mature, and grow the fruits of self-control and patience…  by hanging on firmly to the VINE – true forgiveness is in that vine.

So we: “…set our mind on the things above.’ Colossians 3:2. Most growing points in our lives are a matter of forgiveness. The thing is, people aren’t doing whatever they did AGAIN – if we really forgave them in the first place! There may be some times when we read this bible stuff and say to ourselves, “yeah, yeah, great thought, but how do I do that?” I wish I had some snappy whizz bang methodology, that took care of our instant responses – but I don’t.

Here’s my advice for the one offended. My experience in this area of forgiveness has come down to two words – DO IT.  Don’t expect to feel good about it – just do it. Deliberately, and with great resolve, take authority over all the mean, niggly things you want to say to that offender, and ZIP IT. 🤐 When Jesus hung there silently on that cross for us. He gave us the power, by what He did, to shut up when we desperately want to put someone else in their place or comment on their behaviour.. 

Seriously, don’t give into your feelings for a minute, because you will find yourself circling the plug-hole going down for the last time! The bible says SET your mind because sort of kind of hoping the conflict will magically go away, will not work! Let me clarify this – we are changing an internal mindset in our lives, and doing that is not easy. Mindsets change when we consistently ask Him for His help,  use our faith, and keep our anger to ourselves. I say to myself: “I wanna be like Jesus and this is the Way to get there.” People who have no self-control haven’t totally realised what He gave us when He died for us. We already have forgiveness – LEARN TO SHARE. Read Romans! The more we die to self the more we gain!

Transformation takes hold when we find we can say something positive to the person who is jumping all over our last nerve. The bible says: “Bless those who curse you, do good to those who despitefully use you.”  Look, we are not talking about a walk in the park, we are talking about pressing into God until you forget what you were mad about! It IS hard! Hullo!! I say to myself at this point: “Oh there’s that thing that I am not going to remember, because it is a trap sent to distract me!”  That scripture from Colossians is not just a nice thought – it is an essential part of victorious Christian living! Why would we hand our enemy a loaded gun to shoot us? Disarm the gun.

Now to look at the offender: If something is your fault. If you opened your big mouth and hurt someone else and they tell you what you did … then don’t make excuses, and don’t give endless explanations… simply APOLOGISE. Humble yourself. You are not the judge of what hurts someone else! Actually we are not the judge of anything — read the book. Ask what you can do to make amends. People can easily forget that “I’m sorry” is not what the bible says. It says repent. Repentance involves humbling yourself and taking responsibility for what you did. Hurting someone else IS a big deal, because we don’t live by this world’s standards, now we live by His! And He clearly tells us not to make each other stumble.

Offending people is a big deal! I’ve met many people who say they are sorry, but they don’t go that one step further to usher in reconciliation. The aim of repentance is reconciliation. We need to remember that in this Christian life our hearts belong to Him. Father God takes this stuff seriously – it cost Him His life!  When people are mean to you they are being mean to His child. This means we need to pray for them!  Christ’s ministry is all about love and reconciliation, and that is our ministry now too. To live this way, it will help us to keep our eyes on forever, instead of just the here and now. Bye. 👋

P 2580 Unblocking blockages.

/ DVH

As Christians we can experience spiritual blockages. So today, let’s look at attitudes that can get in our way, and sometimes we are almost unaware of them. Our God is not legalistic, we are forgiven. However, WE can block the flow of the Holy Spirit in, and through our lives by ignoring Him or choosing not to be aware of His ways. Or even by disobeying the things we don’t like! It is our responsibility to discover for ourselves what He wants from us, by talking to Him, reading the book and then doing it. At the same time, praise God, He is always willing to engage with us at any hour or any moment, of any day to help us whatever is currently going on. 

Here are some things that have helped me. If I find myself gossiping about someone, then the first place I go to is – am I angry with this person? If perhaps I get sick of somebody I know bragging about their skills, or their possessions etc. then I look at jealousy. Instead of blaming my attitudes etc. on others, the first place I need to look at is myself. Personally, I try not to excuse my behaviour, by saying ‘I’m tired or sick, or life has been a bit much.’ If I really believe that the Lord holds my life in His hands, then I need to see that everything that comes toward me is Father-filtered. But that does not mean I will not hesitate to tell the enemy to take a hike when oppression comes at me! 

The thing is, I refuse to let my sinfulness prevent me from running toward my Father, because Calvary took care of any legal requirements on my behalf, so now His Grace predominates. Grace frees people everywhere it is embraced – Grace is not ‘permission to sin!‘ Grace is ‘we have an advocate!’  Now I am free, Christ made me free and I’m the boss of what I do, say and think, and I can’t blame you! We can stop the flow of His life through us by our choices, actions and attitudes at any given moment. God gave us power, and that power can be used to help others, help us adjust our behaviour and theology – or … tune Him out! Paul wrote this in his second letter to Corinthians, chapter 12 verse 9!

“But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” You know there are days when I wish the Holy Spirit would just arbitrarily do this stuff through me, or to me, instead of me having to choose and apply myself? But freedom means choices. Dying to self is hard. The problem is this, a lot of the time, my ‘old man’ is trying to bring about an unlawful resurrection! That’s called necromancy. We can blame the devil if we want to, but really, the devil ain’t that big! Nobody can stop us from moving, but US. Seriously. Like the book says: “What then shall we say to all these things? If God is for us, who can be [successful] against us?” Romans 8:31.

The answer to that rhetorical question is ME. I can exercise my God-given power of choice at any given moment, and simply refuse to move on. I can take offence with something that God, or someone else has done, and spit the dummy and opt out of discussing it with Him. I can look at my circumstances and decide that I am too weak to fight, or I am sick of fighting my old self. Instead I can just feel sorry for myself and sit marinating in my sorrows.

This whole ‘walking with Jesus life’ is optional. And if we do not use every opportunity to get to know Him better and fall in love with Him, and the way He works — then we can be pretty sure we will eventually take ourselves out of this marathon race, in favour of comfort and safety! Some people, sadly, have even walked away. The good news is repentance will bring us back again!

There are areas in all our lives with big fat “KEEP OUT” signs on them. You and I put those signs there in some moment of desperation, angst or a fit of pique. Maybe someone hurt us and we feel we can’t get over it. My advice is to exercise the power of choice and … just get over it. Here’s why I think that. We can actually tie ourselves up like a loin of pork and wonder why we aren’t moving on spiritually. Or we can discover, by prayer, persistence and reading the bible, where we have put up stop signs. Blockages come from us, not from the Lord.

Christ took away every single road block between God and us, even though it killed Him. Brothers and sisters, there is so-very-much-more-of-Him-and-Who-He-is for us to know. Why waste time? Let’s go on a “seek and ye shall find tour,” and pull down, or starve out, every single one of those strongholds that are imprisoning us. Let’s throw away the balloons, cakes and streamers at our frequent pity parties and just get on with it. 👋

P 2471 “My God is my protection … and with Him I am safe.”

/ DVH

Some strongholds can occur in our lives as protective mechanisms that we’ve employed and embraced to keep us safe. Here’s a thought … if we are protecting ourselves, then there is no need for the Lord to protect us! The Holy Spirit will quietly leave when we lean on our own devices, because that is not the Way He operates. He loves openness, submission, truth … HE LOVES THE OPENHEARTED WAY OF LOVE…which suffers long, believes all things, hopes all things, does not take offence, confesses its faults freely without prompting and is not afraid etc etc.

I think many of us have accidentally created strongholds to protect ourselves from perceived danger. But Jesus did nothing without consulting His Father first. Imagine what that might look like if we practised that! Christmas often stirs up mindsets we really don’t need but Jesus understands families – He had one. PS He didn’t always agree with them either! He understands the kind of help we need from those who have known us all our lives. Let Him be your protector. But also … ask Him to care for everyone, not just you and yours, but even those who are not easy to get along with.

A lot of people don’t know that they have strongholds … so here’s a couple of scriptures to think about today. The disciples had been out, at Jesus’ command … healing the sick, raising the dead, etc. And they are jubilant, because what the Lord said to do when they got there… worked!! Yaaaaaay! And suddenly they get a bit puffed up. Boy I’ve seen some people fall on their faces over that one. Here’s the bit I’m talking about …

Luke 10:19-20 “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” ← That last bit, right there, is called perspective. A-n-d … here is some more perspective …Luke 9:53-55 “…but the people there did not welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them…” In another version the last part expands that to this:“But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT MANNER OF SPIRIT YOU ARE OF! For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them…”

Jesus is saying: “That is not the Holy Spirit, be-ca-use …He’s not like that! I came to save the lost. So if they look LOST, then I’m here for them!!” The disciples clearly exhibit the fact that their judgment was clouded by something other than the leading of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it was clouded by the stronghold of self-importance and success or maybe even fear? A stronghold may be logical, and look like righteous self-protection, it could even seem like loyalty. Loyalty can be misplaced, and come from a wrong spirit.

Jesus was always showing the disciples His priorities. Making sure that we take notice of things like this, in the bible, is how we start to learn the way Jesus thinks! He is saying:“You are saved, be happy about that … but they are not. Don’t let your self-importance or fear, or even misguided loyalty, cloud your motivation.”  We can easily have the kind of strongholds that say: “If you aren’t on my side, then you have to be a bad guy!” 

Christians can agonise over the fact that we want to hear from God. Well, all through the Gospels Jesus is telling us and demonstrating to us, over and over and over again  … “THIS IS HOW GOD THINKS.” How does the Lord treat the poor, or sinful, or proud, or disgraced, or rude, or mean, or even people who think they are important? It is all in there, in the gospels. Everything we need to know about what He thinks is in there!! He’s never ever motivated by anything other than love.

Because of what He did for us, we don’t have to be too proud to admit our faults. Casually dismissing strongholds in our lives is like tying weights around our ankles. We can’t flow with the Holy Spirit. Instead we need to confess them to Him, repent to others we may have hurt, and ask for His help and deliverance. Then, seize the day! Today is always the best day to get free. He is our deliverer from those things we have employed to protect ourselves from people we are afraid of.

Because Jesus Christ is now our protection, our aim needs to be staying connected with everyone. Not in an obsessive way, we simply do it to obey Him. Let’s tear down, or discard any strongholds that prevent us from running freely, and practice trusting Him with the people around us who don’t understand who He is … yet. 👋🏻

P 2462 Get rid of the stuff that is holding you back.

/ DVH

1 Peter 2:1 “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” First of all, when I find a “therefore” I want to know what it is there, for! That means I went back and read 1 Peter 1. Therefore means in the light of what was said before it. When I did that I found a pearl… without even trying. 1 Peter 1:3-4 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.”  

You know, a lot of people regard the opening and closing remarks of books in the bible as irrelevant, or advertising, or quite simply, polite contextual greetings. They are not. God can use the writer’s opening and closing remarks. This is a letter, but it is not like our letters. Every word in God’s book is profitable. 

Briefly, lets’ go back to our ‘living hope’ … our hope is not in what we think we believe. And that’s because people can believe the dumbest things!! Our actual firm hope is in the fact that Jesus Christ died and was raised from the dead and He now sits at the Father’s right hand.  HE is our hope. Who He is and what He did. Everything else is spiritual fluff! (And no, I am not splitting hairs – hope belongs to something concrete, it is not a theoretical thing.) 

The reason our hope sometimes dies very quickly is that we are hoping in the wrong direction. EG  … our hope is in answers to prayer! Hope cannot diminish when it is in the right place. I urge us all to put our hope in reality, not in wish thinking, or prayers, no matter how nicely we phrase them. What Jesus Christ did for us is proof that He can be trusted. So we actually put our hope in His trustworthiness and not in some pretty or earnest prayer! Jesus Christ really is Almighty God. He really came here, and He really loved humanity, and He really actually died and was raised from the dead! Hope in that. Base your hope on WHO He is and what He did. That will change the way you pray and help you to trust Him. BTW, this is why we pray in Jesus’ Name. Because HE is our hope. 

Now let’s go back to 1 Peter 2:1 ’Rid yourself of all envy and malice …’Why does Peter say that? Because envy and malice block our eyes and ears to what God is actually saying and doing. We stop seeing and hearing spiritually, and make our choices from the wrong place … the flesh! We cry: “I desperately need You to fix this Lord,” but we don’t and sometimes won’t, fix our own attitudes. When we entertain malice, envy, hypocrisy, and deceit etc. we become defensive and offensive, instead of loving, patient and kind. 

What we soak our minds in actually affects our attitudes and behaviour, and I am not talking about TV shows! Mulling over someone else’s sin against you is not profitable. Nothing is gained that way except more angst. Instead we need to identify if we have envy etc.etc in the way we think, and repent, then refuse to think like that. Seriously… we are the boss of our own thoughts! Don’t entertain them. Some people ask that junk in, tell it to put its feet up on a comfy chair, go and get it a cuppa, and then they wonder why they can’t shift the thoughts! Our minds are constantly at war – it is not safe to entertain rubbish. Here’s a dumb thought – offence will fence you in.

If a thought comes into my head, that does not mean I need to give it a party! I can refuse the thought. And I can keep on refusing it until it leaves. Personally, I do my best to look carefully at my thought patterns because I want to watch over my own heart. I am not obsessive about it, but I listen to what I am thinking because:“as a man thinks …so is he …” (Proverbs 23:7) And some of my errant thoughts deserve jail, not entertaining!  However, Paul says in Philippians 4:8 to “let your mind dwell on these things. Whatever is right … whatever is profitable…”  Live there! Start looking for the good profitable parts, even in bad things. Bad things awaken urgency within us to get closer to God. And that’s a good thing to start with! Then start being grateful.

I hold my thoughts up against the Word of God and if my thoughts are wrong I chuck them out. Bad things start festering when we ignore the fact that we are mentally chewing on unhappy relationships and difficult people. It is our part in this eternal arrangement we are in, to get rid of the stuff that is holding us away from our true inheritance. 1 Peter 2:1 tells us that. And most of the bad stuff starts out as thoughts. Try monitoring your thoughts sometime, it will surprise you. 👋🏻