Opportunity

P 2941 Ready or not.

/ DVH

You know, I think we need to scale back on preaching at people, and go out there and just be the bible. When I write this kind of stuff, I’m pretty sure a whole lot of people probably get mad at me! Boy, I hope so — mad is wa-a-a-y better than apathetic. Our faith is not meant to be private … real faith is going out into this world deliberately, on purpose, loving others, caring about their lives, while we are introducing them to His kingdom. Our challenge is to live that way – all the time. Laying down our lives so other people can learn how to find a new life with Jesus. 

Here’s one of my optional ‘make you think’ questions: what part of your new life in Christ makes your life look different than it did before you met Him? I know all the pat answers — we go to church. We pray. We read the bible. However, the reality is, because we choose to remain inactive, unfortunately sometimes guilt drags each one of us around by the nose — we know there is more, but we can’t seem to find it. To do that we need to give up our undercover, ordinary people disguises, and lay down this life we’ve planned for ourselves. Let’s stop running about looking for healing for us, and introduce others to the Healer of mankind. 

The body of Christ has unfortunately become engaged with what this world says we need. People who are DEAD don’t care what they need — actually, they don’t care about anything at all! But the people who know their God want to spend their life for Jesus’ sake. Will it hurt? PROBABLY!! But pain is an opportunity to wait on Him, and press in deeper. I have a theory, I believe that many people lead mediocre lives because they think this life is the only chance they will get to have what they want. But man was made for eternity.

We’ve been born again to do what He brought us here to do. That includes what the bible says …and then, after we do it, we leave the results to Him. We throw our miserable human excuses into the bin where they belong! Man has been making excuses for centuries. Many of those excuses some people made right to God’s face!! That thought makes me shake my head. I know I have been incredibly disobedient, and if God is not Who He says He is, then I’m sunk. I cling to His promises like a barnacle clings to the bottom of a ship.

Let’s just pause, and think about God’s patience with us. He has put up with mankind’s junk for centuries. Not in a mean, stand-offish unloving, uninvolved way, but in a proactive creative winsome way that calls us all up HIGHER. You can’t get more involved in humanity than He did, by coming here, living amongst us, and then letting people kill Him! The people in today’s world need to experience, personally, what the bible says:“Taste and see that the Lord is good.” We are meant to be someone else’s first taste of God in human form, and we are the only Christians some people are ever going to meet! If that doesn’t serve you up a big dollop of “Oh, my gosh!” I don’t know what will!

Sadly, other people are probably going to take a big chunk out of you and I, regularly. It’s a TEST. It is up to us to decide how we will respond to their actions. Jesus has left us in this world to be a people who not only know their God, we are now His interactive advertising. Just tell others the kingdom of God is near, because He lives in you! Like me, you may have been dreadful advertising even ten seconds ago  … so … REPENT. Pick yourself up, fix what you can, use your faith and keep on going. God is not finished with any of us yet. 

Get over the idea that this life is meant to be easy for us – ‘because we are so special’ – and realise that “a disciple when he is fully trained, will be just like His master.’ They treated Jesus disrespectfully and badly and then they viciously killed Him … so-oo-oo-oo … You do the sum.

Sometimes we become so obsessed with being comfortable and comforted, because this life is difficult, we forget what we are here for. If we want to know Him intimately, we will need to live our lives like He lived His. Unselfishly, altruistically! We are assured that His faithfulness under all kinds of circumstances, is out of this world! Nothing can, or will separate you and I from His love … because Almighty God promised.

It’s time for all of us to step up to the plate and take a swing at the ball! Never lower the standard just because you can’t meet it – Jesus Christ met it for us. Pick up your faith and go again. Our only job on this planet, is to RE-present Jesus Christ to the world around us … by living like He did. Let’s hope the next time someone takes a bite out of you or I, they bite into something sweet!

Jesus once told a parable about a rich man, who kept walking past a beggar at his gate. What that rich man did in this life eventually caught up with him. I implore you … don’t postpone change. We need to be ready for anything and He is always our ever-present help in time of need… whether we are ready or not. Bye. 🙏

P 2938 The benefits of walking with God

/ DVH

“God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him.”Philippians 2:13 TPT.

“Above all, constantly echo God’s intense love for one another, for love will be a canopy over a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8 TPT. “You were God’s expensive purchase, paid for with tears of blood …” 1 Corinthians 6:20a.

The bible itself urges us ‘to forget not all His benefits.’ in Psalm 103:2. Anyone can see what’s wrong with this world, but the people with real vision, His vision, can see the potential to do good in the midst of the chaos. What a benefit that is! We’ve personally discovered in our travels, that all this trouble and strife has opened up other people’s hearts to a point where they are happy to share their sorrows, suffering and disappointment with complete strangers. So we get to pray with them … what a benefit!

Our God is so precious, as we go along through this life choosing to walk with Him, living His Way instead of our own  — our wrong way of thinking, even our superficial thoughts, fall off. It is as if we switch focus, and we start to become singular in our devotion to Him. That does not mean we exclude others, like we are in some sort of exclusive club — it means our hearts are stretched and pummelled by the Word of God into a bigness we never even dreamt about! His servants don’t have to try to be better, kinder, nicer – they just are! Now we look for the good in others because it delights us to find it. That kind of observational skill benefits everyone!

People who live like this wouldn’t dream of wasting their time on pettiness, or hiding their faults from others to save face. Imagine the energy someone wastes trying impress others, when we all know full well, WE aren’t all that. Self realisation is a huge benefit! Yet another benefit of walking with Jesus every day, is humility. I stop being afraid to tell you I’ve failed, or I can’t do it, or I have no idea what to do next … instead I ask you to pray for me! Sometimes I pray:  “I can’t wait to see what You are going to do with this mess I’ve made Lord! Because I know You make all thing new.” Sadly, sometimes our level of pretence is preventing us from going deeper with Him. But we have the incredible benefit of His ongoing forgiveness covering us, because Love Himself adopted each one of us. The benefits abound!

Often human beings are the sum of their choices and history. But, we aren’t stuck there. Instead we daily benefit from walking with Jesus. And that means we become more and more honest – because we are living in proximity to honesty Himself, and His goodness rubs off on us. So if someone corrects us, or points out a fault, we have the inner freedom to be grateful because they have given us the opportunity to look at ourselves through their eyes. But what if what they say is not true? My advice is to let God fight for you. Our King cares about what we care about, let Him take care of you. Now there’s a great benefit to thank Him for!

Our feelings make a very poor, inaccurate guide – the benefit of reading His book is that it diagnoses our inaccurate world view every time we read it. He gives us His wisdom so we know how to avoid pitfalls. Wisdom is an incredible benefit. Over the years, I’ve met so many people who underestimate who they are IN God. Anyone who is prepared to live acknowledging their lack, can have wisdom. Just ask Him! Wisdom is a benefit with eternal ramifications. I don’t have to try to give God glory for what He does in my life, because I spend my time watching Him snatching me out of this trap and that stupidity! I am eternally grateful that He continually saves me from myself. 

Before I met Him I had nothing worthwhile to give to others. This is another benefit I’ve learnt – God gives us gifts to use to benefit other people. We are living beneath our heavenly calling when we verbally pull other people apart like wild dogs snarling over their breakfast. God’s gifts to men are to benefit others not to pull them down so we look equal to, or even taller than they do. We dare not use His gifts to benefit ourselves. What do we have that He didn’t give us? And when you have Him you have everything you will ever need. Maximum benefit right there!

God’s Word has also been given to us to diagnose what’s wrong in our hearts and lives, and His Word pulsates with the power to heal. It has not been given to us to accuse ourselves, or others. That’s how the other guy operates. We are to build one another up, and we exist now, to live this life for their benefit, like Jesus did. To do that we will have to see them through His eyes. Because our eyes and ears have been trained by trouble, strife and sorrow in this world – we can do so many unnecessary things to protect ourselves. However, when Jesus came and died, He threw His living body/blanket over each one of us, just like Boaz protected Ruth when she was vulnerable. I can’t afford to take my eyes off everything He has done for me. He sustains me in difficult times.

Our cup is full of His benefits, pressed down and running over.Psalm 103:1-2 “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy Name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:…”  Bye. 👋

P 2909 Into the storm.

/ DVH

I think I wrote about the following verses just the other day … but here we go again … and this time, we have an actual storm. On the horizon, locally, looming… Mark 4:37-39: “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” As I was thinking about that snippet from the bible  early this morning, some things jumped out at me. I’ve been reading this stuff for 50+ years and I’m still seeing stuff I didn’t see before!

Back to my storm story: Jesus is sound asleep but the disciples are not, they have been kept awake because they are furiously fighting with a storm, trying to obey Him. Now they are caught up in a panic, looking at the physical evidence of watery chaos all around them. They were trying to go to the other side, because that is what Jesus told them to do. But at this moment these men are going up and down, tossed about by big waves in a little boat, soaking wet and scared of drowning. The sky was filled with dark clouds, maybe even lightning and they are rowing like mad and getting nowhere. 

It ain’t peaceful! We all like peaceful. We all like life to go the way we want it to. So how come Jesus can sleep? Well, He said they were going to the other side and when the God of the Universe and beyond says we are going to the other side – then that ride is on Him! I just made an important point for someone out there … ‘You are on His dime – this ride is ON HIM – stop trying to organise Him and sit back and enjoy the ride.’ Moo-ving on …

Panic overtakes the disciples, and so they wake Him up with an accusation – ‘Don’t you care???’ Why should the Lord sleep when they are so-oo-oo scared. Isn’t it His job to protect them? After all, He put them in that boat! He’s in charge, and the people who are in charge need to fix things. Boy were they in for a surprise! I have no idea what they thought Jesus would do… um maybe if they woke Him up He could join them in their panic? 😳 Human beings can be so irrational when they throw their faith out of the window, just to see if it will survive the fall! 

Here’s my point for today: first Jesus rebuked the wind and waves, then He rebuked the disciples! There were two storms that night, one IN the boat and one OUTSIDE it. You know, we can get so carried away trying to control our external circumstances, that we forget that our internal state needs help too! We cannot afford to let the external rule the internal … we will start sinking.

After that, Jesus explained to these men that their faith was far bigger than that storm. Sometimes when we face difficulties and terrifying things, our real task isn’t to fix the problem – it is about learning to rest in the face of whatever is going on. We can rest in the fact that JESUS IS ALWAYS IN OUR BOAT.  

If you don’t believe me, then let’s have a look at what the book says. Jesus is speaking here: “And lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world.“ Matthew 28:20. “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before Me.” Isaiah 49:15&16. “The LORD Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8. The last two verses are our Heavenly Father speaking. 

When we look at our circumstances, or our inner state of panic, we can easily feel deserted – left to fight whatever it is by ourselves. But this is our opportunity to believe what the bible says, above how we feel. Inclement circumstances are where we learn to REST in Him. Jesus Christ has paid for and given us HIS rest, nobody else can steal it away. We can only choose to lose it, by choosing fear, dismay and anger above rest.

As we descend into this storm, we are not alone – Jesus is in this boat with us. Bye and bless you. 🕊️

P 2900 We pray from a kingdom perspective.

/ DVH

“Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm.” Colossians 3:2 TPT. There are so many instructional verses in the bible, just like this one, that we could apply one of them every single day and still not get through the book even once in this lifetime! So how do we feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm while we are still on earth? We live like heaven is our home, not this world.

It’s all about focus. Most people today are focussed on me, myself, and I. My family, and my relatives, and my goods and possessions, my country, and my job or lack of one! In order to have a heavenly point of view we need to focus on what God wants – and fortunately He has told us what He wants – in writing! 

Jesus came here and He actively taught us what a heavenly perspective looks like. Our Father always has a greater plan than we can imagine — praise Him! Jesus was a walking, talking, teaching, healing illustration of God’s plan and His love for each one of us. Then He died to seal the deal, to give us our opportunity to live the way He did. Sacrificially. He didn’t just die to get us into heaven – He died to get heaven into, and flowing out of, US!

Jesus Christ is Father God’s faith in action be-ca-u-se … ‘faith without works is dead!’ Faith has substance – Jesus Christ is the substance of His Father’s faith. This is why without faith we cannot please God – our God is faith-filled! He has invested His Son’s life in each one of us. His kingdom is not just a place, somewhere ‘up there’ — it is a new way to live. The miracles Jesus did were secondary to the carrying out of His Father’s plan.

People could say: “Well being a Christian doesn’t sound like much fun, if God gave me a life  I want to live it, my own way.” And so the Lord steps back and says: “Have at it!” This means right here, right now, surprise, surprise, we are living in a world filled with people who want their own way. Even if what they actually want is a peaceful life, that is still what that person chooses for themselves! We should never be surprised at the mess this world is in, because human beings are in charge. And human beings, without Christ, are susceptible to demonic influences!

I think we all do our best to pray for good things, Godly things, things inspired by the Holy Spirit … but many times we pray for change or healing of things on this earth. Please Lord, heal this. Please Lord, change that. Please Lord, help those people etc. We are praying for the things that will one day pass away. Jesus Himself told us what to pray for: “Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; THY KINGDOM COME; THY WILL BE DONE; on EARTH as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.”

In this new reality, we pray for His kingdom, His will to be done, first.. In this prayer that Jesus gave us as an example – God is the centre. Yes we can pray to be delivered from sickness, sin and evil, let’s do it! We sure need it!! But the point of being born again is to live in His new kingdom with His oversight. He tells us how to do that in the book. He even tells us what the fruit of that kingdom looks like … in the book! No fruit – no kingdom!  

Our new life means we have chosen to live in His kingdom, and we are to manifest that kingdom in this life down here …in the middle of wars, trouble, strife, evil, compromise, hatred, murder, lust, lies. That’s why Jesus said “don’t be surprised when bad things happen.” Those things are the fruit of this world!  We are to walk within this world’s worst nightmares, shining with the light of Jesus’ love for every single human being, always praying people will be saved by the truth of what we believe, as it is acted out right in front of them! 

“God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.” 1 John 4:17.

Now we pray from our new heavenly position within Christ. ‘Lord I want what You want.” I’ve learnt, from experience, that what HE wants is so much better than anything I can think of or dream about! We have given our lives to Him so He can live through us – we are blessed to be able to release His point of view, His healing, His love, peace, joy, into the darkness. That is not a part-time job, it is a kingdom lifestyle.  We need to learn to pray from a kingdom perspective.Bye. 👋 

P 2891 Obedience is its own reward.

/ DVH

People say odd things sometimes. things like: “I can’t hear God.” Here’s a big fat clue. Did you obey the last thing He told you to do? How are you going with putting Matthew chapters 5&6 into practice? That’s a great place to start!  I think the Beatitudes will keep us busy for a lifetime of practising, listening, learning, and allowing His Word to transform us. I must admit I have never quite figured out why we skip those first two commandments, and still feel good about ourselves, because we’ve obeyed all the other ones.

Opportunity came knocking on this man’s door! “Why do you ask Me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”“Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honour your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbour as yourself.’“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”Jesus answered, “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 19:19-22. Jesus is not talking about our owning stuff, by the way, He’s talking about the kind of stuff that owns us.

Point number one: This young man was on the right track:  when we choose to follow Jesus, we need to ask Him this kind of question. Yes I am serious! There is way too much back-slapping going on in the Body of Christ, and not enough soul-searching. I ask myself questions, because I know I am not done yet.  I know I’ve wasted a great deal of my life so far, trying to fit in, and find approval. However, this young man had approval from the Lord immediately, because he had done his best to obey what he already knew. God is so generous – He values the attitudes of our heart. But, at the same time He’s not shy, He will also expose what’s else is in there too.

Point number two; Never ask a question when you are not prepared to get an answer!! I believe this man was sincere, he wanted the life of God in him and he wanted to be wholly His. Jesus gave him what he asked for – right there, on the spot! There are many times we go to the Lord and all we want is to be petted and patted. Life has gotten rough and we need a big cuddle. If we want to be mollified and pronounced excellent, then we need to go to someone who wants something from us and ask them the above question. Those people will tell us how great we are because they have an agenda!

Personally, I think we are better off asking our enemies to give us their opinion – they may not be entirely accurate, but they won’t pander to our needs either. Our enemies may have a great read-out on what’s wrong with us!  In the interest of full disclosure I must say I haven’t done that one yet…! I’ve been put off because I’ve had plenty of enemies tell me – they volunteered! … what’s wrong with me. My problem was … because they were enemies I didn’t think I had to listen! Ya might want to Selah that thought a while.

Point three: did you notice that Jesus praised the man for his ongoing efforts? Yet at the same time, the Lord actually knew what was holding this man back from his expressed desire to do whatever God wanted from him. The desire to do what is right in God’s eyes, is not the whole ball-game. There is always more, and in this guy’s case the ‘more’ was in his finances! None of us are perfect, so learning what we need to know is a blessing, not a criticism.

Now let’s not miss the punch-line, shall we? After Jesus tells this young man to sell all the profits from his own hard-work and give the results to the poor — then He says the most amazing thing: ’YOU can be My disciple and follow Me.’ This is the reason I wrote this blog today, we all have things in our lives that we want more than God – we just choose to ignore them. We live our lives virtually unaware of what could be holding us back from utterly yielding our lives to Him. Maybe you could ask yourself this question: What is it that is holding me back from giving the Lord all of my life, and choosing to obey Him – no matter what it costs? 

I can’t answer that question for you. I can only tell you that in my own experience, you can never ever out-give God. His plans for us are to give each of us a hope and a future. Sometimes we can stumble over full-surrender, because we don’t know what is on the other side of yielding everything to Him. However, we do know that God is gracious, He is kind, He’s OUR loving Heavenly Father! 

If we only focus on what we will lose … we’ve missed the real point. God is good, what He does, is always GOOD. We just don’t get to define ‘good’ for ourselves! Obedience is its own reward — check it out:  Deuteronomy 6:24; 10:12-13; and Proverbs 9:12; Ecclesiastes 11:5b.  Bye 👋

P 2889 People disagree …

/ DVH

… sometimes very loudly! When you read the gospels you will find different people from all walks of life that are outrageously unkind, plus people who cheat each other, or they hate each other for all kinds of reasons. The thing is, disagreements are not necessarily about who is right and who is wrong – that’s this world’s way of thinking. ‘I think I am much right-er than YOU are,’ is a really common theme. I hate disagreements … everybody loses!

To be perfectly honest with you, difficulties can have a positive side, they can usher in change in us – if we put down our sword of attack, and pick up His Grace, the people around us would feel much safer! God’s Grace needs to be the way we live now. What Jesus did at Calvary, released an incredible, overabundant Grace, and it is ours for the taking. We need to use our faith. Let me clarify that into English – let what you’ve been given by God be your new motivation – it makes it easier to apologise! Do it for the Lord!  He deserves to see the reward of His suffering in our lives.

This is our highest form of worship. This, in its very essence, is Romans 12:1 ”Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”When we choose His will, His Way, we are choosing to worship Him! Here’s another scripture nobody much likes, Jesus said it: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13. We live this way for people who totally don’t deserve that kind of attitude or action from us! I’ve known people who said: “I would die for you” – but they haven’t considered that dying for the other person might include not liking or loving them very much at the time! 

Jesus chose to die for us, and He loved us while He did it! Good place to praise God for mercy!! Before you throw your hands up in the air in frustration, because we all have difficult people in our lives …think about it. Name somebody in the bible who had a happy, trouble-free, carefree life – you can’t do it can you? Our happiness, our purest joy comes from knowing Him – other people and relationships line up behind that. It often seems to me in those angry moments, that I’ve forgotten that love is a choice not a feeling!! 

Human beings stagger about doing the weirdest stuff, searching for that mythical land that is called “my happiness.” It won’t happen – it can’t happen. If we don’t find our happiness in serving Him, and learning His Ways – we are doomed to keep repeating the same rubbish mistakes over and over again. We will remain stuck in a mire of our own choosing. The answer to other people driving us crazy isn’t them changing – It’s our own personal transformation – we change the way we think and see everyone else, and they don’t bother us anymore!

There really is a place where other people don’t have to get on your nerves – Jesus Christ lived there and He was a man just like us. Every single one of those irritations are giving us an opportunity to die to self. Jesus didn’t have to wrangle His emotions, because He knew what was important – He knew the book from when He was 12! Everything He did He did to further His Father’s Kingdom. That’s now our job.

Christians admire other people’s testimonies. Things like: some dear missionary went to some lost tribe, and the tribe was saved but they chopped the poor missionary into little bits.’ Let’s pause a minute … the thing is, we don’t have rampant indigenous tribes waiting to kill us … instead we have Mrs Kerfoops who is always gossiping about everyone and she comes to church every Sunday … that dear lady needs to know His Grace. Obviously she has none, because she can’t keep her mouth shut. Somebody is going to have to be a source of God’s Grace toward her!

The bible works as a WHOLE. That missionary who died released Grace to the pagan tribe …  they left their comfortable homeland and went to a strange place for the sake of the gospel. That’s GRACE. Today’s Christians don’t value GRACE enough. We expect other people to understand US.. Instead we need to learn to turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile, right in the middle of the time when we feel so provoked we just want to thump the person who is provoking us. 

This means we will need to put His Grace into action to manage our painful circumstances. Think on this — the Grace that we cling to while the world around us continually shifts on its axis, is the same Grace we give away to other people when they don’t deserve it. In those moments I remind myself — “I don’t deserve His Grace either!” It really does help. Right along with my all time favourite prayer. “Help help!” Prayer is so much more than words, it is an attitude of our hearts!

Some of the time people disagree because they don’t know Him well enough yet. So there are no hard and fast rules as to who should be the one to give away Grace. I’ve found if I can actually see what is going on, then that means He will help me to get through it. I step out in faith, and I ask for His help to holster my own opinion. I’ve yet to start cheering when a disagreement comes up, but these things are opportunities for me to practise what I preach. Bye. 👋

P 2880 Use your faith – pray for the sick.

/ DVH

Christians often want to know God’s will, or perhaps what gift they have been given to contribute to His kingdom. That’s admirable. But I have a short-cut to all those diagnosing courses, seminars, conferences, and fantastic inspirational books. Do something using your faith in Who He is. Christ didn’t come to make US famous. We are here to make HIS NAME famous.  In other words use your faith. It’s the same faith that got you saved and be prepared to pray for anybody.

Begin by praying for any sick people around you. What if they are not healed? You might think like me:  “I’m pretty ordinary. How can I pray for the sick?”  First of all, you are not the Healer, you take the Healer with you. My suggestion is this — choose to BE there for that sick person. Talk to them about Jesus, how much He loves them. Encourage them. Walk with them, even if it is just for a little while, as they trudge through their personal dark valley. Or be an extremist, and find an enemy and pray for them too – that will stretch anyone’s faith!

This is what disciples of the Great Shepherd do! They love people – they genuinely care for them. We are not supposed to be a hit squad. In the past, we prayed for someone, a-n-d … we moved on … … NEXT!  Jesus didn’t do that! He talked to people when they came to Him. He gave them His attention and interacted with them. In those moments, the Holy Spirit hovered over both of them. There are no magic words – say what He tells you to say. Your heart of compassion speaks to His heart of compassion. I once prayed for a baby who was blue in the face and not breathing. I yelled: “Don’t you dare die on me.” The kid opened his eyes and started screaming. The words don’t matter. It’s Who we are connected to, that matters, not what we say or how we say it. Jesus spat on the ground once. I figured we all came from dust, so easy-peasy to make another eyeball out of it!

People have never been projects to God. His love wants to draw out the very best in each one of us. Here’s a revelation for you, some people need their hearts healed even more than their bodies. They need to know they matter to Him. You don’t have to move IN with them, but you can be there for someone!  Sick people can be lonely people. They can’t move about and see others because their illness isolates them. That isolation easily leads the neglected into despair.

We can get so caught up in seeing the results of our prayers— so we can feel good about ourselves — that we forget we are not here for us we are here for them!  Jesus didn’t pray to get results, He prayed because He was filled with compassion and pity for the sheep who didn’t know He was their Shepherd. We can justify wanting results by saying that praying for the sick is glorifying God, and people will come to our churches and get saved. Yes, they probably will! But what people really need most is genuine love. And we are their all-weather, every-situation access pass to Christ Himself! He’s the Lover of all our souls!

When we pray we give Him an opportunity to touch them with His love and Presence. We’re His temple, and the Body of Christ has a job to do. We’ve been saved to serve Him, so we all need to begin to use and stretch our faith. As He leads us, and we take a risk and step out in faith, we will learn about loving others. The church at large has put so much importance on results we seem to have forgotten all about being filled with His love and compassion for people!

Whether people are sick or not, all of us need love, appreciation, exhortation, kindness, patience, etc. and Jesus is the eternal fountain of all those things. WE NEED HIM – because Jesus knows how to love!! Remember, He is the ever-lasting, ever-living fountain – He’s bigger than results. We want His dear face, not just His hands! 

So how do we get to know Him better? My advice is to talk to the Lord and always be honest with Him. There’s no use pretending. We may need to step away from distractions and read the book. Look at how other human beings in that book … who were just like you … interacted with Him. Meanwhile Jesus hasn’t changed His focus just because He went back to heaven! He came here to redeem us, and He is still interested in every single bit of our lives … even the bits we can’t manage. He’s the Saviour Who came!

People ask God to: ‘change this or that in me,’Lord.’ Great! It’s OK to pray about stuff, but most of the time it won’t fall on you. You and I are going to have to engage with His processes. We will need to make some hard decisions and stick by them. Maybe we got stuck somewhere because we’ve been ignoring what He said – there’s a great place to practise repentance! We gotta stop chucking worship AT Him and start talking TO Him. Ya might want to think about that one. 

Jesus’ death and resurrection covered everything. If we’ve fallen down a hole because of some weakness, some habit or other, then WE are going to have to change. Duh! Will He help us? Too right He will!! It’s His nature. He utterly understands humanity – He fell in love with His future Bride, when He was here!!. You and I need to stop waiting for other people to step up to the plate and stand up myself and participate. Salvation is not pie in the sky when we die — it’s about dying daily, simply because He’s always worth it. Bye. 👋

P 2879 Avoidance is not enough …

/ DVH

... action is required! “So now we draw near freely and boldly to where grace is enthroned, to receive mercy’s kiss and discover the grace we urgently need to strengthen us in our time of weakness.”Hebrews 4:16 TPT

“And God has made all things new, and reconciled us to Himself, and given us the ministry of reconciling others to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:18 TPT

There is nothing like the bible for good advice. It is the best instruction manual ever, particularly if we refuse to explain away what it says. When we think we can’t do this or that, we need to draw near to Him, and let His mercy kiss us, all over again. Mercy received will change anyone’s mind.

We must always remember Jesus Christ died to give us the power to say ‘yes,’ to His will, His Way. Nothing can take that choice away from us. We have the precious Holy Spirit, Who is with us, in us, and He walks WITH us to guide us. Our faith cannot be in our ability — if we have a brain in our head, we already know we have limited ability! Our faith is in what Christ did. We stand firmly on the Rock Who is Christ Jesus. Because He rose from the dead- we can rise up from our beds of apathy, excuses and indifference into action.

We can spend our whole lives as Christians, avoiding sin, and … that’s not a bad thing, but…!  Yes, we can go through this life avoiding gossip, hatred, etc. etc .but at the same time, we actually have a job to do. The way to conquer those things that can so easily drag us down and under, is to aim at what Christ aimed at. “Loving God with all our heart, soul and mind, and our neighbours as ourselves.”  My advice is that we should be so busy doing stuff for His kingdom, that we don’t even sit down to think about the negatives. 

We know we fall over and fail! It’s because we are human, that we will fail, BUT! … …We have a Saviour Who is more faithful than any of us can ever imagine! We have been empowered by what He did, to choose differently. Just because living for His sake looks impossible, that does not mean we can quit and simply use avoidance to get through all the pitfalls of this life. What Christ did for us demands a positive response! And not just an Amen either.

Let’s just pause, and imagine this with me: one day you and I will stand in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ’s Presence. Hallelujah! What a day that will be!! 🙌 When He asks us what we did with this new life He gave us, do we really want to say:“I know You died for me. So I avoided that sin, and this and that pitfall, and I didn’t join in with the evil things other men do.”  It’s not a bad testimony… However, daring to take action for the sake of Christ’s Name, is another thing altogether. Dare to believe He really is so powerful that He can empower YOU … 

So, what are we doing with the faith He died to give us? Christ’s faith released incredible forgiveness into this planet. It was so extraordinary, so above and beyond anything that would ever be needed by any one soul at any one time.  And we are here because Jesus has given us the benefits of all that forgiveness and faith! He stood in silence as wicked, jealous, fearful men accused Him of things He did not do. Then they punished Him mercilessly. His last action on this earth was to forgive US all, and He released His Spirit back to His Father. Now, the Spirit of the living God is here, He came here at Pentecost, He wants to walk with YOU and I.

In Ecclesiastes 3:7b it clearly says there is:”… a time to be silent and a time to speak …”  Brothers and sisters, I put it to you that we are living in the time to speak … There may be times when we will say nothing in the face of false accusations, like Jesus did. But where are our faith works? (James talked about them.) Where is “… the reward of His suffering?” Our lives need to be laid down willingly, through our participation in Christ’s mission. Lives laid down in faith, like His life was for us. Don’t be fooled by the devil, your contribution matters.

We have not been given a free ticket to do whatever we like! Almighty God is NOT an indulgent Father Who wants to give us everything we think we need in this life, and then we will go on to inherit the next! Father God wants a family, that means every tribe, every tongue. Are we serving our Father in a worthy way that glorifies everything Christ suffered and died to give us? Have we tried and sometimes failed, only to try again — to make sure that His family includes every single member, and that ALL have had an opportunity to belong? If not – WHY NOT? ‘I’m scared’ just doesn’t cut it. Neither will – “that was someone else’s job.”

We’ve learnt on previous occasions that fear must not be a deterrent – fear is to be conquered through our faith-filled actions. Today I have included a quote that I loved, it’s from a Malaysian church: “FAITH IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF FEAR, BUT KNOWING WHO YOUR GOD IS!” And knowing Who He is, needs to be accessible to everyone … that’s why avoiding sin is not enough – action is required. Bye. 👋

“I refuse to be ashamed of the wonderful message of God’s liberating power unleashed in us through Christ! For I am thrilled to preach that everyone who believes is saved—the Jew first, and then people everywhere!” Romans 1:16 TPT

P 2863 The fight!

/ DVH

This world is not our home. Seriously. And I’m not an alien and I don’t come from another planet, either! I have simply been reborn into another permanent, everlasting kingdom and … so have you! Otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this blog. The only way you or I can move away from living in that kingdom, is if we are ignorant of His Ways. OR if, and when, we choose to be disobedient to what He asks us to do. Just FYI His kingdom has no end.

Now let’s read 2 Peter 3:8-9 to find out a little bit about what God’s ways … what His idea of time is looks like. ‘But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’

This thing we call “time,” that human beings measure with clocks and calendars, is not what this passage is talking about. Here are my thoughts about the way Almighty God regards what WE call time. We are living in the time of God’s PATIENCE not permissiveness. It all started that day in the synagogue when Jesus stood up and read Isaiah out loud. God’s kingdom is so much more real than anything this world has to offer – plus you can SEE IT in action!

Luke 4:16-21: “He (Jesus) went to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day He went into the synagogue, as was His custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.” He sat down because that was the end of His mission statement!

Let’s look at what Jesus Himself said, about His mission… why did He say God’s Spirit was upon Him? To establish His authority, and to witness to His Father’s participation in what He was about to do, because the Holy Spirit was going to do glorious things through Him! He had an anointing to do those things to demonstrate God’s will, word and favour visibly toward these people. And He explained to everyone present that favour had arrived when He arrived. His mission started when He chose to undergo baptism.

In the bible it often says: “in the fullness of TIME…”  God has timing. This is mentioned in Isaiah, Galatians and Ephesians. There is a point to His patience with every single person on this planet – He is waiting for everyone to hear, and respond, like it says in 2 Peter.  Sadly, lately we’ve been leaving the bit He told us to do, to the experts. Look around — we’ve dun run out of experts! God has been extremely patient with you and I, because He wants us to walk with Him, just like Jesus did, while we are still here. You and I have things only we can do!

Part of His plan is about us learning to overcome, sin, this world, and the devil in our own lives – with His help! Overcomers always have something to testify about. Our overcoming is daily, sometimes minute by minute – it is our new way of life. A battle we willingly enter into all the time that ends in transformation. Our testimonies are about telling others HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT HELPS US win the daily fight for this transformation, as well as talking about how “God did this or that for me.”

These changed things are the result of the active nitty gritty daily choices we deliberately make to obey His Word. The things we suddenly find we no longer want to do, because we’ve learnt they are not part of His Kingdom. Here’s one of my icky questions; if someone were to ask you to talk about the reality of God in your life, today, what would you say? We often think salvation is just about when we are DEAD – instead it is about what we do when we are still alive HERE.

Lastly, we need to pray for eyes to see what our Good God is DOING, all the time, in each of our lives! That’s when we will have something to talk about. I am of the opinion we sometimes barely notice what He has done, or is doing on our behalf.  So this is our daily FIGHT – to recognise what He is doing in the middle of the junk that flies at us day after day after day! Think of this life as an opportunity to grow and when it gets even more difficult – it’s weight training! Bye👋

P 2829 God bless us all, everyone!

/ DVH

There’s an old saying – you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family. The wonderful thing about Christmas is that we are often forced to confront the people we’ve managed to cleverly avoid all year! Christmas is a fantastic diagnostic tool. 🥳  I’ve found, in the past, that if I thought really hard, I could come up with great reasons as to why we will be unavailable to do the extended family thing. Things like ‘the kids are sick’, ‘my spouse is over-worked and about to have a nervous breakdown’, or … the very least popular one … ‘we’ve decided to have our own holiday this year. Just a quiet one. Sorry!!‘

I do, however, have a word of caution regarding this practice, if your kids see you regularly avoiding people for whatever reason, then you ARE actively teaching them something. Especially if you have lived that way from when they were little to when they are big! You are teaching them that they don’t have to confront the things they don’t like. 🧐 It is a sad fact that kids absorb so much more of what we do, than what we say. Obviously dangerous-to-children people must be supervised or avoided, but at the same time, I learnt that we need to show our kids, by example, how to still love others even when they hurt us or behave badly. You do that by your own actions. And if you mess up, say so. I’ve said so many times over the years.

Back to my point: Christmas with the rellies. Hmmm… so now you have run out of worthy reasons, and you are there, shuddering, or clenching your fists in anticipation of yet again having to talk to Mad Cousin Max. He always manages to hit every button inside you, and smirks at you while he is doing it — because picking on people and finding their weaknesses is his hobby. His all time favourite thing includes jumping up and down on the button inside you marked “failure.” He’s so good at it, or bad at it, that you started praying about managing him last January!! 

The thing is, Max has no clue that people’s responses to him are directly linked to the way he behaves. He thinks he’s a fun person – a stirrer! At Christmas, we have an opportunity to speak God’s life into Max. So I’ve learnt to pray so the Lord can help me find something good about dear old Max, and speak into that, instead of just winging it on the day. Avoidance leads to disaster!! This man doesn’t need our disapproval – he badly needs God’s love and as you are there, you are possibly the best source of that love that poor sod has. However, if Max thinks he is a Christian … then all bets are off! I’m joking OK? …I’m hopefully using humour to make a point – love perseveres.

Let’s look at what Jesus did in a sticky family situation. You will get even more insight if you read from Mark 3:20 …But here’s Mark 3:31-35. “Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call Him. A crowd was sitting around Him, and they told Him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for You.”“Who are My mother and My brothers?” He asked. Then He looked at those seated in a circle around Him and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! Whoever does God’s will is My brother and sister and mother.”

FYI Jesus just enlarged His family to include US. The Lord was not paying anybody back because they said He was possessed by satan, or out of His mind … … see … other people have a Cousin Max in their family too!! Instead He simply included everyone present in His statement. He had been previously preaching to a bunch of people, and He simply continued on with it…despite the interruption from His earthly family.

The Lord persevered with a higher truth, and He used that opportunity to make a deeper point. He told the crowd present: “Anybody who does the will of My Father is My family.” Amazingly Jesus was not drawn into other people’s accusations, He simply went straight to the greater good, and then He returned to ministry for those present. He was there to do His Father’s will, so His Father’s will came first.

One of the ?? joys of Christmas is getting gifts you will never use, from people you-don’t-like-very-much in the first place. The whole, smile and lie your head off routine. At the same time you are prevaricating all over the place, you are trying to remember where the nearest Op shop is… even before you’ve left the party! The thing is, at that moment when you’ve torn off the wrappings, and ended up with lime green, yellow, blue, black and hot pink, argyle socks, is the moment when love can overcome and prevail. I can’t tell you what to say, because I will be way too busy thanking someone else for some dreadful book I’d never want to read… like … EVER!

People who give us opportunities to be grateful for inappropriate gifts are another diagnostic tool. It may mean that the other people don’t know us well enough to buy something we might like … BUT! Maybe … just maybe … that’s because we have been hiding from them for years!  Jesus loves Christmas! But not because it is His birthday, I kind of think when you get to be over 2,000 years old birthday’s don’t matter much!! He loves families and restoration. Let me leave you today, with Tiny Tim’s favourite blessing … “*God bless us all, everyone.”  Bye. 👋

*A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.