Overflows

P 3064 The missing piece to the meaning of life …

/ DVH

… IS IN THE BIBLE! Our Heavenly Father God has not left us to our own devices, instead heaven invaded earth in the most innocent, harmless, least intrusive and threatening form – Jesus Christ came here as a little, helpless baby! HE IS OUR MISSING PIECE. In the bible we have a permanent record of God’s love in action throughout the whole book. Because men and women, just like us, saw our God in action and wrote it down. Now we need to act just like the leper in Mark 1:45 ‘… he…began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter,…” What do we proclaim everywhere? That God’s love is clearly demonstrated through Christ! He is the Major piece of our life’s puzzle.

We have discovered that His Love needs evidence — and Jesus Christ is our personal, and corporate evidence that mankind is now, and will always be, greatly cherished and loved by God Himself. This fact was never meant to be kept a secret – God Himself came here!! We’ve been incredibly blessed, because the bible says to each one of us:  “whosoever-will-may-come!” In other words:  we don’t care what you did. If you are willing to make amends and walk away from sin, and trust Jesus to save and heal you from the torments and angst that sin has produced in your life … you are welcome here! There is no secret password, handshake, keycard or any particular puzzle skills needed! The bible has been given to us to make God’s love for us clearly known. 

That Love for each one of us is another major piece to find. Christians have been reborn to be walking, talking demonstrators of God’s love in action. We are to live this way with each other, and that will be our witness to the world around us.“In addition to all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” Colossians 3:14. The Father, Jesus His Son, and the precious Holy Spirit already have this perfect bond of unity. If we think about Their mutual love like that, then we will begin to understand how important OUR unity is to Them. Their kind of love explodes in us, and on us, and it intentionally fills up our hearts. But this love is not just a feeling – it is a choice. Choice is another huge part of our puzzle. 

Christ chose to love us and that love has always been on display through His words and actions recorded in His book. He did that whenever He chose to lift people up who were burdened by their sin, and He challenged those who thought they weren’t! He healed the sick, cleansed the lepers and delivered those long held captive by the devil’s wiles. One of our enemy’s greatest deceptions portrays him as a scary person in a red suit with horns. But, our bible portrays the enemy as disguising himself as an angel of light. So we need God’s wisdom to see and hear properly – there’s another puzzle piece. His book can teach us. 

Together with the Holy Spirit’s help, plus everything contained within His book, these things are our very best puzzle solvers, and part of God’s heavenly plans and tactics. However, even the bible itself can be a puzzle. We will sometimes need 3D laser skills to see the reality contained inside it. The Holy Spirit helps us to look through the words to the realities within. “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).” John 10:10. If whatever you have bumped into steals, kills or destroys yourself, or others, it is not God. Jesus Himself made that clear. Our only hope is to tune into whatever the Holy Spirit is doing, then we can see beyond the obvious things in this world, into His realm, where love prevails.

We also need to hold tight to another puzzle piece that says ‘God chose to give His precious Son as a sacrifice.’ Jesus chose to come here. And the Holy Spirit chooses to be present all over the earth, guiding each one of us, as He is going to and fro. He is watching out for anyone whose heart is toward the Father. The Trinity’s deliberate choices have led to us having absolute freedom to choose which way we will personally go. And no-one else can take that choice, that puzzle piece, from you. You will have to choose to lay your entire life down at His feet. 

Day by day, we continually remind ourselves of His Ways by reading His book – that book is the key to every eternal mystery. My next proposed puzzle piece is an important fragment of the eternal puzzle we need to understand. When people die, where do they go? His book tells us that. The bible shows us the answer, when it tells us about a rich man who had a beggar named Lazarus at his gate. The rich man ignored the beggar’s needs. (Luke 16:19-31) You can read about the results for yourself. This puzzle piece looks like this:  whatever we’ve been given is to be used to further His kingdom, not ours.

My last pivotal puzzle piece is that salvation is available to every single human being, even the worst of us. In God’s kingdom ALL means ALL!  Almighty God does not use hyperbole, He doesn’t have to. What He says is truth! Jesus clarifies our view of our Heavenly Father and personifies His ways beautifully in the bible. This eternal puzzle was always meant to be solved by us… and FYI …Jesus Christ is the missing piece. Bye 👋

P 3005 Dinner’s ready!!

/ DVH

“YOU become my delicious feast even when my enemies dare to fight. You anoint me with the fragrance of Your Holy Spirit; You give me all I can drink of You until my cup overflows. So why would I fear the future? Only goodness and tender love pursue me all the days of my life. Then afterward, when my life is through, I’ll return to Your glorious Presence to be forever with You!” Psalms 23:5-6 TPT. There are times when reading the bible in another translation totally nails it for me, it is quite simply ‘spot on’ for that day. Forget fairy tales and romance novels, the bible is the stuff that glorious Godly dreams are made from! 

I love this book because: “Oh, how I love all You’ve revealed; I reverently ponder it all the day long. Your commands give me an edge on my enemies; they never become obsolete. I’ve even become smarter than my teachers since I’ve pondered and absorbed your counsel. I’ve become wiser than the wise old sages simply by doing what you tell me. I watch my step, avoiding the ditches and ruts of evil so I can spend all my time keeping your Word. I never make detours from the route You laid out; You gave me such good directions. Your words are so choice, so tasty; I prefer them to the best home cooking. With your instruction, I understand life; …” Psalm 119:103 MSG.

The big plus is that we can always pray for others to taste and see God move like this in their life too. “Kind words are like honey— sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.” Proverbs 16:24.“So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”1 Thessalonians 5:11. The next time you want to give someone else a piece of your mind, STOP!  ….And give them a piece of HIS MIND instead! Many people today are floundering about, with the cares and worries of this life weighing heavily upon them. But we have the privilege of laying something delicious in front of others at any given time. God’s Word is everyone’s feast, especially when it is served in the middle of this world’s famine on beautiful things to think about.

However, there is a wrong way of reading these words. Let me explain … We can read scriptures like these, and look at our lives, and then react with disappointment and say: “I have no honey in my life! Where is my delicious feast?”  This means we’ve temporarily forgotten that this feast is with us constantly when we realise, now and forever, Jesus is our feast. Not food, or better circumstances, or enough money, or freedom from oppression – but the Lord Himself.

That is what communion is all about. It is not just about the bread and wine – or whatever you use at your church  … it is about Him becoming so much a part of our lives that we always have food that other people can’t see, and we have something to drink that other people can’t appreciate. Maybe those other people are too busy waffling on about this wine, and that vintage!  Praise God we have an eternal vintage. 

Jesus prepares that incredible table before us in the presence of our enemies …can you think of any greater punishment for our enemies? Imagine this with me for a second — these people can see and know God’s glory but they are not able to taste it. And the bible says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good:  blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.” Psalm 34:8. What a punishment.

God’s precious, delicious table of good things to eat is always in front of our eyes as we make HIM our refuge. I love that our Heavenly Father lovingly prepared a table – a SON – before us in the presence of those who hate us! Jesus’ own enemies snarled around Him accusing our Lord of all kinds of bad things, but He knew His place in the Father’s heart and plan. That’s the secret, knowing YOU have a place in God’s plan – you are not just some secondary ‘extra’ on the stage of life.

It is also good to remember the loving father, in the bible, who stood at the gate, gazing down the road, waiting for his youngest son to remember how much he is loved. I once heard a man of God I admire very much, say this about our access to Father God: “If my daughter wants to see me and I am in my office busy with work, she doesn’t knock on the door and wait to be given permission to be admitted. She just bursts in, full of her exciting news. “Dad, Dad, Dad! You’ll never guess what happened to me today!”

This is the meal God has prepared for each of us with so much love. Instant access that does not require formality. It is yet another place where the way we think, is not the Way He thinks! We think of Jesus’ broken body and shed blood as a horrible death – yet maybe Our Father looks back through time and says: “My Beloved Son, because of what YOU did for them, look at all the sons and daughters I have. Can you see them coming down the road? There’s Betty and Johanna, Michaela and Dietrich, Sonoma and Tundi, and Kwong lee and Ping, Aleksander and Bohdan … everyone of them are coming to the feast WE have already prepared for them before time began! Their eyes are so focussed on the feast, they don’t even care about their enemies.” 

Dinner’s ALWAYS ready! Taste and see … Bye. 🙌.

P 2986 Nothing can stop us.

/ DVH

The Lord made a way to love every single one of us:  nice or not nice, loveable or evil, ignorant or wise, and His love is not wishy washy mush. It is triumphant in its power! God’s love goes beyond our comprehension. Love is not what I say or agree with, it is the way I choose to live. It is not a tap, that can be turned on or off, it is a flow of His love through me to you. I’m the conduit not the producer.

Having only known human, limited love as a child, the idea of perfect love can seem glorious, but elusive. So when I hear someone express doubt about God’s love for them or someone else, I begin to understand from my own personal experience, how they got there. They saw love as a feeling, as comfort when they needed it, as provision when they lacked something. So for these people, no good feelings, or experiencing bad feelings = no love. Love is what Paul is talking about in Romans 8:38-39 TPT.

“So now I live with the confidence that there is nothing in the universe with the power to separate us from God’s love. I’m convinced that His love will triumph over death, life’s troubles, fallen angels, or dark rulers in the heavens. There is nothing in our present or future circumstances that can weaken His love. There is no power above us or beneath us—no power that could ever be found in the universe that can distance us from God’s passionate love, which is lavished upon us through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One!”

Paul had total confidence in the Love of God toward him. He went through all kinds of terrible trials and testings, but His assurance of God’s never-ending love did not change — despite the circumstances in his life. I have to remind myself all through the day that love is a choice I need to make over and over again and I cannot get there alone. I desperately need the Holy Spirit’s help and guidance. It is way beyond a human being’s comprehension to understand the magnitude of God’s love toward each one of us because most of us have been raised to believe that love is conditional. 

Jesus came here, on purpose to make that kind of love available to you and I, and the Holy Spirit was sent back to us, after He left to pour and spread God’s love all over us, around us and in us. The baptism in the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, is not just a baptism of fire —even though the disciples saw fire;  love IS fire, it burns away anything that does not let it in or out. Perfect love came and expelled all their fear. Love ignites a passion in the recipient that lasts a lifetime.

Pentecost was a fiery baptism of LOVE. His love burnt away every trace of fear in them. Those men and women left the place where they been had hidden away in fear from their fellow citizens, and they burst out into the public market place proclaiming Christ and all He had done. God’s love for the people pushed them out of their hiding place. It compelled them.

“For the love of Christ controls and compels us, because we have concluded this, that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that all those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for their sake. So from now on we regard no one from a human point of view [according to worldly standards and values].”2 Corinthians 5:14-16a.

As we begin to discern how much we are loved by Him, we will automatically overflow with His love toward the people all around us who have not earned it, nor do they deserve it. The well of His love inside us bubbles up and overflows, but we have a part to play in this kind of outward looking love. It begins with obedience to our Saviour’s Words, and culminates daily in sacrificial ACTIONS toward other people. Things that can be seen and experienced by others. That kind of Love cannot be stopped, because its focus is on the One it loves, not on the effort that needs to be made to love other people.  

This kind of transformation will only be seen through us when we decide to make love a CHOICE and take deliberate action. From my own point of view, when I decided to make love a choice, I finally found out just how unloving I was!  Most human beings live this life in a series of trade-offs …I’ll be nice to you if you will be nice to me. then one day, all that ‘nice’ begins to wear off and we start keeping score of the bad things people do to us. We forget that every human being that has lived, or is living now, or ever will live — is dearly loved by God Himself. When we choose to misuse love or withhold it – we are fighting against the very nature of God.

His love simply will not wear out – it is holding the entire universe together. Read Colossians 3:14. Right now His love bonds this universe together. It is the perfect glue. And when we read 1 Corinthians 13 we discover its unique characteristics, it is not materialistic or self-serving. Jesus is God’s perfect love personified and personalised. He didn’t only come here as an expression of God’s love. He came to earth to demonstrate to each one of us the extent God was willing to go to, so we can be His children. Nothing can stop us from living a life filled with love, but our ill-informed belief system. Bye 👋.

P 2778 Anybody got any oil?

/ DVH

“When my coming draws near, heaven’s kingdom realm can be compared to ten maidens who took their oil lamps and went outside to meet the bridegroom and his bride. But the foolish ones were running out of oil, so they said to the five wise ones, ‘Share your oil with us, because our lamps are going out!’ “ ‘We can’t,’ they replied. ‘We don’t have enough for all of us. You’ll have to go and buy some for yourselves!’ “But he called back, ‘Go away! Do I know you? I can assure you, I don’t even know you!’“That is the reason you should always stay awake and be alert, because you don’t know the day or the hour when the Bridegroom will appear.”Matthew 25:1, 8-9, 12-13 TPT.

I have heard this scripture preached about nineteen ways to the dozen … So much so, I can talk about the bridegroom, or the ten maidens, or the oil, or the lamps/containers, or living ready. You know it seems to me … and I could be oversimplifying a tad – that if we make sure we have a good oil supply, everything else will fall into place! At this point, I need to say that I see the Oil of the Spirit as God’s Love, released freely, to bless other people.

That thought kind of reminds me of something that happened to us ages ago when we were on one of our road trips delivering bibles. My story is not about oil, however, it is about petrol, but it was God’s Love that helped us! When you travel vast distances in a car, petrol stations become very important. Anyway, we were stuck in the back of Burke, literally! And the only petrol available was not the type of petrol our car needed. We eventually did the sensible thing, after freaking out(!) We asked the Lord what He wanted us to do about it. After all, they are His bible trips!  Yet, our love for Him, was greater than our fear. 

On the inward journey to Burke, the town with the wrong petrol, I had developed a nasty ulcer on my side. It kept getting bigger and bigger. As it got bigger, so did my rotten lousy attitude. I got grumpier and nastier toward my poor hubby as we travelled through miles of grain fields, with no hope of  help. No doctors or chemists. We had nothing on us to treat this wound, so arriving at our next destination was really important on a number of levels. God’s woman of paste and flour (me), kept explaining to her hubby, in a tearful angry voice, how he had no right to bring her out to the middle of nowhere when he knows how sick she is: blah blah blah, whinge whine whinge.  Between the petrol lack and the lack of a cheerful, supportive spouse, my hubby’s prayer life improved mightily! I eventually calmed down and joined in with him … after thoroughly repenting, of course.

When we set out, the territory ahead of us was just plain heavily-treed bush, filled with wild pigs and goats wandering about, and quite a number dead on the road. A road train and a beast aren’t really a fair competition. (See picture above.) We knew when we began the journey, that we definitely did not have enough petrol to get us safely to the next town. The needle was in the red.  So for 200kms we both tried extremely hard not to look at the petrol gauge! That’s the whole point of walking by faith, you don’t know what comes next…and it’s often scary! For all we knew we could end up camped by the side of the road waiting for someone to realise we were missing. As we travelled along, deliberately-not-looking-at-the-petrol-gauge, we noticed how very few cars were going in the other direction! That was not a comforting thought. 

Eventually, hubby said in an astonished whisper: “I think that there is more petrol in the tank now, than there was when we started out.” Boy that popped my eyes open! I leaned over and looked. He was right. The petrol gauge needle was up higher than when we started. We knew how much we needed, and we didn’t have it, and … now there was more. To make a long story much shorter, by the time we got to our destination – we had more petrol in the tank than we did when we started out!  BTW, the Lord healed the ulcer – which was still bad – a couple of hours after we arrived, it disappeared.  

I think that the church’s largest problem today is that She quite often runs out of oil. And our biggest enemy is indifference. The pastor or priest, or leaders might have oil, but most of the people in our congregations don’t! These women in Jesus’ story in Matthew are not leaders or religious folk. They are simply attendants waiting for the Bride and Groom to appear … and so are we! What this story Jesus told teaches me, is that WE – that is YOU and I – have a responsibility to make sure we have a living, lively, life-giving relationship with Holy Spirit! He’s our motivation and our source. We look to Him to supply our needs.

He is always ready to be our supplier. Human beings can run out of LOVE –  because they don’t know they will need it until they need it!  However, Almighty God Himself stands ready to supply our every need. We need to ask for fresh supply of His love, His oil, daily!  Then walk with Him. Stop expecting the leaders to be your only supplier and get your own relationship with Him. The Spirit of God will help us survive the next crisis at our house! The Body of Christ cannot afford to run out of oil. So, we need to ask … and keep on asking. Then we step out in faith and do what He says! The Holy Spirit never shuts down His supply of Love and that is exactly what we need. He is with us 24/7. Bye. 👋

P 2613 Make it your aim to speak life to others.

/ DVH

Part of living as a member of God’s kingdom, is to love and respect Him, as well as others by the way we speak to them. Our society is pretty free with its opinions – we tend to throw them around like we are sowing wheat. As His representatives, we don’t tear things down, we build them up.

Today, it seems to me that the news services go out of their way to highlight difficulties. In fact every day, with astonishing regularity, we seem to have some catastrophic circumstance or other that is impossible to solve, and it is always some authority figure’s fault! That’s when opinions fly about like leaves on a blustery day. The Lord has been repeatedly teaching me that what I say matters. Words are meant to be tools that shape His kingdom in front of someone else’s eyes. Speaking life is not just about communicating, it is actively breathing His life into others using words. 

Because we are His kids, the bible tells us we have His authority to speak to other people in such a way that they will go away from meeting us, lifted up, or challenged, or comforted. I am not always sure I get that bit right, but … I repent … then I press on…!!  Speaking life means that I am communicating with someone else so that they feel empowered. They want to do or try something they have never done, or tried before. They feel loved, not rejected. Encouragement is a great gift — I urge everyone to ask for it. It can lift someone else up when they are in despair, and help them so they can move forward.

However, I am not talking about flattery, that is temporal at best. Flattery can be really deceptive and destructive. Flattering someone often means I have an agenda, and I am trying to sell them something. But speaking life is about speaking out something that is good, right, and pure. These words are containers of His love. It is often something sweet that our Heavenly Father wants to say to us, or someone else. Personally, I have found when the Holy Spirit says to me: “Say this to that person” – it seems like I am simply taking dictation, as there is a spiritual component to it.

He whispers something to me, and I simply pass that on to the other person. It may be about how well they are doing their job. Or their friendly face. Just simple things. A lot of the time it comes out in my own words. It is not the same as prophecy, but it can contain elements of that in what is said. As an observer, it definitely seems to me like more oxygen comes into the room and I think that’s because Jesus always inhabits what He says! People stop being aware of their failings and become aware of His kingdom because His Presence blows the irrelevant things away. 

This quality has been illustrated wonderfully for me when my hubby talks to complete strangers. First of all they seem to be attracted to Him. I see them look up and instantly smile. Secondly, because what he says is not religiously framed, they accept it immediately. I think it looks like they actually feel God’s grace on hubby’s words.

Human beings can have all kinds of theories about Almighty God  – but there is no denying it when He steps into a room. His people know Him … even if they aren’t His adopted people yet!! They are still His… “Delightfully loved ones…  ”  That verse goes on to say: “…if He loved us with such tremendous love, then “loving one another” should be our way of life!” 1 John 4:11. That’s great advice!

Hubby says that speaking out encouragement is like giving people courage. I like that idea – who doesn’t need courage? Some days I need it to get out of bed! What he says to strangers is personal, real and almost tangible. They often reply: “How could you possibly know that?” Then he says: “I don’t, but HE (points to the ceiling) does.” You know,  I have never seen the Presence of God make people anxious. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but I haven’t seen it. Our God IS love. When people encounter His unconditional love – there is no need for fear or striving – their heart has found HOME. 

Our daily task is to grow into that kind of generous, unrestricted love. That’s the only real assignment we have every morning. After that we simply pass on what we’ve been given. There are no agendas, no subtexts, we take the time to be His conduit toward that other person, as we relax into the fact that He loves us and them. … Then we just follow His instructions. Our words have power in them, they can build someone up – or leave them flat.

Jesus made His aim clear in John 10:10. “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].” Bye.👋