Parables

P 3370 Where is your focus? On you or Him?

/ DVH

Yet we don’t see ourselves as capable enough to do anything in our own strength, for our true competence flows from God’s empowering Presence. He alone makes us adequate ministers who are focused on an entirely new covenant. Our ministry is not based on the letter of the law but through the power of the Spirit. The letter of the law kills, but the Spirit pours out life.” 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 TPT.

God’s loving faithfulness is our best focus. Doubt yourself, doubt your friends, doubt your relatives! People have their own agendas. But please don’t ever doubt God – believe in His goodness. Make that a fixed point in your heart and belief system. The enemy comes at all of us with trumped-up charges that supposedly prove that God doesn’t love us, and He doesn’t care when we are in pain.

When that doubt sneaks up on me I deliberately remind myself: “God is good. He is always faithful. The bible has loads of stories that illustrate His faithfulness.” He doesn’t have to prove He is faithful to me, His book firmly establishes that fact. So I go and read the Psalms, or one of the parables of Jesus. Let’s deliberately choose to bring our focus back to Him first, above everything else.

Children expect their parents to always understand them. But adults mature, and they actively comprehend that we are all different. Our parents are human, and we can all be sidetracked by our own needs. However, our Heavenly Father, God, is always for us, and we can quite simply, lose sight of His goals. We need the Holy Spirit’s help, strength, wisdom, and His input to help us to see our Heavenly Father clearly. Not to mention everybody else in this world!

If you’ve ever read the books of Kings or Chronicles you will find God never ignores the things that are bad. He has no problem calling bad things, BAD. However, He also always clarifies what is really going on, and He goes to the heart of the matter. Let’s choose to grow up enough to realise our perspective is not the only one, nor is it necessarily the right one! The perspective that really matters is HIS. We need that.

Almighty God made a covenant, an agreement with His people, the Israelites. Sadly, often all they could see were the benefits He supposedly owed them. They were obsessed with themselves, their comfort, their victories. They only thought about the things that would benefit them if they followed Him. They forgot He is Almighty God, Maker of heaven and earth. Father God will not be weighed up and measured by our measly little opinions or fall for our hissy fits. He’s God. He doesn’t need us – He chose us – and we absolutely need Him!

When our focus is on ourselves, everything else blurs into insignificance. We can no longer see the hurting, dying, lost people around us — and those people could be members of our own family. The Body of Christ needs to stop thinking of Jesus as just a supplier and see Him as our Commander in Chief!  Sometimes we don’t, or can’t see the answers to our prayers because, as James clearly tells us  … “…we are asking amiss.”  We say: “God rules the world” on Sunday, and then go home and act like a despot demanding that everyone else suit our needs, comfort and moods, on Monday. Whatever happened to servanthood?

Often we want to escape from the very things that can teach us humility, patience, or long-suffering. We can become so focussed on ‘me, my feelings, my life, and my family, ‘ that we can’t see anything else. The second we start to look UP and outwards, we are standing in the Lord Jesus’ shoes. He always looks toward His Father, that’s why He is radiant! And He also looks outwards – toward all of us. Everything He did, said or suffered He did for us. Perhaps over time, we’ve focussed for too long on who the bible says we are, and not nearly enough time on WHO HE REALLY IS.

Let’s start voluntarily correcting our course, and focus on what really matters – HIM! Bye. 👋

P 3180 There is no other way.

/ DVH

Mark 10:48-52 talks about Bartimaeus, a blind beggar from Jericho, who insistently called out to Jesus and was healed, and then he followed Jesus down the road. This man didn’t give up on what he wanted, easily. We shouldn’t either! It appears to me that unlike Bartimaeus – we don’t know that we too are blind and deaf.

Many Christians have stopped seeing, spiritually speaking, and we aren’t always great at hearing the Lord for ourselves either! Hearing and seeing spiritually are a part of God’s kingdom. They are a part of our birthright, and a key into intimacy with the Holy Spirit. There are times when we’ve all walked into a  place of unforgiveness because we listened to the enemy’s ‘poor you’ sympathy line. We all have a sad story – this is a fallen world.

Let’s listen to Matthew 13:13-15. Jesus Himself is speaking to His disciples: “This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

Spiritual eyes and ears are incredibly important to our walking with the Holy Spirit. Even as our everyday human sight and hearing are part of our interaction with the world around us – if we cannot see or hear with our normal eyes and ears, we will be shut out of God’s Ways. What is true in the natural, is also true spiritually. We will be shut off from seeing and hearing the glories and knowledge of His kingdom if we refuse to obey what He said.

Meanwhile the Lord Jesus is never silent, read the book – it’s chock full of what He said! Please stop worrying about discerning ‘voices’ and read the bible instead. A thorough knowledge of the Word of God is the best discerner on the planet! Jesus spent hours teaching His disciples. He was teaching them to see and hear what  was going on inside themselves, and all around them. Things aren’t always the way they look! 

At one stage of their walk with Jesus, two of the disciples – James and John in Luke 9:54 – want to burn down a tower in a Samaritan town that rejected the Lord. How could this awful attitude happen, when they were daily walking with Jesus? These two men had no spiritual sight. They obviously did not understand what Jesus was teaching them! Maybe they thought He was making suggestions, or perhaps what the Lord said was in opposition to what this world had taught them and they tried to marry the two things together. We cannot successfully live in two worlds. That’s like trying to stand still in the middle of a roaring flooded stream. The stream will carry you away. 

Now, let’s look at what blocks our spiritual sight and hearing. The bible says it is a calloused heart. That malady is fostered by sin, and it is definitely not helped when we stop sincerely forgiving others, from our hearts. If we harden our hearts against other people, and stop paying attention to the conviction of the Holy Spirit as He speaks to us,our problem is no longer that other person! We will end up grieving Him because He loves them too! 

The same thing goes for any other sin, we have a free will and our choices matter. We are only fooling ourselves if we excuse ourselves for one reason or another. The Holy Spirit wants us to walk with Him, and forgive others despite their sins against us. It is not about the other person — it is about what will happen to us in our relationship with Him. Meanwhile, He is not just our answer – He is their answer too! Grace flows out when we allow forgiveness in.

Jesus is always ‘other centred’- and therefore a calloused heart is a terrible state to cultivate. A calloused heart can be made unfeeling and numb by repeated actions. We will end up with an inner war, as the Spirit fights to free us as we fight to hold onto our anger and thoughts and feelings of revenge against the other person. Eventually such thoughts become habitual and we have a stronghold to deal with. We cannot fix the past by holding onto it—the way forward is to make the future different. The Holy Spirit is in our lives to help us with those things. 

The longer we allow ourselves to remain in that frozen hardened state, the more it becomes harder to escape. Hatred, revenge and murder begin to infiltrate our thoughts. “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 He turned and rebuked them [and He said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”  Luke 9:54-56. The Holy Spirit will help us with what we need to do, but we need to obey Him and disobedience hardens our hearts. If you have been praying about your sight and hearing and you aren’t doing very well, then perhaps you need to start by searching your heart, with His help. It is astonishing what we hide – even from ourselves.

We can close our spiritual ears and eyes because of our own choices. To be in Christ Jesus – we need to be doing what He would do. And He forgave us all as He was hanging from that tree. There is no other way. Bye. 👋

P 3177 God loves to play ‘peek-a-boo!”

/ DVH

In our daily lives we get glimpses of the Lord acting for us, and doing things around us. A glimpse by definition is a fleeting view, a passing glance, or a quick look into something briefly. This means that there are days that we pray for someone, like I did for my neighbour the other day, and she successfully dodged huge hailstones and part of someone else’s roof while she was driving. Whenever we hear a good report we know it is the Lord answering our prayers. Let’s acknowledge those moments, not just take them for granted.

We are, day by day, blessed and humbled by His loving care. So the idea of using Him for our own ends, is abhorrent. And it is definitely not the same as knowing Him! Using Him is about getting what I want, far more than it is about gaining knowledge of Who He is. We don’t need some snappy “twist God’s arm to get what I want” system – He loves us! These ‘peek-a-boo’ moments are meant to move us on into a lifestyle of gratitude. 

There are times when we’ve prayed for ourselves after a particularly difficult day and we find the rest of that day sort of, smooths itself out. And we know it is the Holy Spirit, doing what He does best, making our pathways straight and unhindered – He is helping us. Praise Him! On other not-so-fantastic days we pray and the same sort of junk plops on us, but it is a different day – and we are suddenly plunged into the land of worse. 

What changed? Why did He answer one prayer of escape and not the next one? I’m going to give you my little theory, but I want to stress that you should ask Him that question for yourself. When we pray for this and that, and the Lord graciously answers our prayers we are relegating Him into what I call the specialist category. When human beings have a need, and we can’t solve it, we go to a specialist. Whether it is about health, our car, or our house! 

It might seem very flattering to see the Lord as the kind of specialist we can consult with whenever we need help – but doing that will not form the kind of permanent on-going relationship that the bible talks about. Jesus wants to be our everything! If we are not grateful for we have been given, then I think we can end up relegating our Heavenly Father into a consultant category. SomeOne we call on because something or other isn’t working!

We need a much wider view – that is less about me and far more about seeing Him as Almighty God, Who rules heaven and earth! He loves us so much He has His eye on us! The bible tells us we are His people, so we do not ever have to suffer from an identity crisis. Jesus Himself knew He would always be heard. He died to give us the same privilege He had. However, the inner workings of our heart matters. Using God to make my life better is not “… the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.”(!!!) In spite of the terrible things He faced, Jesus knew His Father’s Way was the best way. So He actively chose to honour Father God’s will despite the pain it caused Him. 

When Christ became our sin, He was separated for the first time from His Father. I think that’s what killed Him – that relationship was so glorious the break in it was fatal to Him. It broke His heart. Oh, I pray that the people of God would be heartbroken over sin the way Jesus was! I believe He is our God-given illustration of how to be human, and walk with God Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit! 

The Lord Jesus’ teachings and parables are illustrations of what this life can look like when we follow Him wholeheartedly. We can see in the bible, for ourselves, that Jesus always chose His Father’s Way. So this is what we need to do … we need to understand that Father God is not merely our consultant – He is our GOD, first and foremost! He is in charge and we are not. We cannot afford to postpone obedience or ignore Him — because of the consequences. Ignoring Him means we miss out on knowing Him, as well as living our lives His way! The Way of the Cross.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:25,26 – “For whoever wishes to save his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], but whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake will find it [that is, life with Me for all eternity]. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world [wealth, fame, success], but forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” 

Our Heavenly Father is not a despot. In the Old Testament we can hear Him pleading with Israel — the way a parent would plead with a beloved child who is on the wrong path. He wants us to come to Him purely because we have a deep faith in His goodness. HE will not ever do us harm! Jesus Christ chose to come willingly under His Father’s Leadership and supervision at all times, and He taught us that we need to do the same. There is no such thing as part-time Christianity in God’s eyes. He bought and paid for us with the most precious thing this world has seen – His own Son’s blood.

Now He wants us to choose to live our lives, HIS WAY, and we will see Him everywhere. When we deliberately  make that choice and stick to it.  In other words He won’t just play peek-a-boo, He will manifest Himself among us and we will become His people, not just in name but in deeds! Bye. 👋 

P 3073 Be Generous.

/ DVH

“So he (an angel) said to him,(Cornelius) “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.” Acts 10:4&31 ”… and then Peter said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms are remembered in the sight of God.“ Hebrews13:16.   “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” 1 Timothy 6:18.“Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.” Acts 20:35. “…remembering the words the Lord Jesus Himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ 

One of the least favourite things to talk about in Christianity is money, rapidly followed by service. It seems that you can tell people that it’s wrong to yell at their spouse, and kids, and get mad at the neighbours … but leave their hard-earned money or time alone! Yet Jesus taught parables about it. He talked about things that directly involve what we choose to do with our money, possessions or time. It seems to me that we’d better pay attention, because money isn’t the only issue here. What we do with our time, our love, and attitudes also matters  — it’s all generosity. 

Cornelius was not a Christian, yet his generosity brought him to God’s attention! An angel told him that his generosity created a memorial for him. Think about it. We are here, right here, right now, because Cornelius was generous. Almighty God used this man to open up Jewish eyes to the possibility of sharing the gospel with the Gentiles! He straightened out Peter’s theology, with a vision, impressing on him that what the Lord Himself SAID was clean or unclean, was the guideline,  We can hypothesise and ponder all we like, God has bigger plans than we can ever imagine – let’s do stuff HIS way.

The bible tells us ‘our thoughts are not His thoughts, our ways are not His Ways.’  Father God does not respond to some things the way we do – He’s the all-knowing, all-wise, infinite, eternal God! This means He has a fantastic perspective!! He sent an angel to speak to Peter, because Peter’s theology didn’t line up with what the Lord wanted to do. I’ve noticed many times in the bible where God clearly says: “Think bigger still!” I believe we have inadvertently limited Almighty in order to manage Him, and our disappointments. Good luck with that! You cannot limit a limitless God – that is why the universe is still expanding!

The Holy Spirit clearly tells us in all those verses I mentioned above, that He loves generous people. People who voluntarily help, and/or listen to someone else’s troubles, and pray for them. We need to live this kind of life, all day, every day – always willing to share with, and help others. Our life is to be ‘other-centred’ and so we will have to fight hard against the current trend in humanity that is: “Me! Me! Me!” centred. ‘It is in giving that we receive.’

Our God has been incredibly, out-of-this-world generous to us. If we truly want to follow Jesus – that’s the narrow path – generosity.

Living like this is never ever convenient. Giving always means you have to make an extra effort. Just like changing our minds about ordinary things can be difficult, because we think we already know the answer. But those little things, those choices, steer our ship in His direction. That’s what changed Cornelius’ life and opened a brand new door for all sorts of people. Jesus set the precedent, when He healed, blessed and talked about our Heavenly Father to Samaritans! We have no idea who the Lord will save… that’s why we must tell everyone.

I think it is foolishness to live this life postponing giving and blessing others, to a better day. People deceive themselves thinking that other things are more important. Things like a better future, a much-needed holiday, or a nicer house, or good education for our kids. But none of us know where we will be tomorrow!  We dare not stop participating in our God-given, God-blessed actions, by holding them ransom against adverse circumstances. Find someone to bless today and every day. Go outside and look around, get a different perspective to this world – there is more to life than striving to attain things. 

I know what it is like to have difficult things land on you daily. That happens to us. I just keep giving the difficulties to Him. I’ve learnt to want what He wants, no matter how important things may seem to me to be at the time. His way is the best way. Pray, read the bible, make your time available to Him, and ask Him to help you find something good in what the day brings along. We can so easily give up our peace and hold ourselves hostage to a better day tomorrow. But we only have today.

Lately I’ve ended up laughing at things that would have made me so mad in the past! Sometimes, laughter really is the best medicine. I’ve learnt that my overreaction to petty things can be hilarious! God remembers and takes note of generous people! We all want God’s favour, and because of Jesus we already have it!  Generosity is a key to living this life the way the Lord Himself did. Bye. 👋.

P 3016 The Kingdom of God is like …

/ DVH

Yesterday, I had the above phrase in my mind. I felt the Lord tell me to look up the scriptures that say … the kingdom of God is LIKE …  … The first thought I had about this subject is that wherever God’s kingdom is present it means He is in charge. So …who rules my life? When we accept Jesus as Saviour and Lord, that means His processes begin, we begin to learn His Ways.

The seed of the life of God within us germinates and inside that seed is the potential for a fully mature tree of righteousness  ‘… that He might be glorified.’  However the growth or unveiling of that seed is a progressive thing. Something we should always seek – first. Maybe we could pray like this: Dear Holy Spirit, Reveal God’s kingdom to me, and for me, as well as through me, today please Lord, Amen.

I noticed that Jesus often described or illustrated His Father’s kingdom by telling His listeners parables, stories. I mentioned one yesterday from Matthew 20. It seems to me that prayerful, meditative reading is one key to unlock the revelation of how His kingdom can rule and reign in each of our lives. Mainly because “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” So “God’s kingdom is not a physical place – but a spiritual reality and a way of living.” (Thank you Google!)

Here’s a brief synopsis of what the kingdom of God is like in the stories Jesus told. The kingdom is like a farmer sowing a seed;  a man hunting treasure;  a woman kneading dough;  a fisherman casting a net;  a man forgiven a debt;  a wedding guest evicted from a wedding because he forgot his jacket. Or unmarried, pure young women waiting to greet the bridegroom;  or a landowner being generous.

Each one of those individual parables provides us with a story and within that story is a revelation – an unveiling – of a much bigger truth. We can let our pastor do all the work, or we can pursue God and His Ways for ourselves. The word ‘find,’ is sometimes used, as well as ‘hidden.’ We see His kingdom through our spiritual eyes using our faith, and we go on reading to find something to obey. The kingdom of God gives us a new way of thinking which leads us into a new way of living.

“Then Jesus said, “God’s kingdom is like seed thrown on a field by a man who then goes to bed and forgets about it. The seed sprouts and grows—he has no idea how it happens. The earth does it all without his help: first a green stem of grass, then a bud, then the ripened grain.”Mark 4:26-33.

I think the Lord used the illustration of something hidden and ordinary because that intimates there will be a revealing of something unexpected, so a revelation is necessary. When God gives us a revelation those new thoughts rise up from our hearts, into our heads and we begin to think and act differently. What He says becomes our reference point, taking preference over what we think, or whatever we think we already know. One day we are reading away, and suddenly the thing we’ve stared at for ages, not only makes sense – it jumps off the page at us. 

Because this is His Grace in action we have nothing to contribute to this process of growth, just our willing obedience, and love for Jesus Himself. Often this stuff happens when we are not even looking! In His kingdom a single seed produces more seeds. So the kingdom of God is like the potential to change, digested and applied. Bye. 👋.

P 2958 When the Master is away …!

/ DVH

… That’s when the bad servants beat up the good ones and started stealing, plus they cheat others, and complain about some people getting more than them.  Once they even killed off the heir so they could have the lot! There’s my potted version of at least 3 of those parables. 

The Lord told over 30 stories about servants and masters … do you think maybe He had a point for us?? My thought for today is this: those stories, parables, illustrations of what NOT to do are written to warn us. We’re His servants —remember? Those things were written to alert us about the kind of stuff we can fall into when the Holy Spirit is not welcome. You think that’s an exaggeration right? Yeah, so did I until the Lord put His great big exclamation point right next to the title of this blog! 

Years ago, there was this hair product called Brylcreem. It fixed a guy’s hair in place like glue!! Forget gels … this stuff was shiny and it stuck your hair together into the kind of a shiny helmet that wouldn’t move in a Force 4 gale! Men loved it. Meanwhile, at the same time, the ladies were also supergluing their hair into teased up balls that stood about 6-10cms away from their heads. We did this stuff … be-ca-us-e…it was the fashion. How dumb can you get and still breathe? Actually you couldn’t breathe much at all – that hair spray left you coughing and spluttering for ages.

What has hairspray and Brylcreem got to do with the church? Any church can get stuck in a shape that comes from the past by doing what we have always done, simply because it worked in the past! That’s what. OR we can end up following the fashions of the mega churches around us – instead of finding our own place. Maybe we’ve stopped thinking about what the Master of HIS vineyard told us to do, and started to think that our church is ours… OR … we want to do everything the way our great granddaddy did it because ‘he founded this church and they had wonderful ‘praise the Lord’ meetings way back then. This church has great roots.’ 

Fabulous. So how is the fruit production going? Good roots mean good fruit right? 😳 Are we still excited about the faith we first had when we met the Lord? We were over-the-moon-passionate about those things He is passionate about. IE: PEOPLE! We have been exhorted, in the book, not to leave our first love behind… plus our faith is meant to grow and expand and affect everyone around us … until we leave here. 

To me that means we should be trusting God with more today than we did last year … because, to begin with, more stuff keeps happening in this world each year! Things change, our kids grow, and our problems are no longer how long will they sleep? They are: what time did they come home last night? Who are they hanging around with? Unless we listen to Him and He starts blessing our meetings in such a way that others come to believe, we can easily lose our way. – like the servants in those parables.  

They had meetings in the bible that were so incredible people got saved just standing near the participants. I know that some churches have over 4,000 people attending and bible studies and programs up to the ceiling and back – but how many laid-down lovers of Jesus do you have? How many people can you call at four in the morning to help you with an unruly drunk or druggie who needs help? The kind of people who will open their homes and take that severely disheveled, smelly person in. 

The thing that corrupted the workers in those vineyards etc. was this – time passed and the master did not come back. So people starting improvising how they thought things would work better for them. In the absence of the Holy Spirit’s convicting Presence we will simply go through the motions …and then one day we’ll wonder why our kids don’t want to come to church anymore! Would we even notice that we are just going through the motions, Sunday by Sunday? There is a way to reach into our neighbourhoods … He knows it and we need what HE KNOWS. Let’s ask HIM! Let’s ‘ask, and keep on asking’ about that!

I don’t have answers, I just have questions. I’m not even talking about miracles, signs and wonders, although those things are great! I’m talking about healthy, happy, growing, spiritual babies who have a testimony to the goodness of God every single time you speak to them. People who are devoted to glorifying Jesus in every situation. Plus mature people who happily spend their lives for His sake, even if life takes a bite out of them – and it will – their fruit just gets sweeter and sweeter.

So what can you do about this? Pray. Raise your level of expectation – expect to meet with Him and have your mindsets challenged and changed, every single Sunday. It is not the preacher’s skill that will change you, it is the attitude of your heart toward God fulfilling His purposes in your life. Big duh! here … don’t stay mad at anyone! Let’s not be the kind of servants who mess around and mess up! Even if we feel nothing, HE will always deserve all the glory. Amen! When the Master is away …let’s do what HE would do. Bye 👋

P 2947 Who are you really … ??

/ DVH

Matthew 21:33-46: “Now listen to another story. A certain landowner planted a vineyard, built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country.  At the time of the grape harvest, he sent his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers grabbed his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. So the landowner sent a larger group of his servants to collect for him, but the results were the same.

“Finally, the owner sent his son, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’“But when the tenant farmers saw his son coming, they said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Come on, let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ So they grabbed him, dragged him out of the vineyard, and murdered him. “When the owner of the vineyard returns,” Jesus asked, “what do you think he will do to those farmers?” The religious leaders replied, “He will put the wicked men to a horrible death and lease the vineyard to others who will give him his share of the crop after each harvest.”

This parable reminds me that without active, visible, accountability and supervision what are WE, you and I, actually like? As in, who are we when we are at our house? The nice people at church can’t see us there! Don’t be two different people:“Admit your faults to one another so that you may be healed…” This is a good time to ask your family if you are the same person wherever you are. If not – why not?? The bible says:“I can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength …”

This is one of the parables I like to call, ‘the very-scary-better-think-carefully-about-them” parables. Not a cheery story. Not a happy ending either! However, I love that Jesus is a realist. He understood mankind, including the best and the worst of us and He knew what we could do to each other. Some of our biggest spiritual problems can come from thinking:“Oh, I would NEVER do that!” Can anybody smell the Pharisee in the room? Like somehow we have become exempt from our own humanity. That’s called P.R.I.D.E. OK, so now there’s another 27 people who have gone right off me! Ho-hum.

None of us know what we are capable of, until we are pushed hard enough by circumstances, or maybe we see an opportunity for gain. I’ve met a lot of the “Oh, I would never do that,” type of Christians in my life. Good luck with that one! If that really IS you, then you need to thank the Lord for delivering you from temptation! Nobody knows our hearts but the Lord, and boy does HE know what’s nattily hidden away in there. Stuff that can be disguised quickly with a change of our facial expression. I’m not keen on dishonesty. I think deceit is a deadly poison, it eventually floods the body and becomes a way of life. Self-deception is the biggest thief of all!

The only thing that can actively transform every single one of us is the blood of Jesus, and the truth is, if you don’t think you need it – then you won’t see the need to apply it into your life! Really, REALLY dumb move, Basil! You can lie to me, your mother, your family, the pastor, your friends, but … when life squeezes you hard enough you never know what is going to come out. The biggest danger we face is what I call the ‘who will know?’- opportunities.

So let’s get real, and hang onto your bonnet sister, it’s about to blow off —  there can be no redemption without acknowledgment of sin. Now breathe… and listen to what the book says … you could always read it out loud: 1 John 1:9 says:“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Hmm … maybe you need to read that again, it’s possible you missed a word in your clever speed reading. IF… if… if… if!!!! 

If’n ya don’t own your sins, you won’t see any need to confess them… and if we make excuses for our behaviour … we won’t own that either! I have heard about every excuse under the sun, from people who want to hide their real attitudes and self-centred ways from everyone. What a waste of a life! It is a waste of time letting fear and deceit run the show … we know that Jesus died to pay for all of it – but the prerequisite to qualification involves confessing our faults. We all have them. Presumption shot Peter in the foot, he was caught by a chook!

SomeBody already knows each one of us, who we really are!! He’s the Person we should all have holy fear about!We have made a god in our own image, and He’s very permissive and understanding … He understands I can’t help it, I had a hard childhood! Forget the gossip club at church, GOD knows! And our excuses just won’t hold water in front of His precious Holiness.

Forgiveness comes from His compassion, faithfulness, and that is only IN CHRIST. Our sin is no longer the problem, when we’ve given our lives to Him. However, when we try to hide from Him, and hide the things we still do from other people, then we are denying the power of the cross to cancel that sin. That’s the problem. 

Out of sight out of mind, doesn’t work in the kingdom of God. Honesty does. Confession does. Purity of heart does. The sacrifice Jesus willingly made for us does not give us permission to ignore the prompting of the Spirit of God. Just because we can’t see Him, that doesn’t mean He isn’t here, with us, right now. His Presence is all over His book … so quit skipping the bits you don’t like! The question for today is: who are we when no-one will know? Bye. 👋

P 2943 Signs of spiritual death

/ DVH

1. Lack of breathing –

We can easily ‘run out of breath’ as we walk with the Lord, especially when we do things in our own strength. Genesis 2:7:“And the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.” Without the Holy Spirit’s breath on and in us – we will die. He is the breath of life and He is our new best Friend. John 15:5 says:“We can do NOTHING without Him.”

2.Pupils fixed and dilated –

I don’t know about you but nothing ‘fixes my pupils’ like watching TV or playing a video game! You can stare at it for hours and lose half your life doing absolutely nothing! Matthew 13:13:“This is the reason I speak to the crowds in parables: because while [having the power of] seeing they do not see, and while [having the power of] hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand and grasp [spiritual things].” We need new eyes to see and new ears to hear. Ephesians 1:18 says: “… the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, …”

3. No heart beat –

Hearts grow cold and stop functioning when we hold onto grudges, or bitterness toward others, we short-circuit the new life blossoming within. Ezekiel 36:26-27: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” When we are born again we are given a brand new heart – we need to watch over our hearts. Proverbs 23:26 states: “My child, give Me your heart and let your eyes delight in My ways,…”

4. Rigor mortis – stiff and cold –

Boy this one is far too easy, we can become so accustomed to other people’s hardships we don’t see them anymore. The passion of God thrives in a ‘red hot heart.’ Jesus said in John 10:10b:” I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”We cease to really live this new life when we stop following Him. Matthew 24:12 says: “And the love of the great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity, …”

5. No response when shouted at and shaken – 

Some people once heard God Himself speak, but they only heard His voice as thunder because their hearts were far from Him. Romans 13:11 states:“And this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for NOW is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”The repeated, every day rhythms mean we are often lulled off to sleep. We need to be awake at all times, because temptation can sneak up on us. Ephesians 5:14-16: “This is why it is said:“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”

6. Cells and organs start to die –

Our relationships with other Christians get weaker and weaker. Church becomes a chore to be performed, instead of a meeting place of refreshment. Psalm 118:17 says: “I will not die, but live, And declare the works and recount the illustrious acts of the LORD.” Our destiny is not to live ‘dead’ lives, but to be living testaments to the goodness of our God. John 15:1&2. “I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.”

7. The blood has ceased to flow –

We stop even thinking about the state of our spirit and just keep right on doing the same old same old, every day —one thing following another. Hebrews 9:14 explains, the blood of Christ, shed for our sake, cleanses  “… our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”1 John 1:7 states: “but if we [really] walk in the Light [that is, live each and every day in conformity with the precepts of God], as He Himself is in the Light, we have [true, unbroken] fellowship with one another [He with us, and we with Him], and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin [by erasing the stain of sin, keeping us cleansed from sin in all its forms and manifestations].” 

I urge us all to live this life, the only one we have, in the cleansing flow of His blood, filled with His Spirit.  Our new life in Christ transforms everything that would make us into ‘zombie’ Christians, as we leave our old dead life behind us. Wherever we go – His glory follows us instead. Don’t be caught DEAD with these spiritual ‘signs.’ 🤣 Bye for today. 

P 2926 Compromise.

/ DVH

To die or not to die — that is the REAL question! One of the saddest deceptions that has gone vastly unchallenged today, is the idea that if we don’t want to die to self, then that will be OK. The logic behind that thought is this – after all Father God loves us, and He understands how hard it is for us – so we don’t have to be like … totally sold out to Him. He understands that we are only human! 

Yeah, that’s right, Jesus gets it. After all He took on our form and walked through this world, sinless. BUT! Jesus got His power to live an overcoming life, from His ongoing obedience and connection with the Holy Spirit. We always retain the power of choice, but the reality is, God knows the right way for us to go,so why the heck would you want to go any other way?? Obedience shows trust. Jesus obeyed His Heavenly Father – to the death!!  The bible says: “There is a way that seems right to a man but at the end of it is death!” Proverbs 14:12. Dying to self is not the same as losing the life of God in us to deliberate sin.

Everything about my natural man will try to protect ME, myself and I – and from personal observation, we are blooming good at it too! Not only that, but I can protect me, and make you look like a ruffian and then go on to prove you are dead wrong from the book! But the bible is not a club it is an implement of freedom.  And our inward, and often unseen choices, can undermine our spiritual life. We can’t afford to lose the Holy Spirit for a minute. We need Him daily – all the time. Temptation is waiting around every corner. When we choose to hide, or pretend, that’s when the precious Holy Spirit leaves us, quietly, unobtrusively. Sadly we won’t even know He has gone. Then our own vain imagination takes over …and boy! …  Is that a scary thought!

Jesus offered us a new way of life, not an alternative lifestyle. He said ‘this is the way walk ye in it.’It is extremely dangerous to try to walk, and/or balance our lives between those two worlds of total surrender and commitment … and living like Christianity is an optional extra – something I take part in when it suits me!  We cannot look after me and serve Jesus. We must leave looking after me to Him!

So the answer is simple – give up the power of choice, stop being double-minded and live this life like God is bigger than you are, and He knows what is best. We have a big book full of examples of what He can do with people who obey Him. Simply follow Jesus and see everything else as a distraction from that chosen path. Living like that is how we will learn to be in this world the way He was, because He was here to do His Father’s will. The Lord Jesus was always about His Father‘s business and that’s our mandate too. 

He told a lot of parables about people who went off and did their own thing. Stories about when the master of the vineyard etc. was busy or went missing. Those were not good stories for the people who chose to do their own thing, and they did not have happy endings. The safest way to choose is to choose to follow Him unreservedly. And because He is humble in His heart, that road will lead us down. Lower still. Less recognition for us, and more recognition for HIM.  

We will probably fall over and mess up a bit while we are learning these things, but the reality is the choice to remain on His road leads to life – and more life. That’s the abundant life that Jesus talked about. The Lord is so sweet, He will be very patient with us while we are learning. He will correct things “…and teach and guide us with His eye upon us.” But we simply can’t live this new life without HIM, because we will fail, get discouraged and fail again … just from sheer disappointment! There is no middle ground – that’s just something someone made up so they could live with a foot in each world! 

In today’s permissive climate this is definitely not the time to go skipping through the daisies doing whatever we like, and expecting the blood of Jesus to cover it! The blood of Jesus is incredibly precious, so we must not ever misuse it. We can’t afford to misunderstand and mistake God’s incredible Love for us as permissiveness. We dare not tell people that they simply need to be saved – without telling them they need to be changed – by His Grace and their own obedience! 

We need His wisdom to negotiate our way through all the things that will come against us. Personally I have found in the face of difficulties, it is best to immediately, verbally, yield. Tell Him you want His will, His way – no matter what. We are never alone, praise God, we have an Advocate Who understand what it is like to be human! Jesus prays for us all the time. After I do that stuff, I hand everything over to Him and I do nothing until I get further instructions, mostly from His book. Otherwise it is way too easy to be dragged about by the wind of this doctrine, and that clever theory/idea. 

At the same time we need to remember our aim is love, so when we fall short of love, we are falling short of what Christ would do. But when I am dead to self, and I have no agendas anymore, who I love is no longer up to me – it’s up to Him. Dying to self is not an optional extra … it’s the point! He died so we can have the power to live this life His Way. That’s what disciples do, they represent their Master’s wishes. Anything else is compromise. Bless you, 👋

P 2839 Waiting precedes fruitfulness.

/ DVH

I enjoy this time of the year because I love looking at, and smelling the fruit of summer. Plums, apricots, peaches, mangoes, nectarines, raspberries, strawberries etc. However, waiting for harvest is time consuming. All that weeding, fertilising, watering etc. as well as pruning, which creates more fruit – it all takes time. Fruit trees can even  take a long time to produce fruit – most immature trees take 3-5 years. 

Our mango tree, which was originally grown from a seed, took about 7 years to start fruiting. But boy! That first crop was sooooo yummy. 🥭 Meanwhile, we had to fight birds, possums and creepy crawlies to get it. We have a pretty lush front garden, but it is periodically invaded by big fat locusts. Hubby kills them off one at a time and it gives him great pleasure. There is no John the Baptist at our house! We enjoy our plants and fruits, and we ain’t sharing it with bugs! Sadly, insects love those fresh green shoots – it’s all salad greens to them.

In the natural, there is no point in periodically digging up a newly planted seed to see how well it is growing. You will kill that plant stone dead!  So, today, I want to briefly look at Mark 4:26-29 – Jesus knew a lot about horticulture, He often used illustrations about growing things. “He (Jesus) also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. ALL BY ITSELF the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

When it comes to growing stuff, we’ve found experience helps, but everyone is in the dark, until that fledgling seed pops its stalk and leaves through the ground! Then we are off. Clipping this, feeding that, regularly watering and protecting the plants. I have huge admiration for farmers! Such patience. The time it takes for any sort fruit to grow is labour intense and tedious. We’ve had a lot of storms this year, and they’ve manage to whittle down and eliminate the potential little nubs of our would-be mangoes. Fortunately we have still had had a good crop – some were 900grams!  

The thing is, when it comes to spiritual fruit, the process of growing His graces in our lives is very similar to growing actual fruit.It takes time!  First God plants the seed, (the Word) and then it is fertilised by His Grace kissing it. We know we have a seed that is just for us because He highlighted something when we read that particular scripture and now we’ve start praying about what we are to do about it. That kind of waiting on God waters the seed. We are saying to the Holy Spirit: “What You have given me is important, and I am paying attention to it.”

Feeding whatever grace the Lord wants to bring out in our life, comes from seizing opportunities. This, just like edible fruit – is not an instant process. Unfortunately, right after we have read the Word, our enemy often comes along to steal it. he will try to explain it away, or point out that you were given it so you can tell someone else. he will do anything to distract us and prevent growth in that seed. Father God, however, will bring opportunities across our path for us to cultivate this new fruit. I would just like to mention that those opportunities are hardly ever convenient, and they involve dedication.

What keeps us, keeping on, is the fact that God is at work, to His will and good pleasure!! This is what makes His Word flesh in our lives. It goes from theory, or thought into actions. I need to mention here that the first few times we try to obey might be quite difficult. We have already a tidy little group of cultivated weeds in our lives  – they are excuses, happy little reasons why that scripture isn’t there for my attention so I don’t have to do whatever it is. 

Then comes the assault of the rampant weeds, which grow more quickly than your plant!  Weeding is hard work. It goes against the grain and it pains the back!! Two roads face us at this moment, one leads to the death of that seed God Himself spoke into life, and the other leads to dying to self, so His seed will prosper inside us and start pushing against any resistance. The seed of God’s word will always seek the light of His love and His enabling. Remember, the Holy Spirit is always there to help us – but He will not do it for us! 

But ignoring our weariness in the well-doing, our feelings or even stinky attitudes is actually hard work. As soon as I get to this stage, and I know that have done everything He asked me to do – I stand. The bible says in Ephesians: “…and having done everything, … stand!”  Whenever the enemy fires fiery darts at me from others or my own thinking I give the whole situation over to the Lord and leave it there. On purpose. 

There are times when I have to give stuff back to Him over and over again, because those weeds of doubt and insecurity have grown quite large. So if He gives me something to do as all this is happening, I do it. I am enlivening my faith – that is hard work. Then I go back to standing and WAITING. Growing God’s fruit of Grace takes time, and I want to be in this battle for the harvest of fruit in my own life. I want to see that fruit growing so I can share it with others… Bless you, bye for today. 👋