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P 2791 Let’s simplify life.

/ DVH

There are many kinds of difficulties in this life, and they occur because real life is not full of rainbows, unicorns and happy endings with blue birds! Instead we get to live day by day with ever-increasing complicated systems that don’t work. Yet our daily delight is to advertise the Lord by the way we treat others – even when they annoy the living daylights out of us.

The other day hubby was explaining stuff very carefully to a person, or maybe it was AI  …whatever-it-was on the other end of the phone! Meanwhile it took him 15 minutes to reach a voice!  AI? Actually it could have been someone who was not the brightest light bulb in the box. He explained to whoever it was on the other end —— that he did not want to be transferred to their local office, because he had already phoned there and they didn’t supply what he wanted. He needed another outcome please. The person listened, said “one moment please” and immediately transferred him to the place he just said he didn’t want to go! There’s a test on self control coming up!!

He went round the merry-go-round three four times before he found someone who was a genuine, regular, breathing proper person. And NO! We will not tell you where that real person is, we found her … she’s ours! Find your own. My hubby loathes phoning large companies. He would honestly rather walk to Alice Springs, than phone the gas company, the electricity company, the bank, the insurance people, the hospital or the government … that last one will really show you where your heart is! It’s an ace diagnostic tool!

It’s not just the wasted time, it’s also the wretched “hold please” music, which is never to your taste and incredibly loud … but you can’t turn it down. So you have to hold the phone away from the your ear, and that means you can miss out on the little voice, that turns up … after 3 months, and if you miss them, then … you go round and round again! “You are tenth in the queue … you are 24th in the queue … ” Huh? How come I went backward? I told hubby the other day when he had been on the phone for hours, circling the drain – that it is OK to be furious with AI!! 

Eventually, when you get off the phone you want to get rid of that explosion of fury you’ve built up, because you want  to walk in Grace. No wonder some people have thinning hair – they must have been pulling it out in frustration. The directions drive you nuts! Press 1, press 7 … press 484 … that’ll get ya where you want to go  …or not! You can end up playing word bingo and you have to guess the right word. Some organisations are like MI6. You need a password to get in!

I’m old! When I use the phone I am hoping to talk to a real person, with a name, and hopefully an address, A proper human VOICE on the other end, that actually understands my questions. I do not want ABU DHABI, I want to find my parcel! And how the heck did it end up in Abu Dhabi in the first place? The other week hubby had to press one cyclic number so many times —because the list of possible destinations for the call were so large that he couldn’t remember them. And he had to start again .. five times! He was stuck like that on the phone for hours — getting nowhere. It’s like hurtling along on a roller coaster. It’s a terrible ride and you can’t get off. Plus you need a rubbish bin to throw up into when it finishes.

BUT, if you don’t phone, then you run the risk of having whatever service that you-suddenly-instantly-wish-you-didn’t-have … cut off! You are informed by the ‘voice’ you must be polite, not sexist, not racist, not homophobic or religious or angry or they will terminate the call.Yet they seem to enjoy poking the bear!! Sigh. Apparently the police can turn up at your house tomorrow to carry you off to Abu Dabi — where hopefully you just might find your parcel!  After you’ve been on the phone for hours, you need a strong cup of coffee, a nice sticky bun and a long lie down. 

AI, BTW, is not even remotely helpful because it doesn’t have enough options — especially the one YOU want! Tragically we are all sunk, forevermore. At the same time is incredibly galling to see advertisements telling us how convenient their phone systems are. I do hope they find Alice in that Wonderland!

I think the Lord Jesus was incredibly wise to have entered this world at a time when life was so much simpler! After these phone call episodes we have found ourselves longing for a life without phones, and their accompanying annoying institutions. The government in Jesus’ day simply killed you if you bothered them. And if you were sick, then Jesus healed you – or you died!  A simple life is the thing, that’s what I say. 

So if you do get trapped on a phone going round and round for days, try singing your favourite Christian songs loudly so you don’t lose your cool.  NOTE OF WARNING — but not into the receiver because you are not allowed to be religious. You might also read the bible out loud – again — not into the phone!  Bye …📞

P 2361 What’s next?

/ DVH

“You can pass through His open gates with the password of praise. Come right into His Presence with thanksgiving. Come bring your thank offering to Him and affectionately bless His beautiful name!”Psalms 100:4 TPT.

I believe we need to take verses like this one literally, instead of simply reading it and nodding our heads in agreement …  we actually need to do what it says. We must get into the habit of seeing the bible as a book of instructions, and not just a book of nice thoughts, interesting stories and stuff that God said to other people! I use His own words to form my prayers as He reminds me of an appropriate verse for my current situation.

The verse above is filled with instruction. It is a road map into the throne room for a personal interview with our Father!  A bunch of people can participate together, or one person can apply it just for themselves … it doesn’t matter. This means we stop what we are doing and use the password! I never thank Him for the problem … instead I thank Him that He is going to get me out of it!  “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them ALL, …” Psalm 34:19… Man, how I love those little words!!! Learn to insist no matter how long it takes.

At the same time I truly believe our fantastic Father can use any verse in His book to bring somebody to Himself! Sadly, I think we have limited our own comprehension by making exceptions. “Oh, that’s just for the Jewish people. Oh that’s just for sinners. Oh that’s just for people who never met Him.” And we miss the blessing and the deeper knowledge of His ways. 

Praising God means we will get blessed too, it’s just an automatic flow-on effect. So when it says, bring your thank offering to Him, do it. And if you find it hard to think of something to be thankful for, ask the Holy Spirit for His help… and then thank Him! And then … repent, because you obviously have not been paying attention to what God is doing in your life! No I am not joking. 

Almighty God uses His book to tell us how we can have fellowship with Him, so we’d better be more concerned about His thoughts than someone else’s! You might wonder: ‘will my fear of failing God ever go away?’ Here’s my answer –  does satan ever fall asleep? 😳 That war inside our heads is normal, it wouldn’t be FAITH if we didn’t get stretched in the process! 

“Whatever He says to you, do it.” Mary said that to some servants at a wedding once. She had a right to ask them to do that – she knew Father God’s ways first hand! She put her body on the line. I’ve practiced doing that scripture for 50 years, ever since I first read it. Boy, I’ve done some monumentally stupid stuff, trust me – I’ve mentioned that on this site … but I’d rather try than excuse myself, and miss the blessing of seeing God do what He does best – He loves to surprise people!  Including me.

How can we affectionately bless His holy Name if we are standing way off in the distance, too scared to be seen??Maybe we are scared He will bring up something we hope He doesn’t know we’ve been doing, or something we have already done?! Get over yourself, and fix the things that need fixing. I know other people are difficult, I have a bunch of those people in my life. He knows how to handle them. We need to just follow the prompts and watch what He will do with our obedience.

Personally, I have a bunch of awkward messed-up things in my life that look like a cat got at my knitting! Stuff is tangled up so badly I have no confidence it can ever be untangled, unless He does it. But I know my God, and I’m not taking my faith back, because I know, that I know that – HE IS GOOD and His mercy endures forever. (That’s another Psalm BTW.) I learnt that stuff by using my faith – especially at times when things didn’t work out and I could see no solution. Our God loves the impossible. I loathe the impossible, I get so stretched by stuff I feel like I am going to break – but so far … He just keeps bailing me out. However, you probably won’t ever hear me say: ‘Oh goodie! Another terrible test for me to trust God with.’ 

But those moments are the time to enter His gates with thanksgiving and go right on into His courts with praise. Why? Well, first of all, praise and thanksgiving won’t change God’s mind –  He is always for us. Praise and thanksgiving changes ME! We all need to stop paying lip-service to what He says and act on it instead. The bible is a book filled with instructions, plus stories about other people who followed instructions! It ain’t rocket science. 👋🏻