Paul

P 3358 More of Jesus.    

/ DVH

Colossians 1:3-8.“Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can’t quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope. The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn’t diminish or weaken over time. It’s the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what God is doing, you’ve been hungry for more.”

Have you eaten too much of something you like, but you kind of still kept on going? Yeah me too. Maybe you’ve binge-watched something on Streaming? Yeah me too. Well today have I got news for you! I found something you can indulge yourself in that isn’t fattening or mind numbing – the quest for more of Jesus! 

People say this all the time, and we might easily feel like an inferior Christian, because that thought never even crossed our minds. My question today is: what does it actually mean?  We can say a whole lot of Christian-ese words sometimes, without any bible verses or experiences to back them up. So what does wanting more of Him look like? 

I can remember being so in love with my hubby that I would go long distances to spend five minutes in his company. Hmm. I would still do that, but I might need some personal assistance nowadays! He’s still the nicest person I know …  well, most of the time. I think more of Jesus means, at the very least, that I will want to spend more time with Him getting to know Him. I actively ask and look for the Lord in my day. When I see Him, I thank Him!

I’m just going to let that sit there while we both think about it. That’s because spending more time with Him means we need less time for us to do the things we have cultivated in our lives to relieve stress, and fear, and help us to cope. Yeah. I’m just going to leave that one there too …

I think more of Jesus is like falling in love. Ad when life gets difficult, we approach those things with Him as our Saviour, Lord and Friend. Then we choose to appropriate what He said He has given us, using our faith. That means WE DO SOMETHING. It’s an exercise of our will, and we accept whatever comes at us, because the bible tells us He filters that stuff.  If I need something, He will provide it – if we don’t, then He won’t. We live to make love our aim, because Love is His language, and that means we are looking at life through His eyes.

More of Jesus also means our value systems will become  like His, and our hearts will break for the things that break His heart. Because Jesus lived to please His Father, and we like being around Him, so we will choose to live that way too. Our needs and wants become secondary; we pray, ask, then we leave it with Him. He’s God He can do anything. If someone provokes us or pokes us in the ego – what will come out of us automatically is a help prayer.

All of those things are great aims!! But like the Psalmist says: “Such knowledge is too lofty for me to attain…” Psalm139:6. My translation to that bit of this Psalm is — we can’t possibly do this stuff and not exercise our faith. We need His help, because change happens one step at a time, but we begin with the firm knowledge that what Jesus did is already complete.

We no longer have to live like other people, the Lord has given us His word that He won’t leave us. He will also provide us with a way to get out of whatever dumb thing we’ve gotten into. Our minds and emotions, become secondary to His Word, because they can fool us into thinking that reacting the same way we always did, means we have not been changed. It’s a lie. Jesus did everything that ever needed doing on the cross. So we choose to use our faith to apply what He did, once and for all, into our own lives, now. 

There are times we can get stuck because our convenience wins over what Jesus said, but we know that repentance restores our relationship with Him. There can also be times we haven’t done the things we know He asked us to do. How can we learn to trust in Jesus, and want Him and His ways more, when we choose to be a slave to convenience and time?

This is the real point of today’s blog. I think we fail because we live in a fast-paced society where time is a thing to be used … … not savoured. So let’s look briefly at the consequences of not using our time well. We will probably stay in the same place spiritually, going up and down, always waiting for God to make the difference, when He already did! We allow His truth to be merely a reminder, instead of a prompt for change.

According to Colossians Chapter one, more of Him also contains a whole lot of thanksgiving! Actually, the bible says we shouldn’t stop giving thanks, no matter how we feel. So we need to practice thanking Him that He is in charge, even when it looks like He’s not! Now there’s something to go on with. Remember that’s not lying, it is lining ourselves up with His Word, instead of being led around by circumstances.

Paul thanks God for the growth of the faith of the Church in Colossae. He can see it because it is seeable. We go on and on about answered prayer, but what about Jesus’ prayers?? Paul himself has heard about the things that are happening in that church. God’s Word grows spiritual fruits, and that fruit is visible, not a euphemism. Wanting more of Jesus means we recognise the difference between what God says, and what is seeable and actually true in our lives. Visible fruit is proof of more of Jesus in our lives.

The believers in Colossae used their faith that what Jesus said He did, He did. They staked their lives on it. We need a whole lot less of ‘spooky filter’ Christianity and more fruit! More of Jesus signifies that we choose to obey what He asked us to do, and we get to see the results and so do other people. Bye.  👋

P 3352 Holy Spirit please give me strength!

/ DVH

Our daily battles are proof that our Heavenly Father is taking us at our word. Somewhere, somehow, at some time or other, we told Him – “We want to serve You. You are our Lord and Saviour and we choose to follow You, Jesus. Nothing of me, Lord and all of You.”  Amen. Guess what? He remembered that prayer… Yeah I know, bring that up! However, let’s not get offended when He takes us at our word! 

In this life there is always a suddenly! Somebody does something unexpected and we feel lower than a snake’s belly because they just proved we were wrong. Well, maybe you don’t hate that, but I sure do!! Instead of being angry, defensive, or feeling rejected, let’s see what has happened as an opportunity to learn to do this life, His Way.

Here is some great advice from the bible: “Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.” 1 Chronicles 16:11 NIV. It is natural in unexpected moments to realise that we need His strength, but we are better off acknowledging that before we get overwhelmed by our feelings. I know we need His strength to overcome temptation and sin, but we can easily forget how badly and how often we need His strength, minute by minute, from day to day just to deal with ordinary things … not just when the ceiling falls in. Let’s depend on His strength, and run to Him first! 

Sometimes there can be a big catastrophic event … you get a waterfall in your bedroom, and you can’t take delivery of your nice new helpful bed because the roof is still leaking and you don’t want to mix electricity with water, and become a pop-tart! … BUT, some days a disaster consists of the cat deciding to do it’s business in a random corner;  plus a kid can’t find its very important project, and it’s weeping and wailing all over the place! And now you seem to have less money in your wallet than you thought you did. In those moments of extreme irritation and angst, his mother calls to see how you both are!

We need His strength all the time, every single day, because we don’t know what comes next. The following is one of my favourite prayers: “Help, help Lord, I need Your strength.” Sometimes it doesn’t quite come out like that, but He knows what I mean. I can’t count how many times I call upon the Lord’s strength, especially now I have grown older. I feel feeble a lot!

The Holy Spirit says His strength is made perfect in our weakness, and He gave us every right to call on that strength. Here’s a secret I’ve learnt:  don’t start out in your own strength, ask for His strength when your feet first hit the floor. Why would we wait to ask for His help, when we know we can be easily distracted by circumstances. His strength is right there with us, why exhaust our own strength first?! This life has proven to you and I that our own strength is limited – start out poor!  Remember the bible says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit because they will inherit the kingdom of God…” well, that’s kind of what it says in Matthew 5:3. That’s a promise for today not when you are dead. Start and finish poor, it’s one of His ways into kingdom living.

Let’s look at our verse from 2 Corinthians 12:8-10: “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

First of all, I want to say that it helps me to find that the Apostle Paul had a weakness, or three — and he wasn’t ashamed to admit it. Our decision is simple, do we want God’s perfect strength or our own? His strength comes with the understanding that we can’t do it on our own. Our effort comes with a pile of control, agitation, worry, and — don’t forget how anybody can get angry — especially when the other person is not on the same journey we are. How many times have we all said:“I did all I could!” Yeah, we probably did, but we forgot we have heavenly resources now. My best is pitiful, His best means REST.

This is how you get into rest. You give it all to Him and give up striving to do something you clearly can’t do, or even maintain. God has already provided a way, and that way includes Him helping us to reach the goal. Jesus sent us back SomeOne to be with us Who has the Name  – HELPER. The Lord died to give us a brand new way to live, He doesn’t want us killing ourselves trying to be something we are not in order to please Him. It pleases and blesses the Lord when we learn to lean on Him, then we step out in faith as He leads us. We will stay humble and He gets the glory … win win. 

Back to Paul and my last point – God’s Grace is sufficient for me. Sufficient means we always have enough. We have enough for anyone who might be temporarily driving us crazy. We have enough for the kitchen sink tap that won’t stop dripping. We have enough for the kid who seems to perpetually have a cold and is always sniffing! We have enough! God says so. So we pray, ‘Holy Spirit, please give me strength’ and we do what He says – and then we end up with a testimony about what the Lord did. It’s a no brainer. Bye. 👋

P 3342 HOW?

/ DVH

Philippians 1:9-11: “So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.”

I have come to understand that Paul’s prayers are not just in the Epistles for the churches he started and pastored – those prayers are for us too. It is good to read these things aloud and say Amen … I personalise the scriptures and pray them for myself. I’ve been praying for years that “the eyes of my heart would be enlightened” so I can see what He wants me to see. PS I also ask for wisdom. I don’t stop praying for that, because I don’t want to put a ceiling on what He wants to give me. And I thump the daylights out of Psalm 91, mainly because I need to remember every single day I’m only a spectator – participation is optional!!

Yesterday what I wrote was pretty intense. When I read things like yesterday’s blog, my first response is always: “That’s terrific, and I am all revved up and ready to go… but how?” … The secret is in the HOW …  BTW today’s blog is not comprehensive, however I have learnt it is good to make some sort of a beginning – and remember to be kind to yourself while you are learning – God is! Stay filled with the Spirit – if you mess up, repent, and refill. If you give out to others refresh yourself in His love for you.

The Apostle Paul tells us what love looks like over and over again in the scriptures. Part of HOW is this: Love looks like something. It looks like patience when you ran out an hour ago and you and the Holy Spirit are wading through the ghastly stuff of life and He’s holding you up!  I think any mother can tell you what patience looks like.

I think it looks like a two year old who wants to get dressed “all by myself” … and then go to church in any old jumper, especially if it is inside out, together with odd socks and shoes – I let the kid wear them BTW!  Kindness looks like your elderly parent who tells the same stories over and over again and you already know them word for word. Kindness understands they are really saying: “I’m still here, I had a life, things happened to me too.”

Love looks like not giving someone else – who often clearly deserves it – a piece of your mind. Instead, you tell that person how much you appreciate them and why! ‘But, but, but – that’s so-oo bad — aren’t you lying?’ OK. Let’s unpack this — are you saying that telling them what you really think about them isn’t bad? BTW, for your info, I’m not talking about lying – I’m talking about asking the Holy Spirit what HE sees in that person to love. The Holy Spirit knows everything and He will share those things with you. This means I’ve received, for free, a whole heap of insight into the person who is bugging the daylights out of me. 

One of the Holy Spirit’s Names is HELPER – why not allow Him to help you! We have a Resident Helper Who knows you, as well as that other person. As I was typing He reminded me about a person who is in my ‘difficult to relate to file.’ I prayed and asked for His help, and I saw them just yesterday – we got along so well. I think it was because I relinquished my own efforts and gave our future conversations to Him.

This is the biggest part of the secret of HOW. I urge you to pray over things, repent of your own bad attitudes – and don’t forget to let Him decide what a bad attitude is! … Then give it all to Him and leave it alone. He’s GOD, He can do anything! Sometimes we think we can see what that the other person needs, and we don’t even ask the Lord what He wants! Bad plan. Take the time to consult the Master Planner first. He knows it all. He’ll tell you what to do, He will give us useful stuff to help us love others .

Plan to live a life of love. That’s my next bit of advice. You have to plan it, and own it, day by day. A life of love cares about others. It is not absorbed in promoting itself, and it doesn’t emphasise ME being understood, instead it concentrates on love. The last suggestion about how to do it – is this: There are things we often say, and we say them because we are down, or someone has hurt us. But, if we are honest, they really don’t need to be said – I would like to suggest that it is better if they are not said.  

I don’t think we need to be paranoid about these things, because then they can become a task that needs to be done, instead of a way of thinking about others. Let’s revise our thinking prayerfully, repent wherever necessary, but be careful not to end up religious about it. Religion prospers, because it becomes a cultivated habit … it’s easier! But it doesn’t bring LIFE. Listening to the Holy Spirit means we’ve given up our agendas and we want to walk in His. So that’s the how, to yesterdays’ theme – “there is a bigger reality.” Bye. 👋 

P 3340 Learn to fight …

/ DVH

…for what is yours by birthright! And remember, we don’t fight against flesh and blood. It’s not your spouse, or your parents, or your uncles and aunties – it’s the devil! 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 :“The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.”

And Ephesians 6: 1-18 says: “And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and He wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the devil throws your way. This is no weekend war that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the devil and all his angels.                                                                           Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare.” 

We are in a battle, day by day, whether we like it or not, and even earthly soldiers get battle fatigue. However, we have the power of God within us to make the difference, and we need to use His power to help ourselves thrive in His Ways, and for the benefit of others. We don’t just fight under adverse conditions – we learn to thrive. Many times in our lives together, hubby and I have commented it seems like it is one thing after another, and another.

You can get very weary from fighting things. Like battling to maintain a Godly-attitude with His help; or not reacting to the same thing happening for the 479th time! Let’s face it satan doesn’t fight fair. he will kick you and beat you when you are down. One of the best weapons against despair and disappointment is the realisation that Almighty God will not ever give up on us. There are things float through our minds: “Does God care about what is happening to me?” Those are the battles we must fight in our emotions, and minds — they can be overwhelming, and potentially, destructive.

Remind yourself that Jesus took every single sin and mistake we’ve made to the cross with Him. And our God is not a fair weather Friend! Now you and I are blameless in His sight – that’s what His Grace is all about. The truth is a weapon we can use when our minds are full of doubt, unbelief, and anger or disappointment with ourselves or others. We must stop! — and remember Who we belong to now. It’s a supernatural task, so it needs supernatural tactics, not just mind games. 

We can’t continue to quote the scripture without knowing the reality behind it. The reality comes from living this life eating His bread, daily, and reminding ourselves of His blood over our lives, daily. I am reminded of someone else who tried head knowledge in Acts 9:11-17: “Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are you… ?” Being known by our enemy means we are bothering him. Good! Someone famous once said this, I have no idea who it was – “Be the kind of Christian that the devil says every day – oh no! He/she is up again!!”

People can sometimes be defeated because they are not pointing their will toward what the Lord wants. Obedience is essential. If you feel you can’t obey, then point your will toward His will and ask for the Holy Spirit’s help. When God talks about truth, He means His truth, not just something that sounds like truth, but it is indulging me in self-pity – or making me feel justified in my sad sack attitude. I cannot BE justified outside of the blood of Jesus. He gave that to me, I didn’t earn it… I’m so grateful for His goodness!

When God says “renew your mind” He is not talking about parroting off some scripture or other, as a weapon against satanic attacks. Our own personal knowledge of His goodness, is a mighty weapon. I stand and face my fears, or other people’s accusations and misunderstandings  by saying: “This one thing I know — MY GOD IS GOOD.” Ergo, if it is not good, then it is not God! … BUT!! Please remember to check your heart first, and  make sure you are not blaming someone else simply because you don’t want to deal with yourself! Our beliefs are not second hand they are up close and personal. I dun fell down that hole many times! Sigh.

When it comes to battles I am like a three year old. I run to hide in my Father’s robes. I want to be that spectator in Psalm 91… I don’t even try to peek out to see what is going on. I let what He has already done do the work for me. Shape your life around the Lord, make Him the centre. Then we can’t be dragged about by the winds of change and impulses of whimsy. If you are under attack drag your heart back to thinking about how good He has been to you. Read the bible aloud!

Let’s choose to live this life, by finding out stuff from the bible for ourselves. I am no longer a child, if I need to know something, then I ask the Holy Spirit to help me find the answer. Then I go and dig around in His book. Learn to fight for what is your birthright by the way you live. I need to participate and feed myself daily, digesting what He said with actions. We can’t win with hot air, we need real weapons forged in our lives with the fire of His life in us. Bye. 👋

P3332 Where have all the encouragers gone?

/ DVH


“Let the inner movement of your heart always be to love one another, and never play the role of an actor wearing a mask. Despise evil and embrace everything that is good and virtuous. Be devoted to tenderly loving your fellow believers as members of one family. Try to outdo yourselves in respect and honour of one another. Be enthusiastic to serve the Lord, keeping your passion toward Him boiling hot! Radiate with the glow of the Holy Spirit and let Him fill you with excitement as you serve Him.” Romans 12:9-11 TPT.

The Apostle Paul did not write this stuff simply to impress people with His literary style. I believe he was giving the church a list of instructions as well as teaching them the way to walk with Jesus day-by-day. We skip over verses like these at our own peril. They are not just positive suggestions, they are life and health to us and they need action … digesting.

We have inadvertently allowed our feelings to get in the way of what Paul is saying here. This means we can end up avoiding Sister Mergatroid because we don’t like the way she is raising her kids – or the way her husband always takes over at testimony time. Whatever! You fill in the blanks. We need to continually remember that personal opinion, and the right to have one, died when we gave our lives to Jesus. Dead people don’t have opinions – they are far too busy accessing the new life Jesus promised us... live in the resurrection not the grave clothes!

Our new life is an example of what Jesus can do with people, who are living in ordinary circumstances. There is something quite astonishing about normal people living a life totally sold out to Him, yet we’ve become used to special people doing it. Maybe we have failed to comprehend the fact that the “old has passed away, behold the new HAS come.”  This is not just a form of adaptation to a different way of life – that very life has come to live in us now!

So now our job is to use our faith and walk out what we have been given. The unknown, unseen church-goer has far more effect upon the community than they realise. It all starts with the way we treat each other, and floods out from the church into the way we treat other people. Because we always rely upon His wisdom, we don’t look down on anyone. We have His Grace to see potential, not faults — so we take the time to speak into someone’s potential – and let go of criticism.

When my kids were small I did all I could to help them see that their one little life matters. Somewhere in that relatively short time of influence, I had to learn to let go of prodding and pushing, plus speaking good – and I had to watch them make mistakes. They became His people … not just my kids. They have their own way of expressing their faith. He’s their Father — and in my observation, fathers are great at speaking encouragement. They help us to have the ability to take a risk so we can grow, plus they offer us steadfast love, comfort and affection, when things don’t go so well.

We need more encouragers. People who help us believe that our breakthrough is our birthright. Encouragement is a spiritual gift found in Romans 12:8: ‘that empowers individuals to inspire, comfort, and strengthen others, bringing hope to the church and everyone else.” This gift is greatly underestimated. It has the ability to stand someone up on their feet so they can go again. It doesn’t push, or look down upon someone, instead it leads and instructs.

One of the Holy Spirit’s Names is “Encourager.” As an Encourager He helps people to find the faith to go on when everything inside them wants to give up. Our collective task is to keep our focus on what He says about us, because the Lord Himself is so reliably generous with His praise and love. This world has damaged many Christians, who have eventually fallen through huge cracks of disappointment and discouragement. Mainly because theyt have misinformed expectations and they are not met. Encouragement is about lifting them up again.

When you can’t find something encouraging to say, ask the Lord – He knows what that other person needs to hear. At the same time, you will be using your faith and you will see Him in action, for yourself. Sadly, there are also times when you have to be your own cheer squad. For one reason or another someone else is not available or you feel like you can’t hear the Lord. That’s when it is good to go to the bible, and read uplifting verses out loud. 

God’s Word strengthens us when we are weary, lost, or broken hearted. At the same time it is important not to deny whatever is going on, we live in a real world with real pain and human needs! These things are not just about sin, they happen because they are a part of life. We can be sidetracked if  we focus on how we feel, above what He says. Faith chooses to believe what Jesus said, despite these times. After all, acknowledgement is not the same as approval.

Let’s read the bible, and remind ourselves that these verses were written for US, for this day, for these moments. Encouraging ourselves in the Lord is important and it is also extremely helpful. David did it. Remind yourself that you are not a bad Christian, you are in a battle and our enemy is relentless. However, …”The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].” James 5:16b. Bye. 👋

P 3330 Jesus is the Hero not us!

/ DVH


2 Corinthians 3:4-5: “Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Our life is now, today, not tomorrow. Tomorrow literally never comes. So, today our life is about relinquishing our own personal power, and gratefully receiving His power into our lives to help others and overcome sin. Now there’s a big thought! The Holy Spirit is our Resident Expert in all things spiritual, which is why we choose to defer to Him, even if at the time, it makes no sense to us. Obviously the bible is our yardstick in all things, but learning to practically trust the Holy Spirit is essential if we want to walk with Him.

In the Lord’s kingdom we are children, His children. He loves our obedience – especially in the face of our own logic. I’ve learnt over time, that things will eventually make sense, and we will learn patience in the process… bonus buy! I wish I had the space here to recount the times I have badly messed something or other up — and then, when I realise my sin, I repent, and ask Him to redeem the mess I made. Some of the most brilliant answers to prayer I have ever seen, come from those moments! Don’t be afraid of getting things wrong as you walk with Him – Jesus is a Redeemer.

The Lord’s wisdom and clarity are astonishing. When I am writing this blog I often can’t think of a good, clear, simple way to explain many concepts that seem exceedingly complicated to me. I don’t just want to write my ideas here, I like to do my best to write things that will give other people insight into Who the Lord is. So I pray, and He literally hands me the sentence I couldn’t find.

Often a particular sentence, a word, or a phrase pops up and I know it didn’t come from me. It suddenly drifts through my mind and as it does that it occurs to me that isn’t the kind of thought I would have. Even when I get stuck reading the bible, I ask Him to help: “I just don’t get that Lord. Would You mind explaining it to me please?” And He does.

Reading the bible without the Holy Spirit is tedious and boring, reading it with Him is like slowly unveiling a puzzle as it fits together. “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.” Ephesians 1:17. We will never understand His Word with our hearts, if we simply analyse it with our heads.

I’ve been reading the bible for over 50 years so I guess I am familiar with the overall gist of it. But I still need the index every now and then to find stuff! I know what I am looking for is in there, somewhere, but I often dunno where! Thanks Google. However, I also know it is His thought when it simplifies something that seemed so complicated that I couldn’t understand it at all …

One of the most frequent things the Lord says to me as I read His Word is this: “What doesn’t it say?” Here’s another one: “What would it look like if i did what it says here?” Man I love/hate that last one. I love it because He is going to show me something about Himself I haven’t seen yet, and I hate it because I know that somewhere, somehow, I’m going to end up taking a risk. Believe it or not I am not a risk taker by nature. 

I once went to Niagara Falls, but I skipped going over them in a barrel, the second I looked at them! Man that’s a whole lot of water!!  No risks for me! I am often aware that I’m not other people’s taste when it comes to speaking – because I’m too blunt, but I don’t much care if I hurt your feelings to reach your heart. Yeah I hear the irony!! I totally love the Body of Christ, but my first priority is that I want Jesus to have the  reward of all His suffering. We can be part of that reward for Him when we value what He says above what we think and act on it.

I have definitely fallen in love with the way Jesus thinks about people. When I have trouble with someone I ask Him to help me to see them through His eyes. People are His favourite subject, no matter how they look, or what we think is wrong with them. He doesn’t SEE race or creed, He sees people who need His love. Our Western selfishness and sense of entitlement is tragic. We scrimp and save and work so hard for the things that do not last. And we can easily ignore the eternal because it doesn’t jump up and down and demand our attention.

Paul says this kind of stuff so beautifully in Philippians 4:12&13: “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I’m still learning … especially not to complain when things aren’t easy.

As I am typing this today, I know He has something for you to do, that no-one else can. That’s why you are here. Please don’t let searching for fame and recognition take up your precious time. Be you, and let Him have His way in your life, you will fall in love with how gentle and kind He is. We need to quit hero-worshipping anyone else but Him!

Once when I was back-slidden I ended up talking to a junkie about the Lord Jesus. He said: “I know you love Jesus because I can see Him all over you.” This dear muddled up young man was wrong. The Holy Spirit was all over me because He loves that man and He quite simply can’t help Himself – He will use a donkey if that is all that is available. Jesus is the Hero, not us. Bye. 👋

P3329 Vindication is God’s business. 

/ DVH

Ephesians 4:25-32: “What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretence. Tell your neighbour the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself. Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge.                                                                                    And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life. Did you use to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can’t work. Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift. Don’t grieve God. Don’t break His heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for Himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted. Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.”

The premise we need to note over everything else that is said here – is the IMPLIED “YOU!” WE need to listen and act. When the bible says ‘you’ – it doesn’t mean your spouse, family member or your boss. It would be so nice if everyone read the bible and took what is in it seriously … but the only person we have to work with is ourselves. The real question is this, can we live His way and not walk about with ‘a holier than thou attitude?’ True humility is our friend. Anyone can agree with the bible’s principles, and then skip submission to what it says – but other people have to live with the pain of our mistakes.

Submission ushers in humility and love. Boy is that kind of thinking at odds in today’s society. People want to avoid responsibility for their own actions. Plus we can get very busy defending our own rights. Seriously, we need to reconsider the way we live with the Holy Spirit and each other. Is He that important to you or not?  The spirit that seeks to enforce our own rights is not from Him. How can you die daily if you want your own RIGHTS? If Jesus had enforced His rights, we’d all be in the soup. There is a far better way to live that honours Him. 

The secret is to revere the Holy Spirit, and cherish His company. Let’s love Him and His ways more than we like our own. Think of that like this, there are things you probably wouldn’t say to a dear friend. Like: “Yes, those pants do make your butt too big!” We don’t say those things because we don’t want to alienate our friend, whose company we value. The Holy Spirit needs to be valued more, not less. Maybe this is made more difficult because our obedience is voluntary and we must make a choice. I’ve found that the Lord will vindicate His own – if we get out of His way and stop trying to manipulate things in our own favour. “Why not suffer wrong?” 1 Corinthians 6:7b.

It is easy to vomit icky stuff all over someone else. Anybody can have trouble with anger, but the bible is clear, anger can lead us into far worse situations when it is not dealt with asap. Our emotions are not the best guideline of spiritual reality, because they are based on our often faulty reactions to situations. Personally, I think it is better to respond than react, and asking questions can prevent misunderstandings. If we value the Holy Spirit’s companionship and opinion above our own, this kind of change is normal. He is delighted to be our companion, advocate, counsellor, guide, and teacher. 

I need to be clear that I don’t know everything and I definitely don’t have the corner on what the Holy Spirit thinks and does! However, I think it is important to choose to learn to grow and be challenged by His Ways. Otherwise we can grieve Him, and then our best way through trouble leaves with Him! Openness about our personal attitudes is a key to allowing His Will to prevail. It keeps us in fellowship with Him. Who we are at any given moment can easily be a reaction to what has happened to us so far in our lives. Good things, bad things.

Many of us still live our lives protectively – and we are afraid to change. It takes courage to admit you can’t fix yourself and then trust God will take care of you. Why not seize any opportunities to give a different response? The Lord knows everything, and we can benefit from His wisdom. Why not choose to value His oversight over our own knowledge? We have a book full of what He thinks.

Our desire needs to be to live to please the Holy Spirit, first, and then to love and encourage our brothers and sisters. We cannot afford to keep on demanding that our way is the only right one. “His ways are perfect” …  … nevertheless, mine ain’t! Humility will flourish and grow as we know our place before the Lord, and learn to honour and prefer one another. Let’s protect our relationship with Him over everything else. It isn’t a matter of who might win … because it isn’t a competition. We all win when we allow Him to fight for us.

This is why what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 is essential. His love is our great equaliser. It will sort the chaff out from the hay in our own lives, and allow us to see what God’s Ways clearly look like! When Paul describes these qualities, He is making it clear what love is, and what it is not. Love is the thing that must take precedence. I ask myself: “Is this or that love, the way Jesus would define it?  I don’t need my own faulty definitions, I already know I can be too selfish and self-centred to answer clearly. However, this kind of question gives me clarity when things are unclear. 

People sometimes tell me that they can’t hear the Lord. Try letting Him correct you with His eye on you! Let’s choose to embrace LOVE and leave trying to wriggle out of things on a technicality behind us. Vindication is His business. Bye. 👋

P 3324 Part-time Christianity doesn’t work.

/ DVH

Ephesians 3:4-13 MSG.“As you read over what I have written to you, you’ll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of Him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board. This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.

And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, Who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in Him, we’re free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don’t let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!”

What a great teacher this man is! Paul really encouraged me with this passage, he puts everyone on equal footing and includes the people who-haven’t-met-Him-yet, as well as each other. There are no rock-stars in Paul’s theology. Jesus Christ is all in all and He is everything! It’s such pure brilliant revelation. This man of God definitely found his heavenly-calling – it was to help everyone he met find God and understand His Ways. Then he says something that just blows me away. “I couldn’t have done what I do without His help. I wasn’t equipped to do this job.”

Paul was brilliantly equipped to preach the gospel to the Jews, he knew the law inside and out. Yet God sent Peter – the fisherman – whose only qualification was that He loved Jesus – to the Jews … and Paul went off to the Gentiles. Do you see that? Neither man was well-equipped to “argue God’s case” to the people they were sent to. God’s qualifying feature is WE CAN’T DO IT.  So if you know you can’t do it, then you are half-way there! The other half is knowing the Holy Spirit and His ways, personally. 

If you feel like you are a failure because you may have done dreadful things, but you have the revelation that God is redeeming you, day by day, then you are equipped. That’s called humility BTW! Paul consented to the murder of Christians, and that horrible thing became one of his greatest assets. It helped to keep this man humble. Everywhere he went, people knew what he had done. He even had problems with the Lord’s disciples because they knew his reputation for murder! 

Don’t let the past dictate your future. Our God is brilliant at do-overs and He does them so well, they stop being do-overs and become new beginnings.  Please don’t give up on yourself when you fail either, go to Jesus and begin again. I tell myself daily: “Just one more time. I need to get up one time more than I fall down!” He’s the God of second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth chances etc. He won’t give up on you, so don’t you give up on your faith in His goodness.

Paul knew he was ill-equipped for the job God gave him, but His faith in God’s goodness was bigger than the things that happened to him along the way. Having a big faith IN GOD matters. The trouble is, most of us scrounge about trying to make our faith bigger. Set your EYES on our big God! Did you know that there are 3,600 types mosquitos in this world, and there are over 25,000 -35,500 kinds of fish, and 90 species of whales. Does our Father sound limited to you? 

The only thing that can limit God is sitting right above your shoulders. That 28-35 cm bit of skull, brain and flesh, can distort our thinking and deprive us of our part in Jesus’ plan for our lives. That’s why the bible says: ‘renew your mind’ … it needs renewing!  Have you ever caught yourself thinking something and then you suddenly realise you still have a childish view of reality? We all do it. Things happen and we get stuck. Our brains are definitely not perfect. 

But His love is. That’s the bit to remember. That’s what kept Paul going through so many trials and tribulations. Plus the wonder and joy that he discovered as the Holy Spirit revealed God’s plans for mankind. This greatly admired and learned man found out he knew nothing, and he accepted his ignorance with great joy, because it meant he could rely upon our God even more! We have nothing to contribute but ourselves and a total surrender to Him, daily. Part-time Christianity doesn’t work! Bye. 👋

P 3321 Fashion shmashion!   

/ DVH

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” (Colossians 3:12.) We have God-given, Holy Spirit activated clothing. It’s heavenly clothing – let’s choose to put it on! Our outer garments are not a reflection of our inner selves, our actions are.

These spiritual things are more lasting than spending money on Christian louboutin, Chanel, Kenji, Connor, Yves Saint Laurent or Myer doesn’t it? Why do we need to be careful what we wear? “All things are legitimate (permissible-and we are free to do anything we please) but not all things are HELPFUL (expedient, profitable and wholesome). All things are legitimate, but not all things are constructive (to character) and edifying (to spiritual life.)” 1 Corinthians 10:23 AMP.

People tell themselves that it is OK to wear this and that, it’s part of our freedom. But Paul says if my freedom makes YOU stumble I should voluntarily give it up. (1 Corinthians 8:9; Romans 14:13-23.) We have been exhorted to live for the Lord and other people – not ourselves. This world’s stuff can so easily take over our thinking and our lives. Our biblical focus, however, is to look like Jesus, and He cared about people. He wasn’t politically correct (PC) – He was Almighty God correct. (AMC) Let’s choose to take into account the fact that we can make other people stumble with what we wear, say, or do.

We live in this current society – we work, play, and interact with others – BUT —WE live by a totally different value system. Simply because we follow Jesus. Jesus Himself spoke about worrying about what we wear or eat, and He clearly made this whole subject about FAITH – not polyester, cotton or pure wool! Father God looks after lilies and daisies, so this means we can be sure that looking after US is one of His priorities. That’s where our faith needs to be. These things are not about legislating rules – instead we are to treat them as God’s loving council over our lives, so we can stay in step with what the Spirit is doing.

The Israelites walked about in the desert for 40 years and their shoes and their clothes did not wear out! Selah!  Father God has proved He knows how to look after clothes better than we do! People who worry about having the proper clothes, or fashion’s latest supposedly, cool clothing etc. are being distracted from the main objective – Christ’s likeness. We can choose to reflect Him, or we can reflect the current trend. That choice is always ours. Our primary aim is to wear things that don’t cause others to sin, but at the same time, let’s deliberately choose to ‘wear’ qualities that are rarely seen in this world.  

Like Paul says in Colossians, our garments are about loving others – and they describe spiritual things, not clothing labels. The things we concern ourselves with, matter – however this does not mean we have to dress like a rag bag. It means specific clothes and foods can drag us away from our main purpose … loving Him and others. God cares about those things. Plus – He promises He will provide for us.

Trust me, it is actually easier to learn to love others like Jesus does, than it is to wear a pair of Christian louboutin $4,000+ shoes or a haute couture dress! When we become slaves to our appearance, we are not choosing to reflect Christ-like qualities into this world. It is now about who the other person can see when they look at you. Can they see Him, or a fashion label? His clothing brings life and more life — that other stuff is designed to be instantly obsolete.

As we “consider the lilies’ we need to remember that we too, like those lilies are here one day and gone the next. Are you cheered up yet? Let’s choose to make our first thought about His legacy. God’s wardrobe for us reflects His beauty, and love toward others. Ours can be merely a reflection of how much available cash we have! 

It is too easy to be distracted into caring about dressing to please, or attract others. Mainly because we’ve left behind what Jesus told us we are here to do, and perhaps we think we need other people’s adulation and approval – because it provides instant gratification. When we choose to live in His love, our whole perspective changes. ‘Things” don’t matter – anything we have is a blessing from Him.

Dressing decently is a deliberately chosen act of love toward other people. It seems to me that the less material that is used to make a garment, means whatever you bought is immediately more expensive. I can appreciate that we are all not the same, and part of that self-expression is how we dress. Remember the first thing that Adam and Eve did after they disobeyed was try to cover themselves, because they realised they were naked in God’s sight? The next time you have to have these shoes or that dress, consider the lilies. And remind yourself ‘fashion-schmashion!’ Blessings 👋.

P 3320 Faith has substance.

/ DVH

“My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask Him to strengthen you by His Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite Him in. And I ask Him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:14.

There’s Paul praying for us all again! He shows us that we don’t have to see something to respond to it. God’s love has substance- the substance is in the bible. When we talk about substance, we are talking about things that can be seen when we use our faith. Just because something is intangible, that doesn’t mean it isn’t substantial. The substance reveals itself with action. God’s love isn’t just an expression in a book — He chose to come here, and be just like us. Jesus cried, was fed, burped, lulled off to sleep as an infant. When He cried there were real tears!

The reality is, any part of humanity can see and experience His love, because we, as His kids, choose transformation over information. We act on the premise that: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen.” Hebrews 11:1. The way we live gives faith substance to other people. We are His love on display, as we act, speak, and interact with others. At the same time believing what God said and actively responding to it, takes our hope in Him, and turns it into something substantial. Love has put us on a road in Australia, distributing blankets, bibles, prophetic, insightful words from the Lord for the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet. God’s love has evidence. Our faith-in-action is the outward exhibition of it showing the world what He is like.

He says it, then we choose to believe it and so we go and act on it. If I am reading the bible and it says that I have a problem with my brother or sister in Christ — I don’t use my rational mind to discount what He said — even if I can’t think of anyone I’m mad at! Instead I ask the Lord, in prayer. “Lord would You please show me who I need to forgive, or who needs me to ask them for forgiveness.” My rational mind might excuse me, but the bible clearly says: “I am inexcusable.” (Romans 2:1.) Dead people don’t decide if something is wrong or right – instead we choose to ask the King!

Otherwise I can be guilty, but unaware of my guilt, simply because I can’t see myself clearly. To see myself clearly I have to look in God’s mirror, the bible. (James 1:22-25.) Personally, I try avoid ordinary mirrors like the plague, because when I look in them I think: ‘Who the heck is that chubby old elderly lady?’ I have had to learn that my perception of who I am doesn’t match up with reality! This can happen to anyone of us spiritually, we can get so busy, looking and sounding right, that we have no time or energy left to participate in living right. So when we ask for forgiveness, our faith in God’s all encompassing forgiving love is it’s own substance – we go and apologise and make reparation..

The Lord’s answer to man’s dilemma has always been astonishing and comprehensive. God’s faith had substance —Jesus (God Himself) came here, as a MAN and allowed mankind to punish Him. He literally took our place in the dock and became ‘the accused’ for us. “Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].” Isaiah 53:4.

Some people look at Jesus Christ and say — ‘well, He must have done something wrong, and that’s why they killed Him.’  But He was blameless. Perfect in His attitudes, heart, and mind. It seems to me that our idea of ‘right’ leaves a lot to be desired. It can be affected by our friends, families, moods and trends. We need a steadfast guide, and Father God has provided SomeOne for us, He sent us the Holy Spirit together with the bible. James 4:17 gives us this bit of clarification: “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do, and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” James knows that words lack substance without actions to back them up.

By doing what He did, the Lord Jesus chose to become a door, a way for any one of us to reconcile with Father God. Somebody had to die for mankind’s sin and Jesus did. If He hadn’t chosen to do it, hell would be full with every single human being who had ever lived. Our own self-cultivated attitudes, actions and appetites make it easy for the enemy to lead us astray. Which is why we cannot afford to look down on some awful schmuck who does some dastardly thing. None of us know what we are capable of until we are desperate and cornered.

Sinful appetites and attitudes will continue to grow, while we choose to rationalise them. Our faith needs prayerful, intentional Holy Spirit-help and inspired self-denial. Let’s choose to give our faith substance by acting on what we say we believe. Bye 👋.