Peace

P 2756 Don’t let distraction fool you.

/ DVH

“We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.”2 Corinthians 10:5 TPT.

One of the most common stumbling blocks to living our life of faith is distraction. Our lives can be so busy, we get overcome by everything that is going on around us. We are blessed with wonderful leaders and people who want to inspire us, but sadly, even the people we admire, and cherish their words – or buy their books, or listen to their podcasts, etc. can trip us up. What someone else thinks about what the bible says contributes insight – if you want insightful inspiration for your own life, you will have to go after that for yourself.

There are no shortcuts to a relationship with Almighty God. The only proxy we need is Jesus – and He sent us His Spirit to help us. We dare not put any other person in His place. Each of us needs personal time with the Holy Spirit and His book. My advice is this, don’t cherish anyone else’s words above HIS. His words have His power in them! When we love and read His word for ourselves, and think about it – it is harder to be led off by our own imagination. So when things bump into us and turn the world on its head, we will know how to handle them – or where to go to find out!

Secondly, not every thought we personally think is worth keeping! Look at it this way – if you were the other guy – wouldn’t you throw the odd tempting ugly thought into people’s minds? That guy is the most dangerous being in this world. he tells us stuff that is from the pit — smelling of temptation, full of hatred, half-truths and prejudice and he tells us that these are our thoughts and we must act on them.Our minds can be an escape room, where nobody else can see or hear what goes on in there. The bible says: everything that is hidden will one day be shouted from the rooftops…Jesus Christ has stamped us with His stamp of approval – let’s live this life gratefully paying attention to Him instead.

Realistically speaking, I think that sin starts in our minds.  And sometimes those seemingly random thoughts, can be thrown in by our enemy as he sneaks by us, these things can be disguised as normal. The antidote against any despicable thoughts, or even some peculiar thoughts that seem a little bit off! –  Is God’s Word. When we know what the Lord thinks, we have comfort when we need comfort, we have security when we need security, we have unconditional love permanently. Now these are some thoughts that are worth holding on to.

Amazingly, our bible is what Almighty God thinks, in writing! How blessed are we? If we don’t know, or can’t remember personally what God thinks, we have a book full of what He has said. This book is not just about what He said to us, but it shows Him interacting with other human beings who are fragile, easily distracted, just like us. In His Word we have written truthful testimonies as to what our God is like, and how He interacts with other people. They are an example of how to take captive any thoughts that could lead us away from following Christ. Or they clearly show us what happens when we don’t!

The Holy Spirit’s kind of thinking helps us to relax into God’s love, rest there, and allow Him to lead us in the way we should go. His lovers LIVE to obey Him. Our affections govern our minds and hearts, and eventually, our behaviour. Listen to this scripture and think on it: “So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23 TPT. Here’s some great questions to ask yourself regularly: “How is my spirit doing? How is my heart?” I am not talking about how I’m feeling. But have I got peace on the inside? Even if worry is clanging away inside my head – it doesn’t have to torment me. The bible gives me a sword to deal with that stuff.

I heard this recently and it made me laugh … and then I sighed…  all at the same time. Truth does that to me! Someone said this about today’s world: “I had a vision of the Bride of Christ walking down the aisle toward Jesus, her Bridegroom. He was standing at the altar smiling, His eyes burning with love for His bride. And … suddenly … ’here comes the bride’ … She’s stunning, beautiful. Dressed in the finest, purest white, embroidered silk, her hair shiny, and her skin is like smooth satin.

As she progressed down the aisle a strange buzzing was heard. The bride reached into a pocket in her beautiful dress, and pulled out her phone. She stopped walking, and started talking to the person on the other end of the phone. After that, she checked her Instagram, took some selfies, and posted a photo of how she looked on Facebook! Meanwhile, Jesus our passionate bridegroom was still waiting for her to come to Him. He was waiting for the affection of her heart to turn toward Him.” 

My immediate response is to ask myself – am I like that bride in the vision, so distracted by this life, by the every day stuff going on? Or am I trying to find out how many people are watching me?  Do I seek everyone else’s opinion of my life but HIS? It is later than we think. We cannot afford to let our distracted ways of thinking get in the way. Our Bridegroom is waiting for us.  Bye. 💕

P 2751 Stop and smell the flowers …

/ DVH

unless you happen to get hay fever … then maybe you should just look … from a distance … preferably with a mask on! 😂 Meanwhile there are a plethora of hay fever tablets nowadays, supposedly fixing that problem. 

I sometimes sit and watch other people when I am out. They rush about, doing this, wrangling kids, checking off things on a list, plus catching up with that. I came to the conclusion that we should watch our little children more. They can have fun just swinging their legs, sitting on a seat! Tiny children don’t have timetables. From the minute they wake up until they finally shut their little eyeballs in sleep – all that is on the agenda is fun fun fun fun fun. And if you are lucky you might just get food in as they run about. Forget changing their nappies – it’s catch me if you can!!

Jesus said some fantastic things about the way we need to live to thrive, not just survive! Matthew 6: 25-33 (Luke 12:22-32) “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to Him than birds.

“Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen colour and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think He’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do His best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving.”

Rushing about fills our lives with noise and stuff – the things that don’t last. The practicalities of this life can get in the way of our daily “God awareness.”  We can easily elevate these everyday things into places they don’t belong. If I could go back in time, I would rush back to the time when my kids were little and I saw this world through their brand new, highly delighted eyes. I enjoyed watching them – the wonder of their discovery and fascination with everything. Of course I also greatly appreciate that back then … I was their hero! … I was also ready for a stretcher at the end most days.

Sometimes I think we are so intent on escaping from this world, through entertainment etc., we’ve lost our wonder. The dictionary says wonder is a feeling of amazement and admiration, caused by something beautiful, remarkable, or unfamiliar. I can run with that. Ask yourself when was the last time you just stood still and watched the sun rise or set, or you watched a flock of birds wheeling through the sky? If Jesus said we should take note of these things then … we should take note of them. Those words are not just advertising or pretty things He said to fill up the page!!  

Try to stop regularly to smell the flowers, or sit still and watch the grass grow … without rushing to grab the mower!! That stuff is good for human beings. I often recover my peace in those moments. It has flown away because I got too tense over something I cannot possibly solve. And I recover my peace simply by looking at nature.

Even when you have kids, it is good to remember that not everything is a correcting, or teaching moment – allow them to teach you to slow down. Laugh a lot, and look around. Some things in this world are beautiful … just because they are!  Did you know that there are 400,000 species of flowering plants? You will if you get hay fever! My point is that all of that beauty came out of our God’s creativity. One of the ways to get to know Him is to be observant.

If you are struggling to have a quiet time, then give yourself 15 minutes every day, to watch this life continue to thrive all by itself, without you adding a bean to it. Don’t pray, don’t stuff the word into your already busy brain, breathe. Then after that, you can pray and read!  Having a peaceful heart is the best way to live this life. Most of the things we struggle with come from a lack of peace. An internally peaceful person spreads that peace around them wherever they go. That is our birthright. Father God’s got us and He will not let us go. “He that keepeth thee will not slumber…”

The last thing I regularly like to do is to enjoy silence. There is so much noise around us – everywhere we go! In a lift, in the shops, even in the public toilets!!  It’s hard to think. Silence is good for the soul. Give yourself the gift of silence and … stop and smell the flowers… 🌼 We were not designed to constantly rush about seeking the stuff we cannot keep, ignoring the very things that God provides for free. Bye 👋

P 2750 Death. We can’t avoid it.

/ DVH

There is no greater privilege than walking with someone else to the end of their earthly journey.  But this life today seems to be more about convenience, and carefully portioning out our time to do relevant, useful, fun things, as well as ordinary, everyday, necessary things. Death is not a significant subject in our society at all. It is as though we think that if we even mention it, that robber of joy will turn up at our house – always uninvited. But this life starts on its own timetable and it finishes the same way.

Most babies are born into this world regardless of our busy lives. One of mine was a month late, another was 3 weeks overdue. I thought I had turned into an elephant both times and I’m not talking about my size! (Elephants can gestate for 18 -20 months). I thought 10 months for a whole human being was a bit excessive myself! Moo..ving on from birth…

… back to my point. Death is not a subject that fits into our timetables. Just like the beginning of this life can be quite unpredictable, we all know that we have an undisclosed appointment with death. Are you cheered up yet??  Me neither! But I serve at the pleasure of the King and today’s blog was His idea. Yay! Meanwhile what are you so gloomy about? I could be closer to that event than you are. 🤪

As Christians we happily announce to the world that death has been swallowed up in victory and then we spend our time here deliberately not thinking about the fact that we are all finite! This subject only comes up, if someone close to us dies, or we are faced with that particular door into the unknown ourselves. Even faith that is steadfast wobbles a bit. Then suddenly death is a spectre looming in our faces, that steals our joy and enthusiasm for living. It creates a gaping wound inside us, and our revisited losses leave us inconsolable. 

However, walking the last mile with someone who is on that particular journey is an honour and a privilege. Caring for a dying person … at a time when their own families may fail them … that is a pure gift of love. Helping others transition from this life to the next is an honour, chosen by very few people – yet we need them.

We must be grateful to the ones who chose this kind of career – they are special. Their palliative, loving care is invaluable to the person who may already be very afraid, as well as in great pain. These people have the privilege of guiding someone prayerfully, carefully, through all the emotional upheaval, the physical ramifications, and the practicalities of dying and leaving this world behind them. Dying often involves suffering – and nobody enjoys going through that — or watching someone else do it either.

Right now, this minute, 106 people are about to leave this world behind – and that happens every single minute of every day. For most of those people this last journey is a journey into the unknown. Only the most adventurous, or the most despairing amongst us anticipate this last adventure. The people who care for the terminally ill are literally called by God Himself, to hold the dying soul’s hand and comfort and care for them, physically and emotionally. It is an opportunity for Love Himself to reach out and touch us at our most vulnerable. Jesus was incredibly kind to anyone He met that was suffering or dying even while He was dying Himself. Remember the men next to Him on the cross?

Dying is a normal part of our lives here on earth. Our civilisation has estranged itself from this process because of our distaste for it. That often leaves the suffering person all alone to manage one of the hardest journeys of their existence. The people who work in palliative care with those who are dying, are heroes to me. They put aside their own inner feelings, fears, and comfort, to make sure that this person is cared for to the end.  

Christians are often looking for ‘spiritual’ careers, yet very few job seekers consider ministering to the lost, dying souls who no longer have hope in this world. As well as standing by to comfort the families that are facing the inevitable. We usually leave that kind of ministry to ministers, imams, monks, priests, chaplains and pastors – the so-called ‘experts’ about the important things of this life. 

I felt the Lord wanted me to remind us all about praying or caring for the desperately sick, dying and lost. Being someone’s carer, nurse, nurse’s aid, doctor, or even someone who looks after people in palliative care is an honour. Love always looks like something. To a dying person it looks like hope for what comes next. 😶

P 2741 Some suggestions.

/ DVH

Just to round out what I wrote yesterday, I wanted to talk about what we can actually take with us into the secret place —-NOTHING! We cannot take anything with us into this place. Our troubles, cares, woes, our sins, other people’s sins against us, all those things need to be dealt with as they occur, or as the word of God convicts us. Glory to God we have the blood of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit’s help with our repentance, and reparation. He will uncover our selfish, sinful ways! I have written some suggestions today to help anyone who needs some guidelines for walking with Him in their daily life. That is all they are …suggestions. 

I often pray the scriptures for myself. “Keep creating in me a clean heart. Fill me with pure thoughts and holy desires, ready to please You.” Psalms 51:10 TPT. I love the ongoing tense of this version. I can’t, by myself, manage to achieve this stuff, because I fall over, all the time. I get grumpy wa-ay too many times, and I want my own way because it seems far more convenient, so I need to ask the Holy Spirit to help me – over and over again.

To me, praying scriptures like this is useful. Here’s another great one to focus on: “Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell Him every detail of your life,”Philippians 4:6 TPT. I ask the Holy Spirit to show me my heart, and reveal my sin – your sin, anyone’s sin(!) and I deliberately and permanently forgive everyone – including ME. 

We aren’t just rubbing our noses in our sins, BTW, instead when we go to read the Word with the Holy Spirit’s help, we are washed and cleansed by the water of the Word. Then our hearts are ready to hear whatever He wants to tell us for today. My advice is always read the bible, looking for stuff to do, ready to receive today’s instructions. At the same time, I ask the Holy Spirit as I read, “do I do this?’ I look carefully for clues about what Almighty God loves, what He hates, and what the bible shows me about His ways and I take those things on board.

Next I pray about my peace. I can lose it in the impatience and argy-bargy of every day life. Wherever we have left our peace we need to go and get it and repent of losing it in the first place!  it is of no use to blame others – losing our peace is a sign that we valued something else above being with Him. We are peace-makers and you can’t make peace unless you have it in the first place and you know what it looks like!

Philippians 4 Verses 4-7. These verses, among many others, show us how to get our peace back. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again:Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Wise advice.

So I hand everything I am struggling with over to Him and thank Him for His peace. And then I focus on spending time with Him, expressing gratitude for Who He is and all He has done for me, and what He has given me. Most people underestimate the value of gratitude and worship – it lifts our spirits and helps us to focus ‘on the things that are above.’  Worship is about reminding ourselves of His great worth. I give Him all of me, every single day. “Presenting our bodies …” sacrificially, is another form of worship. All sorts of nasty stuff can simply fall off when we worship, and it helps us focus on Him.

The bible tells us that:“…in His Presence there is fullness of joy.” Psalm 16:11. So if you and I want joy we need to just BE with the Lord. This joy in us grows as we give our time, on purpose – to Him. However, there are days when the Lord has other ideas about our time together, and then I do whatever He says to do, because I’m not locked in to a system … they don’t hold water. I need His water and His fresh bread, every day, it is like my life blood. Ticking off prayer and bible study, repentance, etc. as a completed task, is a fruitless empty action. We need to let the Holy Spirit take our hands and guide us into an ongoing deeper relationship with God, by letting Him take control.

One of the best parts of walking with the Holy Spirit is that He knows what is going to happen today, and He will walk me around any relationship pot-holes and stop me from running into the often on-coming traffic of this life! All I need to do is cultivate a relationship with Him, and take note of what He likes and what He doesn’t – and keep right on listening and obeying.  The secret place is not a secret club for a few special individuals who have somehow been blessed more than you and I.  ‘Whosoever will may come.’   Bye for today, I hope these few suggestions are helpful to someone. 👋

P 2740 Hidden.

/ DVH

Colossians 3:3: “For you died [to this world], and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God.” (AMP) This verse reads like this in the MSG version: “Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.”

It is essential that we understand our God-given position because our Saviour’s blood bought and paid for it! Right now, we are dead to ourselves and alive to His Way of thinking and being. This is now our hiding place! Psalm 91 talks extensively about what being ‘hidden’ means. Read it often. Otherwise we can easily get discouraged, disappointed, and feel over-whelmed. Our complete strength lies in the place we choose to live. His will, His way is now our motto. Living hidden in Christ means we’ve put aside our way of living – grabbing this and fighting for that – and we’ve picked up His Way – the way of the Cross. And if I don’t have something, then I don’t need it!

God loves us so much that He wants to hide us in the safest place on this planet…He has hidden us in Christ, simply because He loves us. Our position is one of protection. Peace is now our right – because our peace comes from the inside, not from external circumstances. We live confident in the knowledge that nothing can get by His powerful, gentle, passionate love – unless He lets it through. When He allows stuff through, we face a learning curve, so we prayerfully follow Jesus through His ‘master class in surrender.’ So when something does come at us, we know that with His help we can deal with it..

God will never leave us alone to muddle along… He has chosen to hide us in what Christ did for us. He carved us into the palms of Jesus hands. (Isaiah) Those wicked nails carved through Christ’s flesh and bone, and Jesus has an eternal reminder that we belong to Him now. That’s how strongly He identifies with you and I. To Christ we were always worth the agony He suffered. That’s also our hope-filled message for others, that there is a safe place to live – our sins gone, hidden in what Christ already did! Jesus totally identified with us. He took our old self out of this world, so now we can be a blessing IN this world!  We are IN this world, not OF this world. Now we live our lives like He did – full of sacrifice and love for others.

Jesus faced down sin, as a human being, and He was punished for all of mankind. Now we have the power to step away from it. He has hidden us in the secret place of the most High God because in that place we can remain fixed — not tossed about by circumstances, fear, worry or our own emotions. Instead we are under the shadow of the Almighty … Whose power no foe can withstand. satan and his cohorts have nothing to say in the face of what Jesus did for us. Start speaking that out. Start saying of the Lord‘that He is your refuge, your fortress, your deliverer.’

We need to learn to become spectators. This means we step back and invite Him in, and now we are looking at our troubles through His eyes. Our emotions and thoughts are no longer in charge, and at the same time, while the terrible, worrying or difficult thing is going on, we will always have His thoughts (the bible) to think on …Learn to choose to emotionally, and mentally step away from being a participant, who has to come up with the answers — into being a spectator who is trusting God to be in charge.

The bible says there is peace in the secret place of God. I love that in the Old Testament, the Holy of Holies was quiet. That means that my brain shuts up — and wonder, security and His love all take over instead. I don’t have to pray endlessly because I am confident that He has got me. At any given moment, I can come out of there, because I always have a choice – but why on earth would I want to? Chaos is waiting for me right outside that door!

My best advice today is that we start praying to learn how to be spectators, instead of jumping into the devil’s plot and trying to wrangle with his ways– tormented by his innuendos and spiteful whispers. There are so many daily things that are far too hard for us to solve. Learn to pray first, then ask for the Holy Spirit’s help and step back away from the trouble into His peace. Hand Him every single part of whatever is going on because He knows what to do next. Now leave it all with Him. We need to learn to trust Him because … HE HAS A PLAN for us – He said so, in the book. 

The body of Christ today lacks trust, probably because we have placed more importance on feelings, encounters, and getting what we want. We can grow trust in Him by trusting Him when everything inside us is screaming that this a dumb idea and it will never work!  I guarantee that nobody feels like doing it at the time! That’s why it’s called faith. Learn to be a spectator, stay hidden, safe in His secret place – surrender everything to Him and live for Him. Bye 👋

P 2738 Avoid at all cost.

/ DVH

“Jealousy is as strong as the grave.” Song of Solomon 8:6. This was the first scripture that I thought of when I began to think about jealousy. I think each of us may have experienced that things like bitterness, resentment, jealousy, rage, lying, etc. etc. aren’t good for spiritual health. None of these things are great traits to have, for quite obvious reasons. They can tie you up in knots long after the object of that stuff has left this world. I’ve found one thing leads to another and suddenly you are swimming in bad stuff — justifying yourself all the way.

“But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”James 3:14-16. This scripture really impacted me, it exposed the thought that selfish ambition is a companion to jealousy. And James does not fiddle about, he calls it demonic – and unspiritual. Did you notice that this awful stuff goes right for our jugular? It attacks our hearts. Oh my! James goes on to talk about what real wisdom looks like, but I want to talk about the nasty bits today.

Here’s why. The jealousy bug has bitten me fairly recently. This thing that has happened involves people that are still with us, on earth, so I cannot give you details. However, someone appeared to be stealing something that was actually MINE. I know that intent counts because these people didn’t think it would matter, but unfortunately, when informed of my pain, they wouldn’t stop. That’s when I learnt that the desire to choke the living daylights out of someone who appeared to be stealing something that I know is mine — was sadly much bigger than the idea that I am a person of GRACE. I know I’m not perfect, by any means, but I honestly thought I was bigger inside than that!! Sigh. Reality rush.

Then I discovered why. Jealousy can have roots. This thing had its roots in my childhood. This rotten stuff can hide itself away, as it is actually stealing the life of God within us. It steals energy, focus, plus our very expensive, it cost-Jesus-His-life-to-give-it-to-us … PEACE. Here’s something to think on about that: “A peaceful mind gives life to the body, but jealousy rots the bones.” Proverbs 14:30. As if there is not enough going on inside my skin, daily! Thanks for bringing that up, James! Meanwhile I’ve now learnt from further study that our God is a jealous God. That thought made so much sense to me,if I bow down to, or give in to jealousy, then I am worshipping that thing, not the Lord!

At the same time, I also realised that I was working very hard to do something about my actual bones in the natural, older people have to think about that. I was physically prepared to take medicine, do weight-bearing exercise, and generally move around more to avoid bad bones. Yet, at the same time, I was also shooting all that effort in the foot, by holding onto something I could not change, because – hullo! Jealousy rots the bones!! All because it involved someone else’s behaviour!  That whole thing gave me an excuse to feel sorry for myself.

This stuff all transpired when I became obsessed with someone else taking something from me I didn’t know I valued until they took it! Even more sadly, the people involved had no comprehension of what they were doing – they thought they were helping me! Talk about throwing petrol on a grass fire! 🔥 Have you ever tried to change someone else’s mind when they think they are righteous? You may as well try to hold back the ocean.

I have had so much legally, legitimate stuff to be angry about, that I could have divided it into categories! And all this happened despite me repeatedly disclaiming the idea that the helpful people’s actions were hurting me, not helping. Whoosh! That stuff went way over their heads. It is good to know that it’s only truly helping someone else, if the person who needs the help actually wants it, right? DUH!! 

Sorry. After I wised up, and repented — I told the Lord that if He wants me to have what was being stolen, then HE would have to get it back for me. And then I stuck to that thought. Plus I had to add in repeated forgiveness, because they would keep harping on the so-called fact that what they were doing was good for me – bless them!!… Says she with gritted teeth. 😬  I repented of jealousy, anger, and wanting to whack people. Hmmm …you know, I just gotta say that I think it is a mistake to colour in bad stuff with a pretty pink pencil and pretend it is not what it is. Sin.

So I am on a learning curve. I’ve learnt that jealousy is to be avoided at all cost, because the ramifications to our spiritual life and well-being are not worth it. Bye. 👋

P 2737 Wound management.

/ DVH

Resentment is like dirt in an open wound. The wound may close, but we our healing is circumvented because there is still bacteria inside. I just want to mention that the wound or the bacteria may not be our fault, it may have come from somewhere else, or even somebody else. But it’s what we do with that wound now we have it, that matters. Ignoring it, or even peering at it, poking it, and making sure it is still sore, will not promote healing.  

Healing comes from thoroughly cleaning out wounds  – with some sort of disinfectant. So it is going to sting! Then we apply soothing ointment, and cover that injury with the same blood we are covered in. Our ointment comes from the Presence of the Holy Spirit – He knows how to soothe every sore place. After dealing with it, we can leave the wound to repair itself, and get on with our lives.

Resentment will often remind us that we didn’t get what we asked for – because it loves to keep accounts of wrongs. Remember 1 Corinthians 13? “…Love keeps NO record of wrongs!” Resentment will take us out of love and chuck us into a side eddy, going round and round. It can swing our spiritual lives so we are now collecting bad dead stuff. It won’t let anything good in, but it twists and turns and shades our overall POV. Then it flings all that dead stuff out into the main stream to anybody who will stand still and listen, leading to gossip. This devilish trait will never satisfy us because it doesn’t produce anything but more suffering. And like a germ in a wound it leaves even more pus in its wake!

Human beings want INSTANT answers — but Almighty God loves constantly progressing relationships! This trait must be fostered by making painful choices. We deliberately leave behind the things that caused a wound and jump back into the fresh living water of the RIVER of God. Doing this optimises our healing. Our feelings can be overrated because they are often fed by stagnant water … plus they are addictive.

Father God wants a loving functioning relationship with each one of us – He lost everything He cherished through our forebears’ deliberate disobedience in the garden. Remember, man was made in His image – we are designed to be like Him, inside and out. The Lord Himself, plus Adam and Eve, all had sweet fellowship together in the cool of the evening – every single night! Right now, He is looking for sons and daughters, who will pay the price to walk with Him again. 

That means we will have to give up any and all hidden resentments, because those things can become an occupational enemy! The Lord is longing for true fellowship with people who value HIM – not for what He does but for Who He is – people who value Him so much they will lay aside every weight that slows them down. We were saved to walk with Him, daily, in the garden of our hearts. His heart is so BIG He has room for every human being that ever lived. But resentment will subvert His plan to love on us and consume our thoughts instead. 

Our God doesn’t just hand out assignments and stand back, waiting for us to complete them – He wants to come with us! Praise HIM, He will also lend us His glorious expertise, and a fresh POV when He does. The very best thing we can do is to go everywhere with HIM!  However resentment turns our heads and hearts away from what our Heavenly Father loves most  — PEOPLE! It grows in an atmosphere that does not include Him, plus it goes hand in hand with complaining. It narrows down any fresh possibilities so we become trapped in half-truths and animosity.

Resentment is also a thief. It comes knocking at the back door of our hearts supposedly to comfort us. It wants to have a cup of coffee or tea with us and then it will point out all the bad things other people have done to us – so we can sit and stew in them! It tells us it is protecting us from future pain so we must keep those hurtful people at a distance. This thing is an evil accountant and a collector, it will keep track of other people’s wrongs!  It produces the wrong sort of fellowship, including lying and distortion. Like every thief, resentment wants to steal — our hope, our peace, our joy, our worship and voluntary service for our King. That traitor wants to hide in dark corners and snipe at others. The solution is simple – don’t entertain it.

Here are some great scriptures to think on: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”Ephesians 4:29.“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”Ephesians 4:31. “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; …” Hebrews 12:15.

Resentment is best dealt with early, because it has the awful power to reproduce and multiply. So we need to break off any suckers like that springing up in our lives,  like we would break off a plant sucker as it grows on a living tree …Break that thing off at the root. Otherwise it will steal all our joy, hope, and colour in our lives with bleakness, because it produces nothing of any worth. I urge each one of us to become adept at wound management – before any wounds poison our system. Bye 👋

P 2724 Love …

/ DVH

… the all purpose, all seasonal garment— that freely leads to praise and worship. I fall in love with our God over and over again, because He has so generously provided us with a way to please Him and live at peace with others. Jesus has already given us the Way we can be reconciled, and the Holy Spirit shines His torchlight upon the right path. Actually, to be perfectly truthful, the Holy Spirit often says to me … in a nice way, of course. “Don’t say it, don’t do it, don’t throw a party for that thought.” OK, so the bible says don’t “entertain thoughts” – same thing.

So today let’s look at Colossians 3. Love is a positional thing. It depends upon where you think you are seated. And I am not talking about being seated on your lounge, or on a chair! We are now, today, in this moment — seated in a new kingdom, where we choose to set our hearts on eternal things. We look toward Jesus because He started our faith and He will finish it. His precious blood bought that for us! Most of the time we fall down disagreeable holes because we get preoccupied with the stuff going on around us.

I know that a screaming baby, or a rampant selfish teenager, or an illogical argument with an angry spouse, or even a particularly pedantic elderly person, all have a way of grabbing at our thinking and attention. BTW, I think that those scenarios don’t help our teeth either … we can end up grinding them down to a NUB! Things like that happen and they don’t just happen once. That is the hardest thing of all! … instead they happen over and over and over again! … until your nerves are shredded and you want to go jump in the river.  Fortunately we have no eligible rivers near our house!

But when things get really severe that other person might well want to chuck YOU in that river. 😶 Meanwhile our own selfish tendencies that want to strangle someone else, need to be put to death. Sigh. So how do I personally do that? I remove myself before I get to the strangulation or the utterly unbridled abusive stage. I go somewhere else and talk to the Lord. At the same time, I don’t shut my inner ears to Him talking back to me! God is on my side, but He will not let me off the hook for whatever I did – He does not take sides. Do I get my attitudes right all the time? Of course not! Every now and then my temper takes over and I give the other person a serve. Not a point to be excited about trust me, the fall-out is appalling.

Here’s something to chew on in those moments – and NO! It is not comforting, or soothing … it requires obedience. Colossians 3:8-10 says: “But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

Here’s something my Mum used to say to me in a threatening voice: “Watch your mouth.” Always remember one unpleasant thing can lead to another! So this is how you deal with moments like these … you tell yourself “BOTHER – I’M WEARING THE WRONG CLOTHES!” and then you refuse to make excuses for yourself while whatever it is, is going on. Get to the place where you can say, ‘I’m so sorry’ quickly! That’s the exit!! Then shut up. Excuses or accusations actually add to the general feeling of unrest. So don’t do that either. 

There’s this really cool spiritual gift, that is a part of our new blood-bought clothes that Jesus bought and paid for … it’s called self-control. Oh, this is such a complex garment! It is needed in all sorts of situations. Self-control helps me to make the kind of decisions that allow HIM to take over. Now let’s look at what our new clothes actually look like … just so you don’t pick the wrong ones when you are getting dressed! 

12-16a: Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly …”

The best thing to ask yourself in any moment of difficulty is this – where did my peace go? And no! The answer is not … he/she/they stole it. The answer is where did YOU lose it? Peace is our portion as well as our umpire, we can’t afford to lose it … but that’s for another day. Today we are talking about a Christian’s wardrobe and what we need to wear to thrive, not just survive.  And love covers a multitude of sins – not just your sins – THEIRS. Bye. 👋

P 2698 Some things really are as plain as the nose on your face.

/ DVH

Thank God we always have HIS MIRROR! The bible clearly reveals to us that we cannot love God and hate our brother. “We love because He first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister IS A LIAR. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” 1 John 4:19-21. And just in case we think we can wiggle out of that particular idea on a technicality, Jesus Himself answered the whole …  “Just who is my brother?” scenario, brilliantly, in the story of the Good Samaritan. He made it clear, my brother or sister is the person I want to avoid, or the person I blame for making ME feel bad!

We can be easily fooled into missing out on our new life in Christ’s life-giving lessons, by dismissing our own personal responsibility to fix things. Being reconciled means humbling yourself not just shoving the blame off onto the other person. We can’t just silently excuse or dismiss our need to cherish Him, and His Word above everything else, and hope He won’t notice! Fixing stuff isn’t just a process of negotiation, and agreement – true reconciliation means we can go back to walking with each other in love, as quickly as possible. The aim is change – not pretending! Self-deception is the worst kind of deception.

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.” Romans 12:17-19. Personally, I ask the Lord for His help to sort me, and the other person out. I let Him know I am happy with what He wants to do about it, either way. And I aim to take the low road – because I probably did something or other! His Presence is way more important to me than my ego. People who protect themselves have fragile egos and, sadly, they can easily miss opportunities to die to self.

I recommend true reconciliation with others highly, because that action quickly diagnoses all the greebilies that hang around, unnoticed, in our own lives. These creepy critters disguise themselves as terrible wounds that have been inflicted on us – and that means many times we avoid the stab-ber like the plague. Have you ever noticed how dead-set easy it is to prove your point and get sympathy for your sorrow when somebody hurts you and everybody else can see it was their fault? My advice is to give sympathy a swerve and go for the Gold – walking with Jesus.

Oh the temptation to feel justified can be such a battle. We can easily want to bad mouth that person who did us so much harm! We can end up collecting other people who agree with our assessment of the perpetrator’s behaviour like we’d collect postage stamps! The temptation rises up to go over and over the events in our mind, revisiting what we should have said to put that other person in their place. Of course YOU don’t do that … and … neither do I! Where is the faith in self-justification? Nobody should owe anybody anything but LOVE … and that situation is only diagnosed by the One Who paid it all.

Unless we choose to leave our fate in His hands, we can end up wasting our time and effort trying to paint a picture of how right WE are and how wrong the other person is. Of course they are wrong! It’s often as plain as the nose on anyone’s face who is at fault. But the real point is this … our response is our response. And guess what? The only thing we have any power over is OUR RESPONSE. Um … ‘turn the other cheek, and walk the extra mile’ seem familiar to me.  You know if Jesus had avoided the toxic people WE WOULD ALL BE DEAD IN OUR SIN!

Yes, I know I am advocating letting that person who hurt you or I go free! But that’s what Jesus did for US, and He didn’t put any caveats on what He did either… He died once for all. That’s what the book says. So that serial killer who has despatched numerous people in ghastly ways… can stand on the same ground I do. GRACE. Sin is a great leveller, and fast recognition of what I’ve done, is a brilliant way to get humble quickly! That murderer can change their life too, just like I did. Meanwhile it is so dumb to keep lists of things anyone did! Just give it all to Jesus quickly, and make sure that you fix things with that other person too – to both people’s satisfaction.  

The thing that has a permanently lasting effect on us is to value Him above all the bumps, breakages and bruises this life hands out. It’s as plain as the nose on your face. My advice is …keep your mirror handy – we all need it! Bye. 👋

P 2682 Easy Peasy … NOT!

/ DVH

“For the Scriptures tell us: Whoever wants to embrace true life and find beauty in each day must stop speaking evil, hurtful words and never deceive in what they say. Always turn from what is wrong and cultivate what is good; eagerly pursue peace in every relationship, making it your prize.” 1 Peter 3:10-11 TPT.

Monitoring our words is so powerful and special, when we fail to do it, we can prevent ourselves from finding beauty in each new day!  I bumbled along saying whatever came into my head for years. I was being true to myself – a common theme nowadays – but I was in the wrong spirit, because I was not yet walking in a renewed mind. Jesus Himself talked about that kind of thing in Luke 9:55. The disciples were unhappy because the Samaritans did not welcome the Lord into their village. They wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume this village, like Elijah did and the Lord Jesus rebuked them for saying and thinking like that.

To be honest, it seems to me that the disciples did not fully understand the working of the Holy Spirit. He came to facilitate our new birth, not to exterminate us! Watching what we say means we will always need His full-time help. Today I want to share the little bits I’ve learnt so far as I’ve been walking along with Him. To start with, the Holy Spirit always gives me a warning nudge. What I mean by that is that He knows what I want to say, and He will speak to my heart and say: “Don’t say that,” before I’ve opened my mouth. 

You see it is much too easy to think I’m a big girl now, I can judge and choose my own words and I don’t actually need a filter. But the truth is … I need a full-time filter BIG time! The whole thing about our words is that they are intimately personal. They come from our own private thoughts. The Lord knows my heart and He knows that other person’s heart as well, and He knows what will hurt, and what will heal. He also knows what will send me off into a tangent, or what will build up my faith, as well as theirs. Knowing someone’s heart means knowing their motivation, and inclinations – our God is brilliant at that!

He knows when I feel inclined to bad mouth the other person or try to put them in their place, because I happen to think it is called for.  So unless my mind is renewed, I am sunk … I will actually need to make quality choices to participate in His renewal. In other words – unless what I think, is the way that I act, not just something I say I believe or agree with – I can, and probably will misspeak. That realisation is a ‘woe is me’ moment. The best thing to do after woe is me is to repent … fast! Repent to the Lord, the other person and to anybody else within ear-shot.

We must never forget that our words are powerful. We can speak life or death to someone else, whether they are present or not. That same voice we’ve been given that can raise the dead and heal the sick, needs oversight!  I have struggled with a number of relationships over the years, and I have found that if I give in to self-pity, grumbling or criticism, whether those things are justified or not … I’m definitely going to end up saying something stupid that I will regret. 

It is better to remain silent rather than say something that cements the other person into a role you have created in your own mind, whether they mean to treat you badly or not. We have the power to speak life, this means we need to pull our focus back onto what is “good, right and profitable.” The bible tells us to “let our minds dwell on these things.” So when we let fly and say something unkind etc. — guess what our minds have been doing??  Yeah, I don’t like that idea either.

We have to choose to live this way now, and it cannot be a religious thing, it is a reliance thing. It’s a choice we make for the Lord and the other person. If you can’t trust yourself to say something good, then saying nothing at all, is a truly great idea. However, we are not meant to lie, so how do we say good things about people who have deliberately and sometimes maliciously treated us badly? Glad you asked that question – because I have an answer! We ask the Lord what He wants us to do or say in that moment. We choose to lay aside our own judgment, anger, and hurt, because when we do that, we are also avoiding being judged ourselves. So we either keep schtum or we choose our words carefully with Him helping us.

Just to make things clear, this can be a very difficult thing to do when you are someone who finds out what they think when they say it out loud! I’m an external processor, and telling me to watch what I say is like sending me to the Paris Olympics to enter a relay race. Not happening! BUT … I have a Helper Who knows exactly what I am going to say before I say it so I am learning to rely upon His judgment not my own. I’m happy to do that because the bible says: “lean not on your own understanding …” Win win. Easy peasy … with His help. Bye. 👋