Petrol

P 3345 Faith has works.

/ DVH

If I were to put my title another way, I would say that faith needs works! Faith is something that should cost us. Our faith needs to be visible to others. We just drove over 4,000 kms to give away 110 blankets, 70 packs of toiletries among a lot of other things. The people we met needed a hundred times that or more – it was simply all we could carry. The current state of our world means that hard-working people are falling off the grid. Homeless people aren’t people who don’t want to work, they are people who have lost everything – including hope.

In the past week we have had several conversations with others, not always Christians. They asked us how they could help us to continue what we are doing … and may God bless them for wanting to be involved! However, our intention was never to be another charitable organisation, nor are we affiliated with the government. Hubby and I are two very ordinary pensioners who have been motivated by the Lord to put our faith into action. Living day by day with many disabilities and difficulties has made doing this a challenge – it has figuratively and literally stretched our faith. We can’t go overseas and join a missionary group, and God has arranged for us to do His will where we live. 

This means we will travel vast distances on dodgy roads, because extreme weather produces extreme road surfaces!  At one stage in our recent trip, our car took off. It hit a huge bump and went airborne for a few seconds before it came down with a thud and then continued on. Now that was an experience! On our journey we passed many petrol stations in small towns with no petrol. The thing is, we can’t afford to get stuck in places like those, they have very limited medical facilities and we could need them.

In some places if we were stranded, we would have to call in the Flying Doctor! It kind of felt like we could have waved at the pilot when we were airborne in our car! Yet we stuff the car full of more things than you can imagine and set out for places we have never been. And in 20 years we’ve been to a lot of places. We don’t do this so others would admire us. We do it because God told us to go. We are not looking for a ministry either. We go because He asked us to go, and doing this stretches our faith in more ways than anyone could possibly imagine. Stuff happens!

You can’t just learn faith, you have to do it. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1. This means if our faith doesn’t result in actions it has no substance! It will stay a theory and we will live our lives fighting doubt. Personally, our own faith has grown exponentially since we started taking risks and using it for things that don’t benefit us. Faith has to have works. This means we will step into the unknown believing He will catch us. And because Jesus is faithful, He will. 

Faith has been designed to stretch us, and glorify God to strangers in such a way that they will never see Him the same way again. We RE-present God to others when we use our faith. Going to church on Sunday, prayer group on Wednesday and Bible study on Saturday uses faith. But if what we are doing does not stretch our faith beyond our own little horizon, then it will comfortably stay in the realm of ‘knowledge’ and not end up in the realm of ‘experience.’ Acting on our faith ushers His presence into what we do. JESUS LOVES FAITH. “When the Son of man comes will He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8.

Let’s look at Peter, who threw his legs over the edge of a perfectly good boat when Jesus said, “Come!” His fisherman’s mind knew it was impossible, but perhaps his faith in Jesus over-rode his knowledge of the ocean. The Lord did not let that man drown, and He won’t let us drown either. He is FOR US, He proved that at Calvary! Instead He turned Peter’s experience into a lesson. We all need to learn and change when we follow Him.

Matthew 14: 28-31“Lord, if it’s You,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to You on the water.”“Come,” He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

You and I may never get to walk on water, but we need to stop living this life influenced by the appearance of things around us and start living by what Jesus said. Instead of just using our faith to pray for day-to-day hiccups, or difficulties that occur – like praying for Uncle Bob who is sick and he is now in the hospital. Our faith needs to be active! Go lay hands on Uncle Bob. We need to aggressively take back the ground the enemy has stolen from all around us. Prayer rallies our faith, but then faith needs actions – our actions will give it substance.

Faith is designed to have works. (Read James and watch the Lord Jesus!) Faith isn’t just a creed. A bunch of words we all agree with; it is a way to live. May God bless you as you step into a bigger world. Amen!  Bye. 👋  Daniel 11:32b “…but the people who do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” 

P 3327 Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

/ DVH

Today we hit the coal face of life in country Victoria, and NSW. It became personal. So many of the people living under threat, are women, who have had to run for their lives, grabbing their young kids, and taking little or nothing with them. A young mother we met today is a mum of a 2 year old. Just pause for a moment and try to imagine a life like hers. These women face rage and beatings almost daily. 

They are quite literally running for their lives, and they want better, safer, peace-filled lives, just like we do. Safety is a real human need and yet these people are forced to live with far more fear than we can imagine. They are scared that their partner might come home violent – tormented by uncontrollable anger, drugs or alcohol. Out here, where we are, this sort of scenario is in plague proportions — one of the helpers we met in a major country town said that: they had spent a whole year’s budget for 260 clients: but now they are currently looking after 596 clients and it is only APRIL! 

I have no answers, but I do know that we have been designed by God to love others, that means we can’t just stand by and watch, or wait for some sort of government to fix this. Governments want votes and not many voters live on farms! This is a nightmare of huge proportions, and sadly symptomatic of the way we’ve chosen to neglect farmers. Whether it is drought, or floods, it doesn’t matter – both lead to hardships at a level we simply do not face in the cities. 

Now the current political situation world-wise, means that diesel is at outrageous prices. We passed many petrol stations in our 2,400 kms to get here that were closed. No petrol, no diesel signs were displayed out front. We also travelled through usually bustling towns where nobody was in town, except when necessary. You could have fired a cannon down the street and hit no-one. 

Our farmers need  diesel in order to plant the food we enjoy in the cities. No diesel, means no tractors, no harvesters, no planters, no watering systems, NO harvest. Plus no petrol means no fertilisers either. Big price rises in food for everyone! Currently our farmers get paid 70c per litre of milk. It sells for around $1.85. The bulk of that charge goes to our supermarkets.

“Petroleum, specifically natural gas (methane), is crucial for fertiliser production, acting as the primary raw material for hydrogen needed to create ammonia via the Haber-Bosch process. It provides the energy for high-temperature/pressure manufacturing and aids in the production of phosphorus/potassium fertilisers. This dependency makes fertilisers fossil-fuel intensive, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, and links food production costs to oil prices.” (Google)

There is no value in blame. Whoever has done, or not done whatever is needed is irrelevant. Now we need to work together to help those at the bottom of the pile, the people who were already badly underpaid. The real question is what can I do? You know the most impactful part of travelling around like we have, hasn’t been the blankets, toiletries or the bibles, although everything was received so gratefully – it was the fact that we came in person to show them we care. 

We must pray! Then we need to turn our prayers, into actions. If you can’t go yourself, then find organisations that are already there, and make donations. Remember the Good Samaritan. He personally put the wounded man on his own donkey, poured his oil and wine into the man’s wounds, and paid for him to be cared for until he was well again. Luke 10:25-37.

“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” 

“In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. 

Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” 

I think it is time we realised that biting the hand that feeds us is sheer shortsightedness. Our farmers need us to appreciate them and support them, and I pray the Lord will give all of us plans, and strategies to do so. Bye 👋 PS. One of the things the farmers have to face seems small to us, but it is their connection with the outside world – the internet fell over in the area we are staying in this morning.

P 3309 Anxiety.

/ DVH

Charles F Stanley wrote the following. I hope it is helpful: “Anxiety is a problem we all will deal with at one time or another. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”(Matt. 6:25-26)

The Greek word for “anxious” in this passage means “distracted.” It’s a word that refers to uncertainty. That’s what anxiety produces in us. It gives us a feeling of, what’s next? It’s a feeling that the rug has been pulled out from underneath us and we have no idea if we’re going to fall, how hard, in what direction, or onto what.

The word “anxious” is also translated as “worry” in the Bible. For many people, worry has become a way of life. If that describes you, I encourage you to read again the words of Jesus. His words are not a suggestion—they’re a command. You may say,“I can’t help feeling anxious, I’ve always been a worrier.”I’ve heard that from many people through the years. My response is, “Yes you can.”

There’s nothing about a circumstance that automatically creates anxiety. Anxiety occurs because of the way we respond to a problem or troubling situation.Your ability to choose is part of God’s gift of free will to every human being. You can choose how you feel. You can choose what you think about, and you can choose how you will respond to a circumstance. It certainly isn’t God’s purpose for you to feel anxious—He doesn’t allow situations in your life so you’ll have anxiety. 

The Father may allow a situation in your life to develop stronger faith, grow and mature, or change a bad habit or negative attitude. But God doesn’t set you up for anxiety. He’s always at work to bring you to a place where you’ll trust Him more, obey Him more fully, and receive more of His blessings.

You can fall into a downward spiral of anxiety, or you can say: “Father, I bring this to You. It’s beyond my control. I feel helpless in this situation, but You have the power to change what I’m facing. You love me perfectly, and I’m trusting You to handle what concerns me in the way You see fit. I know whatever You’ve planned for me is for my good. I look forward to seeing the way You choose to express Your love, wisdom, and power.” Amen. Friend, this is the way of peace—the road out of anxiety and worry.” 

Back to my little bit for today! I think this is the stuff that haunts most people. I put these thoughts by Charles F Stanley on my blog today because so many people are under siege from the things he talks about. His writing is clear and concise and he said it a whole lot better than I can! My motivation is this:  whatever it takes to help someone else get free is useful!  

This mini-sermon was particularly helpful to me, because we are preparing to put far too many things inside our car and even more stuff on top of it!— And still fit us, in it! Plus we will end up talking to a whole bunch of strangers. All this happens as we are travelling over 3,600 kms in the middle of a petrol shortage with prices through the roof. Some generous people have already helped us out financially with the extra burden of the cost of petrol. But my point is this: hubby and I are not exempt from anxiety either, it’s an ongoing battle for all of us.

I do have one helpful hint that works for me. If anxiety and worry start to build and I end up mentally knitting, I phone a friend or text someone. I don’t always tell them the problem, I simply ask them to pray. God knows what I am concerned about. I can fall into worse trouble when I talk about the difficult stuff, it actually kind of magnifies the problem in my mind. I might end up looking for sympathy instead of explaining that I simply need to hold fast. I have to pick my battles. Sometimes there are some things I can’t solve, but I can pray.

I’ve learnt that as I relinquish my anxiety about the things that bother me, I am far more open to His passions than my own. It’s not hard to love a God who values human beings so much, that He died for them. I think anxiety is a bit like a snowball rolling down a steep hill, it gathers momentum as it rolls on, and on. You can’t stand in front of it, it will squash you flat! The important bit is to know where and when that snowball begins in your life, so you can stop it at the top and jump all over it to disperse the thoughts.

The bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:5 …  “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  Anxiety is our enemy’s lies on steroids.  We can pay attention to the incessant ugly noise or give our attention to the One who lives inside us. Yes, it is a battle, many, many times – but Mr Stanley offers great advice, I intend to take it. Bye 👋.

P 3304 Thank God for EASTER SUNDAY!

/ DVH

“We look away from the natural realm and we focus our attention and expectation onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and Who leads us forward into faith’s perfection. His example is this: Because His heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be His, He endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation, and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God!” Hebrews 12:2 TPT.

Isn’t that a lovely version of this beautiful scripture? The hard bit can be looking away from the natural realm —  mainly because it surrounds us, and jumps out at us at every turn! For example, the news of the moment is all about war, and petrol, plus the effect of this war on all of us. We have been almost battered into submission by journalistic or expert opinions to think a certain way. 

Unfortunately, their particular stream of thought seems to include picking bad people and good people. Whereas the Lord simply sees people He loves.← That’s a full stop right there! It is incredibly sad to think God is on OUR nation’s side. Our daily efforts are best expended by permanently living on HIS SIDE. Let’s look for love to guide us, not popular opinion, or even a lack of oil or diesel. We live because of Easter Sunday. The tomb that contained His body was meant to crush Christianity, but instead it ushered in eternity. It is so like Jesus to take what satan meant for evil and turn it to everyone’s good!

I thank God I was born on this side of the cross. That tomb is still empty! Never forget on Good Friday to throw off your burdens at the cross and then… walk past the cross to that empty tomb. It’s a place of thanksgiving and remembrance. Our reality on this day, is far greater than any monument. Today is the day we remember that Jesus didn’t just SAY He conquered sin and death – today is the day He proved it! His Presence in our daily lives defies death, this world, and our enemy. The wolves of this world can ‘huff and puff” and try to tear down our house, but we’ve been built on the Rock that is Christ Jesus.  

We can look through our daily trials and tribulations, and see Jesus Christ and His resurrection through a glorious vista of living faith. I love what Paul writes in the bible. He stays focussed on what Christ has already done, not on what we lack. I pray we too will continually focus on the joy of that long ago Easter day and what it means to us in our own lives, here and now. Because of that day, the blind and deaf, still see and hear, (physically and spiritually). Because of that day we are no longer afraid of Almighty God. He is cherished by us, He is knowable and close to us, always. Now there will always be more than enough love for all!  

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”Philippians 2:13,14. We don’t have to be important in this world’s eyes to be a part of what Jesus is doing on the earth today. We simply need to stay close to Him. He’s our Friend that sticks closer than a brother, and He knows what is happening in our lives. He has won every victory, despite how it looks.

Take Paul’s advice, remember Jesus’ victory at Easter. And forget what is behind you, press forward toward the goal God has set for you. When we could not possibly reach Him, God reached down and lifted us up — and now we stand with the Lord Jesus, shoulder to shoulder — we are called His brothers and sisters and covered in His Love. Easter is our proof that we do not hope in vain. 

Let’s look at Psalm 27:13,14. “I would have despaired had I not believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living. Wait for and confidently expect the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for and confidently expect the Lord.” Psalm 27 reminds us how good God is. That cross is His goodness in the land of the living! Paul in Philippians 4:13 clearly tells us where we get the strength to continue. Christ’s overcoming strength burst out of that tomb, and He has never been contained since. Men and women over the centuries have lived their entire lives based on the One Who did not stay dead! I can have confidence, strength and courage, because He didn’t do what He did for Himself … He did it for all of US.

So, we can face any unpleasant relatives with love, even the ones who have behaved horrendously toward us. They can’t reach us to hurt us, anymore. We are now spectators, no longer participants in their sin. Drop that junk off at the cross and let your heart be permanently hidden in Christ the Risen One. Now it is easy to be forgiving, loving and kind to that friend who stabbed us in the back. We can live this life, the only one we have, differently. 

Even if you are facing the threat of death today, Jesus’ death and resurrection shows us that He trusted the Holy Spirit to bring Him out of that gloomy grave – so we can too. Because of Easter Sunday, we now live in the ever-expanding Grace and Love of God. May He Bless you to be strong and courageous! Happy Easter! Bye. 👋

P 2778 Anybody got any oil?

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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