Plumb line

P 3336 Love suffers long.

/ DVH

“Love suffers long,,,” is from 1 Corinthians 13:4. It seems to me that this kind of love has patient endurance and steadfast kindness. And I think it is easy to see why we can’t fake it. We might manage to control our temper or our impatience for a few times in a row, but, under pressure, we can eventually reach the end of what we can do, and then … we definitely need supernatural help! 

The Message bible says on this subject: “Love never gives up…” So that means we can’t quit on our weaknesses. I know, personally, I can want to give up quite quickly, because I find the urge to be impatient usually comes right on the heels of someone else’s mistake or their bad temper. Sadly I can be very  intolerant of other people’s flaws… whilst I am merrily glossing over my own! …

It’s a set-up. These things don’t happen in isolation, one thing quite often stands upon the shoulders of something else. That can include a lack of forgiveness coming from past situations. The trouble with unforgiveness is that it doesn’t happen overnight it builds slowly. It is like endlessly throwing dirty socks into the corner of the room, sooner or later that smell is gunna get ya!

We cannot fight the enemy of our souls with will power. Mankind’s first entanglement with him ended badly … remember?? We need the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and help to manoeuvre our way through the stuff that can go right back into our childhood. Impatience starts early in children when they want something and they don’t want to wait. Many times I’ve noticed that without God, most of us can’t suffer very long!

I believe in forgiving people and putting the past where it should be, behind us. Don’t let the enemy ruin your future by leeching away your obedience, while you weep and mull over your past. People can get bogged down in past injustices, and other people’s very real sins against them. Use that time to practice looking for the good instead and don’t forget to pray.

Let’s not leave the real race to go and try to fix something we can’t change. Whatever happened to you back then was terrible, it was SIN let loose on a little kid. But that sin is definitely is not bigger than God’s grace is. We cannot face this world, and the state it is in, without His Grace. We need Him guiding us through the minefields of our own damaged thinking and emotional wounds. Being patient with people who treat us badly, exercises our faith so we can tackle the next bit … loving those who despitefully use us.

Either we take His Word seriously, or we don’t!  Unchecked, eventually we will end up blaming our impatience etc on someone else, which very nicely relieves us of the responsibility to ask Jesus to help us! Taking responsibility for our own actions is the first step into spiritual maturity. Other people may do things to me – but, because of who I am now, I don’t have to let my responses to their actions, limit me. Good place to stop and think. 🤔

Feel free to pray, I subscribe to the idea of fixing anything at any time immediately, when you remember it. Don’t let the enemy make a case against that other person – that’s fatal to living in love. Impatience will take over and if they sneeze it will annoy you! It’s time to put those things away, otherwise yesterday, is stealing today and tomorrow. 

That means we have His love over us and His book to teach us. That’s the best focus. We can learn to take our thoughts captive, when we don’t hold them close to us. I often tell “torment” to take a hike. That thing hangs around wounds and pain and pokes at them.

When we make what Jesus said the plumb line, then the things that are out of line in our own lives, start to show themselves. You know, suffering long is something the Lord faced daily. The disciples were just ordinary men, they all had different ways to earn a living, plus they were just human beings, not holy men. But Jesus was patient with them while they were learning. He will be patient with us too.

Under the Holy Spirit’s guidance these ordinary people were transformed. Jesus had renewed their minds for 3 and a half years teaching them, instructing them, then what they saw and heard and experienced next changed them, forever. They all encountered the Holy Spirit and He renewed their minds to what was real and important. I bet they all had opportunities to get impatient while they waited for the Holy Spirit, Who was unknown to them, to come.  

Love suffers long, is first in a long line of stuff we simply cannot produce by ourselves, not just because it is too hard, but because it requires maintenance. At the same time, blaming other people for our impatience is fruitless. Literally! Instead this is a good place to see our spiritual progress IRL We need to see these imperfections so we can remain humble and pliable in the Lord’s hands. 

Love is patient, it suffers wrong, because it’s mind is on something far more important – maintaining and giving away God’s love with our Resident Expert’s help. Thank you Holy Spirit! 👋 Bye 

P 2948 Times of refreshing …

/ DVH

“God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13 TPT. This is one of the enormous benefits of living a transparent life before the Lord and others. We can actually hear Him whisper. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. Years ago, the Lord said this to me: “If you will hear Me for correction, you will hear Me for direction.”  (Proverbs 3:5; Psalm 32:8)

I have taken that to mean that if I am prepared to throw myself into reverse, and own my faults – to Him and to others – it will help my spiritual hearing. The trouble with this thought for many people is that they kind of argue with what they hear. EG: “Did I make that up?” Like our imagination is somehow bigger than God Himself!  And then they start to cancel out their faith with doubt. We have the bible so we already have what the Lord thinks – in a book – check it out in the book!  I also spend a lot of time capturing my thoughts like butterflies in a net!

To do what God says we will need to be prepared to look dumb to other people. Think about Gideon, Noah, Joshua, Moses, Abraham – these men did the strangest things on God’s orders! The secret to walking in faith is to put your faith in His goodness, and don’t take it back. However, don’t put your faith in accomplishing what He told you to do – the action — because that will get you stuck quicker than superglue. A whole lot of great people fell down that hole! Put your faith in WHO HE IS, in His incredible character, His reliability, His kindness, His faithfulness etc. WHO GOD IS is our plumb line. 

Nowadays when He tells me something I just do it. If I look like a goose, that’s even better, because I can use all the humility I can get! My faith is in His goodness, and if I get it wrong, then I know, from the book, that He is a Redeemer, He can redeem anything! I’ve also learnt, the hard way, that nobody knows what they will do when they are under pressure!  Pride has to go.

The Lord regularly speaks to me through His word, and He also speaks to me in my head…my thoughts. It is extremely tempting to think, whenever that happens, that “I made it up.” However, when we make the effort to know the book, we are learning to know what He likes and wants, and what He doesn’t – so we can walk away from sin and unbelief. I also find it easy to follow a Leader, like the pastor or my husband, my faith is in GOD in them, not them. When we get into judgment of what other people are doing, we are walking away from following Him, and we start “Ieaning on our own understanding.”

We can also be tempted to take a poll, by asking a lot of other people what they think about the fault God pointed out in our lives. Polls don’t work! Big clue in the words: “what God Himself said to us!” That’s a neon sign moment. We need to trust Him. Otherwise everything becomes about us – how we feel, what someone else did to us etc. etc.…As soon as our own judgment, or man-made systems come into play, we will lose His wisdom and insight. He will just quietly disappear.

Here’s a question … why didn’t God STOP Adam and Eve? Because He had already given them instructions. It was up to them to obey what He said! The Lord wants willing obedience, and obedience involves an action. Nobody is going to like this next thought, but one of the best ways to start learning to trust the Lord is with giving. Generosity opens spiritual doors. In our Western world money rules everything, and Christians embrace “tokenism.” We need God to be in charge, NOT money, or this world’s riches. 

The point I want to make today is that God doesn’t just want to revitalise us, and rewire our thinking, He wants to go one step further than those two great things and give us a passion TO DO what pleases Him! That does not fall on most of us, we will have to go after it … because our Bridegroom loves to be pursued. In my experience of the faith life so far, this means God will be continually praised;  someone else will be blessed;  and I will be too, because I saw Him do something extraordinary! So I pray regularly for eyes to see Him at work, because what He does in our lives is so undercover, and subtle, it can be easy to miss Him. 

When the Holy Spirit does something only He can take the credit for what happens…it is always so quietly extraordinary! He never once takes a bow. Boy do I want a heart like His! John 3:8 “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”I too want to be the person that remains unseen. Sigh. But there are still times when my flesh squawks worse than Peter’s chicken!! Time to die, again!

I love the Holy Spirit’s nature, He is so selfless, and unassuming. Nobody can refresh us like He can. One word from Him and the colour of our day is suddenly brighter, and the world is full of possibilities again. That thing we didn’t understand is now clear, and we understand what He wants better than we did two seconds ago. Enter into times of refreshing with the Lord – by practising obedience. You will get to know Him better. Bye.👋

P 2609 Here’s the gem-finder.

/ DVH

It occurred to me this morning that in our efforts to be transformed to be like Jesus, we may have forgotten the biggest, and most important tool in our spiritual boxes. The bible – our gem-finder. We can’t ever afford to stop reading the bible, because this incredible book will diagnose all our blessings, mistakes, as well as errors in our thinking. Not to mention the times when some bits will leap out at us from the page and start to flow into a theme. My life is built on Christ, and doing what He says in the bible.

When I was a brand new Christian I couldn’t get enough of His book. I knew that my God, my Lord, my Best Friend, and the Way He thinks, is in that book. And boy did I want to know Him!  Insight is a gem-finder – it throws new light on what you are reading. ASK FOR IT before you read. Many years ago, I attended a church with an enthusiastic bunch of folk who were crazy about Jesus. However, bible studies weren’t part of their make-up, instead they were a bit more experience-based. They loved worship and were content to be fed by someone else’s interpretation of what the bible said. Serious bible study took a back seat, and it was done by those who went to bible school.

I believe that Christianity is a hands-on experience. That’s what separates us from religion. If we don’t do what the bible says, then the ones-who-don’t-know-Him-yet can’t see the reality of what we preach! Our new life in Christ is not about going to heaven – it’s about living this life down here for Jesus Christ’s sake – here and now. We are meant to demonstrate His love for others by the way we live. I have learnt that nothing else will stimulate faith more than taking a big breath, doing what the bible says and trusting God will help you. That’s what faith is all about … ACTION. 

This means we read His book, looking for things to do. It shows us where we need to change. Experiences are great! There are loads of stories in the bible about people who had them …BUT … we need a plumb line. Otherwise we can get caught up in all sorts of weird stuff and lose our way. Let’s watch what happened to this guy in Acts 8:9-19. (bits of it)

“Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. …But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptised. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 

Yeah. Simon got caught up in what he saw – not with transformation. He used his previous way of life as a yardstick. We can’t do that! Jesus Christ is God’s Living word, and it is our God-given task to read, and watch what Christ says, and does — and let it transform our hearts. He’s our yardstick now and the Holy Spirit will help us. That’s when we become the Lord’s visual aids for other people. Meanwhile, Simon had no respect for the One Who gives us the gifts. We cannot use the world’s ways to understand God – we need to connect with the One Who knows Him and let Him teach us. He’s a Person, He is a glorious Being, not just a concept on a page.

You know I have heard sermons about Simon, they go over and over the fact that this verse proves we all need the Holy Spirit and we do! But I have never heard one sermon that talked about the seriousness of disrespecting the Holy Spirit. We can be selective about what we think, and that’s dangerous. We cannot understand the Holy Spirit’s Ways using this world’s methods.

The bible is our personal gem-finder, because the Holy Spirit speaks to us through its words. There are times when the gems I have found will not minister to you and I think that’s a good thing! My purpose for writing this blog is not to feed you what I’ve seen, it is to encourage you to go and look for precious gems — for yourself. Those hard-sought gems will help you grow personally. They are God Himself speaking from His heart, to your heart. Living like this takes time, and dedication. However, Christians were not designed to be tumbleweed. We are standing and building upon the Rock Who is Christ Jesus.

We can’t build our own spiritual houses with someone else’s bricks or gems! We need to show God our dedication to His Ways by going into the Word and digging for ourselves. Then all of us need to take the time to act on what we’ve read. Personally, I refuse to read the word ‘repent’ in His book without asking Him to ‘please remind me what I need to repent from? Who am I mad at? Who have I offended Lord?’ The bible is not just a study book, it is a manual for our new life in Christ. It’s a gem-finder. 👋