Psalm 23

P 3296 Choose to Love.

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“Those who are loved by God, let His love continually pour from you to one another, because God is love. Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of Him. The one who doesn’t love has yet to know God, for God is love. The light of God’s love shined within us when He sent His matchless Son into the world so that we might live through Him. This is love: He loved us long before we loved Him. It was His love, not ours. He proved it by sending His Son to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins. Delightfully loved ones, if He loved us with such tremendous love, then “loving one another” should be our way of life! No one has ever gazed upon the fullness of God’s splendour. But if we love one another, God makes His permanent home in us, and we make our permanent home in Him, and His love is brought to its full expression in us.”1 John 4:7-12 TPT.

Father God’s Love is not a theory or a lovely idea, it is the reason you and I are still here. Love can be voluntarily learned under the Holy Spirit’s tutelage – and we are here to learn to love those who treat us terribly, ignore us, hate us, or speak against us. Why? This very process is what forms Christ within us. As we co-operate with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God – we will learn to recognise what His love looks like. This means we are getting to know Him and His Ways. His love is not like this world’s love. God’s love is not indulgence, it is our pathway into holiness. 

So when we respond badly to our circumstances, we need to repent and repair things. However, every time we choose to follow the Holy Spirit, and we use our faith to respond differently — the Spirit of the Living God transforms us from the inside OUT. Suddenly we find we are walking with the Lord and it is easy. It is important to recognise that we are wasting our time fighting for our rights – dead people don’t have rights! The bible tells us to “RECKON ourselves DEAD to sin and ALIVE to righteousness.” Romans 6:11. 

This means that the way we regard the situations life flings at us, is what really matters. We can do what we’ve always done,  smile politely and say ‘that’s OK’ … but we know it isn’t!  We can avoid the person hurting us. Or we can sit about feeling sorry for ourselves and throw a pity party with our friends … OR … we can take His word and do what Jesus would do. 

The Lord Jesus saw satan for what he is – he’s a deceiver. A big bag of whispers, wheedles, half-truths and lies. he will tell us we can’t possibly do what God wants because that means we will be giving in. Then that other person will win. But we have the power within us to yield to love, not because of our own self-effort, but because of what Christ died to give us. This life is not about who wins and who loses – it is about learning to love like Jesus does. 

Let’s spend a moment thinking about all the people you have trouble loving — and see those people as neon highlighters. They highlight what is really inside us. Actually, that’s often why we get mad at them! We can all appear sweet and caring … until somebody pokes the bear!  BTW, we need to encourage each other into doing good works, not into losing our tempers. Love is not mushy, self-serving, or simply getting along with someone who is difficult. Love is an ACTION word. It’s a verb not a noun.  A noun is the name of something, a verb is something we do. We may not FEEL any love, but we choose to DO what love would do. 

Love is our first responder attitude to someone else’s hatred, fear, or rebellion. We start with love, we continue in love (Hebrews 13:1);  and we finish with love. (Proverbs 17:17). Love is not meant to be the default setting on our personal radar, it is a way to live. We need to go to love asap, and stay with it. Why?? Because LOVE always wins, it cannot fail! (1 Corinthians 13:8). Just don’t touch that dial in the middle of whatever is going on! Keep trusting Jesus. The Holy Spirit can walk us through any place of temptation, we don’t have to be afraid of it. (Psalm 23).

We didn’t just receive God’s acceptance and forgiveness, for all our sins, we also received an inheritance. Read the gospels and pay particular attention to the bits Jesus says. Conquering seemingly impossible things, is what our inheritance looks like! It’s what His kingdom looks like. If we could be like Jesus in our own strength, then He would not have had to die for us. When Jesus died, He didn’t leave us money, because we don’t need money – God Himself promises to supply our needs! 

So tell Him what you need, and if you need to love someone, ask for it! Then step out and act in faith like Peter did when he walked on the water.  We inherited the Lord Jesus’ propensity and desire to love the unlovely! Love can and will conquer all – just don’t let go of it and drift off into thoughts of spite, bitterness or revenge.

The Holy Spirit has a way through every difficult situation we find ourselves in. Our biggest trap is we have already learnt this world’s responses. Some of our responses are even automatic, because we’ve honed defensive weapons to protect ourselves—and when we feel threatened, we go straight to them. We’ve been deceived by our enemy into thinking we must work at it and solve things. But God promises to help and protect us. So in order to experience His help, we will need to lay our defensive devices down, and remind ourselves that here and now – “…our God is our protection and with Him we are safe, He protects me like a shield.” (Psalm 18:2.) 

We can learn, with His help, how to ‘identify the things that so easily trip us up‘ (Hebrews 12:1) and instead pay attention, and throw our lives into living like Christ did. The reality is, when we resort to sin, we aren’t trusting Him to look after us, and that’s when we need more of His love. Study His love. See for yourself what God’s love looks like, then choose to love with His love instead. Our choices rule our lives. Bye for now. 👋

P 3192 The joy at the other end.

/ DVH

In order to move forward into all the Lord has for us, we will need to stop relying on instant answers, and start choosing to enter into His processes. As promised in Psalm 23, the Lord Jesus Himself is our good Shepherd. He wants to walk with us through any and all deep valleys in our lives, and give us what He has personally prepared for us from His own bountiful table. All of this with our enemies looking on, as they watch us, receive His anointing – together with His goodness and mercy. To walk with Him, we will need to put away our own devices, and have faith in what He has said. 

Sadly, I think indulgence has grabbed hold of us and held us fast. The other guy has taken hold of the ball, so to speak, and he is almost in his own end-zone. We’re going to have to push back hard in the Lord’s strength to gain back the ground we have willingly, or inadvertently, given away. Here’s what I have learnt about that — the strength to push back does not come before I need it … it comes as I start pushing, praying all the way! But the joy that comes at the other end of what God has planned, is worth it. I can’t lose, because the 23rd Psalm clearly shows God’s intention for my good.

Jesus and His disciples spent three and a half years together. He taught them as He demonstrated His love in action, and they listened and saw. Even at the beginning of their time together He sent them out to do what they were called to do. HELP OTHERS. Those men could do those things because the Lord gave them His authority! 

Even though they had not yet met the Holy Spirit in Person, the Lord Jesus’ authority alone ushered in miracles and things beyond their own wildest dreams. So they returned and reported to the Lord full of praise and wonder.Let’s pause and think about that — because those blessings have not changed!  We still have that power! But we have allowed this world to distract us from our God-given authorised purpose.

Apart from the cross itself, when all our sins and the punishment for them plus the weight of them fell on HIM— I think, that when Jesus left His disciples behind – He took yet another enormous step of faith. He knew the Holy Spirit so well, He was able to walked away, even into a painful death, Jesus trusted the Spirit of God to look after those men! That is enormous. Human beings can be so proud that we can have a terrible time letting someone else take over something that we have started. However, Jesus is so devoted to His Father’s will, He was prepared to step aside.

The Lord is incredible. His faith is incredible. And the good news is this – Jesus Christ is the AUTHOR and FINISHER of our very own faith! Our faith in the Living Word of God is what changes this world. With one act of total humility Jesus transformed and sealed all of mankind’s destiny. And He knew that the very best Person to help His disciples to remain steadfast after his death, and be obedient to all that He taught them … was the Holy Spirit. These men needed the Holy Spirit’s power to transform them from the inside out …and so do we.  When we obey, no matter what the cost, the Lord is right there, with us. Jesus knows all about COST. We need to be so unafraid that even death cannot stop us.

Obedience is everything. We have underestimated its value in our lives. We cannot taste the wonders of a fully redeemed life without it. Jesus Himself was obedient to His parents even from childhood… Luke 2:51. He was obedient to His Father’s will …Matthew 26:39. He was so obedient, He chose to die because that was what His Father wanted. Philippians 2:8.

Let’s become so intimately acquainted with the Holy Spirit’s ways, and pay attention to Him whenever He speaks – and please remember that sometimes He whispers! In the past we have done Him a grave disservice, because we took one aspect of the Holy Spirit’s Personhood and let it eclipse everything else. The Holy Spirit is power AND FIRE! The Gospels show us His power in action in people’s lives. He was given to us to help us with our God-given right to operate in Jesus’ power. Matthew 28:18. 

Now we need to digest and embrace the fact that the Holy Spirit is also a purifying fire. We may feel the heat of that fire, as He purifies our yielded lives, but we will not be burned. We will be spectators kept safe in the secret place of the most high God. Don’t be afraid of His ‘Holy Fire’ – God’s dealings in our lives. This has been given to us to purify us, our motivations and aspirations. Because of the Holy Spirit’s ministry we will end up the best version of ourselves… so much better than we ever thought or dreamed about!  All we will care about is God’s kingdom and seeing that kingdom come into the lives of others to set them free. 

The joy always comes at the other end. It came when the disciples saw, with their own eyes, that the Lord Jesus was not DEAD. Psalm 30:5. Press on, beloved of God. He wants us to be bigger, more well-armed and informed, as well as  purified for His purposes. There is nothing in this world like the joy we feel when we see His kingdom in us, on us and around us, and it is flourishing! Bye. 👋

P 3047 Let this sink in.

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“Yahweh is my best Friend and my Shepherd. I always have more than enough. He offers a resting place for me in His luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace near the quiet brook of bliss. That’s where He restores and revives my life. He opens before me the right path and leads me along in His footsteps of righteousness so that I can bring honour to His Name. 

Even when Your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for you already have! Your authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of Your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for You are near. You become my delicious feast even when my enemies dare to fight. 

You anoint me with the fragrance of Your Holy Spirit; You give me all I can drink of You until my cup overflows. So why would I fear the future? Only goodness and tender love pursue me all the days of my life. Then afterward, when my life is through, I’ll return to Your glorious presence to be forever with You!” Psalms 23:1-6 TPT. 

Here’s a thought — how about you sit yourself down with a big mug of tea or coffee and let this beautiful Psalm soak into the places in your heart and mind where you feel exhausted, beaten up, or maybe, not good enough! Our place of rest is always in His love. Like the needle on a compass always points to north, our hearts need to return to HE LOVES ME. Do that. Sit there, breathe, and say to yourself slowly:: ‘Jesus You love me.’ Don’t get sidetracked into what you have or have not done right recently. Start with Him loving YOU – and then, thank Him for it. 

The God of the Universe knows our names. He calls each one of us by name. I have relatives who probably can’t remember who I am – but Almighty God knows me, inside and out! Why? He chose too! If that doesn’t make you want to jump up and down — then take a breath and stop and think about it. Our God is a personal, engaged Father, Who is never too busy for His kids – He knows exactly where we are and what is happening to us.

On we go…There is no place in this Psalm that talks about Jesus bopping me on the head because I’ve been a disobedient sheep. Yes, He has a rod and a staff – but He has that to thump anything that comes at me trying to destroy me. That’s what our Saviour is like! Loving, loyal and … there for us. There are times I can almost hear the Holy Spirit cheering away when I am wrangling with some situation or other, and He’s calling out: “That’s it, you’ll get there … keep going!” That’s what ‘for me’ means to me – He is on my side, cheering me on.. 

Just recently I mentioned that my nearly 98 year old mother is dying. Hubby read this Psalm to her the other day. Why? Because everybody needs to know that God is not mad at them. They need to know that He loves them dearly – all the time, that’s why. We are aiming at passing on His love to her, while she is launching her tiny little broken ship off into the incredible deep waters of HIS ENDLESS LOVE. I want her to see that His love is so deep, so wide, and far, far greater than any other love a human being ever hoped for or imagined. 

There are people who might become afraid of the part of the Psalm that reminds us that we will walk through a dark valley. But the best place to focus our thoughts is on the fact that He is there with us. Instead of bursting your boiler fighting fear – concentrate on the truth! In order to fully understand any lie we are believing — we need to study the truth, not the lie. You might like to think on that …

Being loved so faithfully by SomeOne so amazing needs to be our specific focus. When we live this way, the whole bible truly becomes Good News, not just a book filled with instructions. People need good news! “God is not mad at humanity, SomeBody Else took the punishment for all of us” — that truth is far more than just good news. It is FANTASTIC NEWS … especially when this life keeps pushing and poking at us.

If you or I were in a car that has spun out of control, the best news we could ever have is that the person driving the car is an expert. The Person Who is helping us with this life is our Resident Expert! Don’t send Him away because you think you want to choose some dumb temporal thing that won’t matter in the light of eternity. Instead, call out for help.

Our Shepherd is with us to comfort and help us. His rod and staff whacks our enemies but those weapons comfort us. Jesus looks after His sheep. He stands between us and our enemies, joyfully, willingly – every second of every minute, of every single day of our lives.

We don’t actually belong in this world anymore, because we’ve been born into another kingdom. We belong to Him, and He will come to get each one of us when this life is over. I want to leave you with this last scripture: “Let your character [your moral essence, your inner nature] be free from the love of money [shun greed—be financially ethical], being content with what you have; for He has said, “I will never [under any circumstances] desert you [nor give you up nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless], nor will I forsake or let you down or relax My hold on you [assuredly not]!” Hebrews 13:5.

Our God does not lie —the Lord Jesus IS my Shepherd, every single day. Let this sink in – as He was with Moses and Joshua and Abraham – so He is with us. Bye. 🐑 Baa!

P 2945 God’s TEAM needs HIS preparation.

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“For the Lord is the greatest of all, King-God over all other gods! In one hand He holds the mysteries of the earth, and in the other He holds the highest mountain peaks. He’s the owner of every ocean, the engineer and sculptor of earth itself! Come and kneel before this Creator-God; come and bow before the mighty God, our majestic Maker! For we are those He cares for, and He is the God we worship. So drop everything else and listen to His voice!”Psalm 95:3–7 TPT.

““I tell you this timeless truth: The person who follows Me in faith, believing in Me, will do the same mighty miracles that I do—even greater miracles than these because I go to be with My Father!”John 14:12 TPT.

“Whether you eat or drink, live your life in a way that glorifies and honours God.”1 Corinthians 10:31 TPT.

Our total faith in God’s unchanging goodness, together with our decision to deliberately lay down our lives unconditionally — as lovers of Christ – IS glorifying to God. We have been destined to stand with the same steadfastness David had in front of Goliath, sure in the knowledge that God will help us, so nothing can stand in our way! You and I can walk into an enemy’s camp with nothing but lights and horns because He said to do it… and then we get to win! The Old Testament has profound teaching in it about the love and power of God in action in a people-group’s lives. Today I want to talk about difficulties being a part of our preparation.

Remember Job? God Himself set that man up for a huge test! He didn’t kill the man’s kids, or take his money, or cause his financial problems, the other guy did that. But we don’t like to think about what God will allow in our  lives, because we all love a happy ending! Unfortunately the bit in the middle of that process leaves us cold! Sometimes that is because fear has a foothold and we are not acquainted with His unending goodness. However, Job clearly shows us what life is like without the Lord’s protective hand … Job came through that awful test, because even though his faith was often misplaced and sometimes wobbly – He was still God’s man! 

The Lord wants to lead each one of us to those green pastures in Psalm 23, but we may need to go through the valley of the shadow of death to get there!! Even if He has to drag us through a bramble bush backwards! We need to approach this life dedicated to actively learn every day, to CO-operate with Almighty God, just like Jesus did. We need the same mind toward God HE had.  “Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself;  He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. Yes, and He will show Him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.” John 15:19&20. 

This life we have here and now, is our chance to be the people who co-operate with God’s plan. But we must remember that we cannot choose how that works. That’s because God can do more than one, or ninety-four things at a time. So at the same time as we are walking in His power, we are growing fruit for His glory, fighting off the enemy and standing firm. Staying attached to the vine means we don’t move, we are there through thick and thin without doubting His love toward us.

The biggest mistake we can ever make is to see God’s goodness as a reward, or an add-on to what we already have – or even what we think we want or need – His goodness is about His character not our actions. God did not save us just to bless us and make this life peachy-keen! He is looking for A PEOPLE.  Read the book. He wants a people who will act and speak love toward others, just like Jesus did! He chose YOU because He knows what you are capable of when you choose to trust Him.

These daily tests we face are preparing us for what comes next. We are to be His salt in a bland, blah world, as well as His light shining brightly in the darkness all around us. We need to learn, through our own personal experiences, to be confident in God’s love for us even when things get difficult — because: “Depths of purpose and layers of meaning saturate everything You – (He) do(es).” Psalm 92:5 TPT.

Everything that comes AT us, is Father-filtered. So when we gave our lives to Jesus we put Him in charge of our new life. Now we are “His people, the sheep of His pasture…” It is good to remind ourselves that when we gave Him our lives, He took them! 🎼”It’s no longer I that liveth, but Christ that liveth in me…🎶” … that is not just a sweetly sentimental song … THAT IS AN AIM! …  A purpose … A battle cry!

Let’s stop trying hard to make our own lives perfect, by telling ourselves that when that happens we will have the freedom to obey Him! Otherwise we end up telling ourselves that when everything is going well for us — that’s when we will engage in His alternative unknown plan … after we’ve done this thing and that aim — THEN we can go be about our Father’s business. We need to GO be about our Father’s business, all the time — ready or not! Almighty God has not been, nor will He ever be, an add-on. Nor is the blood of Jesus just a free ticket to a better place after we have died. He’s the meaning of life!

We have been commissioned by the Lord Himself to tell others they need to be ready for what comes next … but are WE ready? “… However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [persistence in] faith on the earth?”  Luke 18:8b. Obedience to His heavenly vision is the key that unlocks the door to an eternal perspective … here and now. God’s team needs His preparation – and He chooses that for each one of us. Bye. 👋

P 2731 I press on …

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“Surely He will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge;  His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.  A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

IF you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;  they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. “Because he loves Me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges My name.  He will call on me, and I will answer him;  I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.”  Psalm 91:3-16.

That’s quite a bit to think on. When I read this Psalm I wanted to take everything in it, as a personal promise – it’s filled with them! But, I thought if I used my faith and held the Lord to His promises, that meant He had to do HIS BIT. So much so that when I broke a bone in my foot – I was a bit miffed. It seemed to me that He had promised He would help me not to fall over and break bones! So I prayed that He would please show me why that stuff happened. And since then, I’ve been learning that the promises in His Word ARE unconditional, but we can’t just randomly claim stuff.

He needs to give those promises to us … personally. Jesus Christ is not an add-on to make whatever we choose, better. He promises to be ‘with us’ in trouble – He doesn’t promise to give us a life free from it! We can easily forget that we have an enemy, and we can be misled. Check the news out sometimes – Christians can do really weird stuff in His Name. 

Purity of thought goes right alongside renewing our minds, and renewing our minds leads to changing our behaviour. Changed behaviour helps us to become spectators. We learn to hide in Him.The bible tells us not to “forget all His benefits” and it seems that we thought that if we committed verses like that to memory that that would do it. However, a renewed mind, leads to a renewed life. We look like Jesus, not just indulged children with special favours.

Let’s look at Psalm 23. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” and … “Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” That doesn’t sound like a free ride does it? What with our enemies peering at us, while we are eating or death all around us as we are walking!! Even when we choose to live in the secret place that is not a guarantee that bad things won’t happen to us. What the Lord promises us, over and over again, is that “He will be WITH us in trouble…”  My advice is NEVER minimise His Presence with you.

Our loving Father will not leave us to muddle through on our own, like the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet often have to do. Instead we can expect His guidance on how to walk through these things. I am not saying that the Lord, in His great Grace, will never protect us – however, I am saying that our protection and grace to deal with difficult things, lies in that secret place where our lives are totally His — and we have no agendas or designs for our future, and no resentments about our past!

The idea that Jesus died to give us a happy carefree life, here on earth, is a MYTH! Father God is telling us that when we live this life sold out to Him:  what happens to us will not be BIGGER than our ability to stay close to Him in the middle of it! But He will not take our choices away – every single day, in every single situation, we need to choose to continually follow Him.

A year ago now, I fell up the stairs and sat at the bottom of them with a shattered humerus. Not funny BTW! I sat there stunned and then I became aware that I had a choice. I could choose to fuss and fret, or I could choose to let God walk me through it. There were many days I utterly failed. The pain, lack of sleep and discomfort got me, and I complained, instead of asking for Him for His Grace to help me with it. Yet the minute I asked Him, He gave me so much help. He is where Grace comes from. I learnt a lot about my own way of thinking, and how easy it is to twist things to suit myself, while I avoid being changed! 

Let us choose to yield to His will His way – despite how things look, in the good and the bad times. Those choices can lead us into maturity. In other words, we will need to use our faith, even when circumstances seem overwhelming. We can tell the Lord we want to live in the secret place of the most High God, but life itself will test us. Sometimes it seems I flunk more tests than I pass! But like Paul, I press on … bye. 👋

P 2695 Loyalty matters to God.

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Let’s not take Father God’s kindness toward us for granted, or we can end up walking in presumption. To start with, we can easily be distracted by the cares of this life and forget Who He actually is! That’s when we could end up focussing on our own greedy little agendas of what we need or want. The point of a relationship is not just about what the other person does for me, it is also about what I bring into that relationship! What do I do that benefits that other person? We must not use Him for our own ends, He needs to be our great treasure. 

Our God’s benefits are for always seeable, and available to be easily seen, when we are living our lives loyal to Him. And He loves 💕 loyalty! Read the book. In the Old Testament we can see that His people spent more time being disloyal to the Lord than they did being loyal. But, whenever they repented and turned back to Him – His loving provision and benefits were seen and recognised and appreciated. I believe in order to see the Lord’s benefits, we need insight into the way we regard Him. God is not wishy-washy, whimsical, or careless. His preference for our salvation is crystal clear, but the decision to accept that, with all it means, needs to be taken seriously.

This is a good time to ask ourselves, where do I, personally, stand on this loyalty issue? Am I ”on the Lord’s side?” …like Joshua was? Joshua was prepared to die for God’s will to be done. Or am I on my Saviour’s side purely for so-called benefits, “I’m saved, He answers my prayers.” Maybe I get disengaged or ticked off when I happen to get trouble or tears? Is my main desire to live in His Presence? Can I see past His hands to His face? In my observation, most of the time when the going gets tough for Christians – the not-so-tough bail out!

I want to briefly talk about the incredible value of the Lord’s benefits. We have such wealth. We are strongly exhorted in Psalm 126:3 to: “… forget not all His benefits…”. In this Psalm, it talks about restoration of fortunes, reaping in joy, carrying seed to sow, and bringing in sheaves. But all of that comes after a whole lotta shaking and hardship going on – including sowing in tears! The thought struck me that we all want the joy, and the restoration, and the seed plus the sheaves … but not-so-much with the tears. It’s a package deal.

Some Psalms contain lists of the benefits of our loyalty to God. In Psalm 119 there are a whole lot of stated benefits. However, I think seeing God’s benefits is linked to our loyalty – and if we do not value Who He is, we won’t SEE them. These things are way too costly to be treated carelessly, haphazardly or poorly. Anybody can participate in everything He has done for us, but our response needs to be a heart filled with loyalty to Him because He has been so gracious to us.

Let’s look quickly at Psalm 23:1. In the Living bible it says:“Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need!”  This shepherd was totally in charge of his sheep! While they were under his protection the sheep lacked nothing. Even if they wandered off he would go and seek them out. This is a fine example of Jesus’ loyalty to us! Outside the camp there are wolves etc. This shows me that our faith can easily be devoured by cares and worries of this life – the shepherd’s sheep knew the value of staying close.

Some times we merrily produce our largish lists of needs and wants, and post them off to the Lord without bearing in mind where our loyalties are currently lying. Are we paying lip service, or are we His devoted servants, looking to simply be His sheep? Meanwhile if we are that distracted, will we even see the answers He sends? In Philippians 4:19 it says: “I pray that God will take care of all your needs with the wonderful blessings that come from Christ Jesus!”

Our God is so much more than the supplier of our needs – He’s Almighty God. He made everything we can see!

Every blessing we’ve received was bought for us by Jesus Christ’s own suffering. This life is not about Him getting us a new car, or having a baby, or getting into a course we think we want!  It’s about belonging to SomeOne so incredible, so loving, so focussed on us, that we take the time to see His heart and love Him back. We need to carefully inspect the origins of some of the things we claim and ask for, because loyalty and gratitude matter – especially to Him.

GRACE IS FREE BUT IT WAS NOT CHEAP. This is why everything we do, or want, needs to be prayerfully requested with our eye firmly on the prize of honouring Jesus. Otherwise we can go from faith into presumption in a heartbeat. Let’s not rob the Lord of our loyalty … 👋

“Jesus said to all of His followers, “If you truly desire to be My disciple, you must disown your life completely, embrace My ‘cross’ as your own, and surrender to My ways. For if you choose self-sacrifice, giving up your lives for My glory, you will discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will lose what you try to keep.” Luke 9:23-24.

P 2662 “In this world you will have trials …

/ DVH

… cheer up! I have overcome this world.” John 16:33 … well that’s sort of what He said. It definitely is what He did! We are over-comers IN Him. Troubles come, and they go, but our God’s Word stands forever! Hallelujah! To have faith in the midst of hardship we must look away from the troubles, to Jesus, He’s the Author and Finisher of our faith.

“Don’t you remember those days right after the Light shined in your hearts? You endured a great marathon season of suffering hardships, yet you stood your ground. So don’t lose your bold, courageous faith, for you are destined for a great reward! You need the strength of endurance to reveal the poetry of God’s will and then you receive the promise in full. But we are certainly not those who are held back by fear and perish; we are among those who have faith and experience true life!” Hebrews 10:32, 35-36, 39 TPT.

For those of us who have been Christians for a while we can easily identify with this scripture. Sometimes all we can do is … stand. Even with our earthly legs wobbling and giving out, we will always need His help to keep standing up spiritually. That means we use the power our God-given choices and refuse to let the enemy steal our hope in Christ! This is how you get endurance. Standing firm in the face of adversity and holding fast to His goodness – which never changes. It is too simplistic to think that getting answers to our prayers will strengthen our faith. Most of the time, that simply makes us feel comfortable — because then, we have a well-ordered life to show to others.  The enduring life can be, and look … messy! 

Believing in His goodness in the face of adversity, means we are still standing … even if we have to lean hard against the wall of His Word to do it! We remain undisturbed spiritually, when that terrible bus of adversity keeps running over us. Even when our enemy is shouting through the broken windows …”He doesn’t love you, He’s gone off and left you all alone!”  And we lie there, bleeding. Blasted by our circumstances and pain, feeling every jolt and bump as the bus of infirmity, calamity and hardship keeps driving over our broken body … back and forth, back and forth. Endurance is a difficult thing. We get it by hanging on to Him, in spite of our terrible circumstances. We believe in His goodness when everything around us says He’s gone off and left us to our fate and weak devices. 

I hate to say this because it is not very cheery, but I do believe it is true – sometimes our REWARD will come in the next life, not this one. We simply must stop seeing answers to prayer as a reward — answers are His GRACE extended toward us, not rewards. Answered prayer is a place of thankfulness and worship. Even our covenant with Him is founded upon sacrifice. His incredible sacrifice at Calvary, and our daily sacrifices and choices that are made in His favour, instead of our own convenience, safety and comfort. 

Psalm 40:1-3 “I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;  He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in Him …”

Trusting God when you are in the middle of “stuff” is incredibly hard. If you ask me in those dark moments when I want to be delivered from trouble and strife — my answer would be ‘about 30 minutes before it even happens!’ But the 23rd Psalm tells us that He is with us even when we walk through death’s dark valley. He is the Person who stays when the rest of the world walks away. We need to rely upon Him in those moments when we want to give up and give in to despair … because holding fast will stretch, strengthen and increase our faith that He will never leave us. 

I’ve found it works like this for me. Suddenly something awful happens, so I pray: “Lord, I need You badly.” And very slowly, as I hold fast to Him, my insides begin to calm down. If I turn my head to focus on the bad news, it will easily get bigger and panic will set in again. But when I focus on Him, those ugly circumstances may still exist, but inside I now have peace. In those moments, however, I need to stay alert, because the destroyer is still around. I have to  keep reminding the Lord, and myself: “I can’t do this without YOU.”

Don’t just grab at Jesus’ Arm to steady you – live your life clinging onto Him like a limpet – then those trials will eventually come and go, but we will still be standing. Whatever the immediate answer seems to be – the real Answer lives inside us. Bye 👋

P 2633 We all need comfort and love …

/ DVH

“All praises belong to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For He is the Father of tender mercy and the God of endless comfort. He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort that God has poured out upon us.”2 Corinthians 1:3-4 TPT.

So many of us are struggling in one way or another in these difficult days, so today – let’s pray together: “Precious Holy Spirit, please be with the lonely, suffering, the broken and those who are in pain. Jesus please make Yourself real to them in a brand new way. I pray that whenever they open the bible, the scriptures they read will fly straight into their hearts and bring them such overwhelming comfort. I ask You to help them to draw even closer to You, in their sorrow and suffering, so that they constantly feel protected and loved. Please bring their brothers and sisters around them to offer Your comfort and help, in Your precious Name, Amen.

When stuff happens to me and it starts to sink my little ship, I go straight into the Psalms and dig in!  But today I found these two verses in Corinthians and realised I was limiting myself, by staying in the Psalms. So I looked up comfort and love instead. What a wealth of stuff there is in our bibles! Now here are a couple of references that really helped me. Psalm 23:4;  Psalm 27:1;  Psalm 145:18-19; Isaiah 41:10;  Matthew 10:29-31; Matthew 11:28;  2 Corinthians 4:16-18 and Colossians 1:11. As you can easily see, a couple turned into a lot! 

My advice is to read these verses over and over until they slip down from your head into your heart. Your heart will remember far more easily than your head, and they will surround and comfort you in the dead of the night when no-one else is awake. There is no sad like the sad at 3.00 am and you can’t sleep. Life seems incredibly dismal when you have pain in your body or soul. However, we gotta give the Holy Spirit stuff to work with, so that when we are overwhelmed: ‘He can lead us to the Rock that is higher than we are!’Psalm 61.

There is a hidden blessing in suffering — it builds something inside us. And it makes us more open to care for someone else who is not doing well either. Over the years I have learnt to recognise pain by looking in someone else’s eyes. I don’t think it is a spiritual gift … well maybe it’s discernment… whatever! Lately, everywhere I look I see pain. I can’t even watch the news. How newsreaders can read about such terrible daily suffering and still smile beats me.

The wonderful thing about our Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is — They are non-partisan and not prejudiced against anyone. Holy pure Love flourishes between Them like an ever-flowing fountain, and we are incredibly blessed to be splashed and washed over and over again, in the fountain-overflow of Their love. When your body is tired and aching, a shower or a bath is great – when your spirit and emotions are overwhelmed we need to be soaked in, and splashed with His love for us.

Think about this – our God actually loves those who hate Him. Just think about that as an example of His unending Grace! Think about the people you know who have deliberately walked away and could care less about coming back to Him. Yet He still goes after them. I pray for those people that God will give them a revelation of how marvellous His love is. Until time is no more, our wonderful God will chase after ALL His kids. Each one of us matters to Him, and, speaking personally … some of us are kind of a bit strange – and that’s an understatement! 

Our Heavenly Father pays attention to every bird that falls to the ground. That made me wonder just  how many birds die every single day all around the world? So I looked it up…tens of millions of birds die every single day and He sees each one fall. Now here’s the glorious, hang-onto-this-info-with-both-hands bit — we know that HE CARES SO MUCH MORE FOR YOU and I, as imperfect as we both know we are.

The point is we need to let Him comfort us, instead of trying to buck up and stagger on, pretending everything is alright. My advice is to just sit in a puddle of your own tears on the floor and tell Him everything is NOT alright, and it won’t be alright until He helps you. And then wait for His peace to fill and still your heart. We need His comfort and love to surround us, all day every day.

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” … “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:7 (I found another one!!) Bye.👋

P 2480 Empty cups!

/ DVH

We have all been born, broken. There was sin in this world before we arrived here, and it will still be here … when we die. Someone once said that we come into this world with our little cups that need love, empty. Yet we all need love – some of us need it so badly we steal it!  The sad fact is we often wander around with our little empty cups from person to person, looking for someone that gets us … someone who sees us. Someone who will understand us, especially in our best or worst moments.

We may be fortunate to find a selfless person who gives freely, but for every selfless person there will be many many others who drain the cup of our hope and provision. So we need spiritual help and provision. Jesus never felt the lack of His Father’s Love, until He was in Gethsemane and He went on to die on that cross. That’s where He suffered that awful loneliness for us — if we need understanding we need to remind ourselves that the Lord Jesus understands. He entered into the human condition. We were designed to LIVE in the Presence of God. Go back to Eden, look at Moses, or Abraham … human beings were not designed to live without God and still flourish. Life batters everyone.

Sadly, many of the people around us that we choose to fill that cup, either leave, or they damage us further. Sometimes we even get married, with that huge thirsty need in the back of our emotions. We badly want to be fixed, but …. often so does the other person!!  And they too, see US as their answer. Human beings have a deep need to be loved … and those other people cannot fix you or I, because they have empty cups too. The ability to love others freely without limits, even the vile and the profane, is not found in people… that ability is only found in God Himself. We need His love to fill us and overflow in us and through us, then we will be giving away from abundance. If someone hurts us, most of the time they are not doing it for spite … it may well be that they are also hurting. I know this is trite – hurt people hurt people. But when we actively apply the truth into our lives it will set us free.

I believe the answer to filling this cup to overflowing is found in the 23rd Psalm. He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. Even at our lowest moments that cup is there to be drunk, using our faith. Don’t search your feelings, simply remember God’s realm operates through faith. Sit with Him, discern your need for love in the middle of the chaos, and ask for Him to overflow in you. When we are tormented by the pain of lovelessness, loneliness and emptiness we also need to ask to be able to discern His cup, which is always available. We must take our eyes off the problem and fix them on Jesus.“He is the Author and Finisher of our faith …” Hebrews 12:2. Faith is always the source of provision. 

Other people cannot fill that void. Only Jesus can. He said: “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].” Human beings were designed to be loved and accepted for who they are and Jesus is the only Person I ever met Who does that!  We simply need to go directly to the source. Jesus did. He got alone with His Father in the midst of a busy schedule. We must stop badgering God for answers, answers are a temporary patch. Tomorrow you will need more! Just go and sit and be with Him. He is LOVE, and all the acceptance we will ever need.

Jesus  also said:“I am the way the truth and the life …” Did you get that? Our new life is in Him now – He is the way into that new life and He always speaks the truth. He is more alive than anyone else that has ever been on this planet! He has that vibrant life in HIMSELF – He paid an enormous price to get it, and He gives us His life for free. Our faith is the key to unlocking the door to love’s provision. Only our Heavenly Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit can love human beings the way they need to be loved. Why? Because the Trinity are not needy. They have Each Other. Love is the language that flourishes between Them and They all love to share.

Just to remind you that He is our help with the empty cup pain that no-one else but He can fill: “… my cup overflows …”(Psalm 23:5) Remember this cup is to be found in the presence of our enemies … We need to take our focus off our feelings of emptiness, or the lack we feel, or even the people tormenting us—and focus on the overflowing cup …“The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup … “Psalm 16:5. We are the people who never have to live this life with an empty cup – we have a Saviour. 🙌

P 2453 We have such a powerful Friend …

/ DVH

I found these notes in my files this morning, and it cheered me up so much I thought it might bless you guys too. Message Bible Psalm 23: “Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I’m not afraid when YOU walk at my side. Your trusty shepherd’s crook makes me feel secure.” I must have read this Psalm about a jillion times in the last 50 years.  The 23rd Psalm is so comforting  – but then I saw something from a different perspective, and it was so cool! 😎 …

The Lord Jesus walks with us through death valley. (That doesn’t mean actually dying btw, it can mean the death of a dream or a hope etc. or even a planned future)  This is OUR Shepherd Jesus, right?  And He is right there beside us walking.  But He isn’t chatting folks, or aimlessly wandering along – He’s looking out for US! He is on high alert watching to protect us from the dangers of that dark scarey place. The Lord is used to protecting sheep, He’s our great Shepherd, and we know that is true, because He went looking for a lost lamb once!

In other words, Psalm 23 tells us that this is our beloved Lord Jesus …. with a crook or … as I like to call it … a whacker.  A whacker is a big fat shepherd’s crook that shepherds use to whack predators etc. Because he was a shepherd boy David taught us about being a shepherd – and yes, I remember he also had a pretty keen sling-shot. On different occasions this young man killed a lion and a bear. Now, in my mind, Jesus is not just carrying a sort of kind of a stick, it’s a weapon with a big knob on the end of it. It is the nob that does all the damage!  It is solid, and strong and used to thump things with the intention of cracking skulls, and killing, maiming or disposing of whatever it is. Well … ya-a-a-a-a-y!!! Some things need whacking! Go Jesus! … 

In other versions it says: “Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me …” well, those things would, wouldn’t they? You now, up to now, I always had this picture of Jesus walking with me in this dark nasty place that I didn’t ever want to go to – on purpose or by accident -. and He’s so kind … He’s comforting me. He’s speaking reassuringly to me –  you know what I mean! Jesus is saying “Don’t be afraid, I am right here with you, I won’t let harm come to you.”  He’s kind and loving;  but not so much with the strong bit. Rhubarb. Shepherds carry weapons. Think about that. 

Until today, I did not think about the POWER of the One I am walking with.  I have erroneously thought of Jesus Christ, the Captain of the Hosts of Heaven, as appearing in the finale of the bible, when He is coming again etc. on that glorious white horse. But this Psalm tells me that the Resurrected Christ walks with me through every single valley, He’s on my side and He will do whatever He needs to do to get His precious little sheep through that valley to the free food He has prepared at the other end! (Feel free to shout Hallelujah right here because I did!) 🙌

The reason David, who actually wrote this Psalm, is not afraid … is because he is walking with an ENFORCER THROUGH A DARK PLACE.  And this Enforcer knows how to use His power!!  I saw that my faith previously had been in my ability to hold onto His Hand, and that He would always, very kindly, help me muddle through the hard bits. However, after today, I really, really do not think this is what this verse is saying!!

I’m saying when you have the Enforcer with you there is no reason to be scared at all, no matter wherever you are, or what comes at you, because HE can definitely take care of the bad guys and get you safely to the other side … to the free food! That your enemies aren’t allowed to eat!  <giggle> If something attacks us, He WILL whack that thing on the head! ‘Take that, wolf, 💥 and that, bear, 💥and that, you ferocious lion that wants to eat My beloved!’ 🤯 Jesus walks with you and I and He’s going to bash up anything that wants to hurt us. “You’ll be sor-ry you messed with Him!!”  Our King protects His people.

The bible says: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee…” which means … whenever I am afraid or feel alone, Jesus is right there. That threat is a lie from the pit of hell. WE ARE NEVER ALONE, BE-CA-USE OUR BELOVED SAVIOUR IS WITH US a-n-d He has a big heavy whacker that can take down anything that wants to hurt us or steal our peace. So whenever something bad does come at us, Jesus knows between Him and me – we can beat it!  I will leave you with that thought today. Blessings and hallelujah! 👋🏻