Pursue love

P 3241 God’s Inexhaustible riches.

/ DVH

“To me, [though I am] the very least of all the saints (God’s people), this grace [which is undeserved] was graciously given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the good news of the incomprehensible riches of Christ [that spiritual wealth which no one can fully understand],…”  Ephesians 3:8. My topic today is spiritual wealth. Jesus died to make us so rich spiritually, and now we need to give those riches away.  

Meanwhile, watch out for lukewarmness – that misses the blessing of spiritual riches because it cannot see spiritually. This trait, mentioned in Revelation 3:8, has nothing to do with feelings, it has to do with inaction.Anyone who does what the Lord says ends up crazy about Him, because they see His Personhood. How rich He is in the things that last. We can’t afford to ignore what we’ve been given, at great personal cost to Himself. 

These things that flourish in His kingdom – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These spiritual traits are a part of His incredible wealth. But let’s not forget that we must not gloss over the cost of the cross, ever. The cross is the reason we can belong to Him.

BTW, being ‘lukewarm’ means I choose to look after ME. It thinks what Jesus said is nice, but unattainable, so it reverts to a default position of doing nothing. I want to ask you to think about this question for a few moments – is it in Jesus’ Character to ask us to do something we can’t do? Sometimes, He does ask us to do things we can’t do without His help… but as He has promised to always be with us, we can be totally assured that He will give us His input! 

Obedience isn’t an option – it’s a KEY. What is stopping us from being obedient? How did we get to be lukewarm? These kind of questions help us clarify our motivations. Deep down, when we truly love the Lord, we all know if we are fudging our answers. Are we hoping that if we say something enough that will make it true? The thing is — you might fool me —- but there’s no chance on God’s green earth that anyone is going to fool Him. Why not? 

Hang on to your hat Henry … JESUS IS TRUTH! He is not ‘a truth’- He is the One and only form of truth we can trust! In the book of John, we are told Jesus was here from the beginning, and He is called the Word of God. So here’s our first treasure – Christ Himself. The One Who lived and died for us is our Greatest Treasure. Jesus was equal with God but He did not use that equality to exult Himself, instead… He humbled Himself and became one of us. 

However, none of this could have happened without the Presence and power of the Holy Spirit. He, together with Christ, is our Primary Treasure. The Holy Spirit intimately knows the heart of the Father toward us. He longs to help us to daily bless our Father’s heart. In the past we have tried to use the Holy Spirit, but He is not a commodity – He is our treasure! 

The second treasure is: the bible.If you read it asking God to reveal Himself to you, you will find Him within its pages, unexpectedly. It has treasure troves in it stored up for us. Those things that we need to pay close attention to, and dig out. Any other book I have read, may have insight, but the bible contains and reveals God’s truth. We cannot say we love the bible without being obedient to what it says. Our calling is to be God’s obedient children. 

The bible is a word picture of the heart of God and His dealings with mankind. Our Father’s “unsearchable riches,” refer to His limitless, and inexhaustible spiritual blessings of grace, love, faith and hope. They include forgiveness, eternal life, our adoption as His children, and total salvation. He is daily offering us treasures too vast to fully measure or ever exhaust.. His love for us is so passionate it is inexhaustible! 

But as Revelation 3:8 says: the day will come for His judgment. Right now we are in the time of His Mercy. His mercy is another Inexhaustible treasure. It is essential that we understand this fact, His mercy is not just toward US! It is incredibly patient and long suffering toward everybody else on this earth. He is so rich in Mercy!

Next I want to talk about Grace, which is another incredible treasure of God. Grace is the vehicle we get into when we deal with other people and speak to the Lord Himself. Grace is the oil of God, given freely to us so we can distribute it toward other people. The body of Christ has been anointed with GRACE! It smooths the pathway that we travel on when we interact with people who have none. However, Grace is never permission to do whatever I want!

Lastly, we are told in 1 Corinthians 14 to chase love, to pursue it. WE are the object of HIS love and He constantly pursues us. God’s love is another  treasure we have been undeservedly given. Let’s give it away to those people around us who don’t deserve it either! When we choose to live in, and value these treasures … and there are lots more so check it out for yourself — then they become the tools we use. On ourselves, and everyone else. Our God is inexhaustibly rich in the things this world does not value. This means we can be rich in these things too. Bye. 👋 

P 3214 Let’s aim higher.

/ DVH

My beautiful daughter said this to me the other day when we were talking about 1 Corinthians 13 and its application. She emphasised some words in 1 Corinthians 13:3, like this:“LOVE REMAINS!” In other words, our love for Him and others, shouldn’t float in and out with the tide. The Lord’s love STAYS with us, no-matter-what-happens, steady on its course, and ours needs to aim at that too. That thought stopped me in my tracks. As comforting as it is to know that His love will never fail me, what’s going on where I am? Let’s aim together at having His kind of enduring, never-ending love … the love our Bridegroom deserves. A love that dies for another’s sake.

Everything that the Lord mentions in these really well-known verses is designed to REMAIN, so that it becomes who we are. Previously it seemed to me that it was a bit of a dream to think I could attempt something like that. I believe obedience is the key factor when you want to walk with the Holy Spirit, but sometimes I’d give up for a while, because it seemed like I was letting the other person get away with being difficult. 😱 It is quite useful and just a little bit shocking, to let yourself hear your own thoughts out loud. All I learnt from wandering in and out of love as the mood took me, was that you can make an awful mess all by yourself!

Let’s look at what the bible says: ‘love is patient, kind, not envious, doesn’t boast, is not proud. It doesn’t dishonour others, and it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, and doesn’t keep a record of wrongs” etc. We can’t walk in His kind of love, and do the opposite the next minute! Love doesn’t change, so neither should WE! Big breath in … in other words we can’t have this kind of love one week, and lose it the next! Faith, hope and love remain. Ergo, if it doesn’t remain it’s probably me still trying my little heart out! When I’ve thought about these verses previously — before my darling daughter opened her big mouth, was: “Yeah, those things remain – in heaven!”  Whoops.

I went a bit off my adult daughter momentarily when she pointed out that whole remaining vibe thingy. I didn’t like that idea much. I’m only human, and people mess up, everyone does. And that’s when I hit another speed bump – Jesus didn’t mess up and He was also human! And there I go again … underestimating the power of God to bring about real change.

Remain can mean more than one thing. It means that it lasts, but it can also mean if it is His kind of love — you have proof it exists because it is still there! You can’t shake it, break it, or lose it. I was always good at sums at school, and I did this sum pretty quickly… If I don’t have that kind of love then I don’t have the real thing yet. I’ve let my AIM settle for less. Now I know why the bible says: “Earnestly pursue love…” (1 Corinthians 14:1a) ‘Cos that stuff runs away from you, and we are going to have to chase after it, it won’t fall on us.

If I am going to let His love remain in me, I am going to need loads of help. I know that by myself, I definitely can’t remain in love – but just because I can’t do it, or I think I can’t do it, that should not change my AIM! People annoy me, just like they annoy you, and I have learnt how to repent, repair and move on …BUT … when I am having the same difficulty over and over and over again … it’s time to revise what is really going on.

I rapidly came to the conclusion that if I don’t choose to walk with the Holy Spirit, I’m going to blow this incredible lasting transformation in about 5 seconds flat. Actually, it’s probably more like two seconds — I was hopeful and I exaggerated!! The truth is — if the Lord doesn’t have a way to help me with this I’m sunk. The very best I can do is say nothing, and … I’m not good at saying nothing! Sigh. Guess what? God always has a way.

I did some further research. and I also found this verse. It said: “… follow after this kind of love…” I am assuming the translator meant follow after Jesus, because I don’t personally know anyone currently alive who is walking in this kind of love! However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t available to us. We too can learn to live and walk this way, but we will have to DIE to self, first. Jesus promises to teach US how. In 1 John 3:18 – we are exhorted to practise love: “Let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth.”

That is challenging too. Plus it says in Colossians 3:14: “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” So this kind of love can be ‘put on.’ Some versions say: “clothe yourselves.” It seems to me that we need to put on this kind of love and never ever take it off!! Even if we are harshly provoked. It’s kind of like the idea some nationalities had in the olden days before proper heating. They sewed themselves into their long johns for the winter. (They did make provision for the loo, BTW.) They put that garment on, with no view in mind of taking it off again, any time soon.

I think we need to let the Lord stitch us so far inside God’s Word – forever – that we have no thought about ever taking it off!  We must be so committed to Jesus and His cause that we will die rather than excuse ourselves. We cannot afford to think that obedience to His word is OPTIONAL any more. The thing is, if I look at love as a lifestyle, I will probably get overwhelmed and be tempted to opt out. I need to be devoted to what I believe, minute by minute.

I’m just going to leave that thought there so you and I can stew on it. I think that sounds like a permanent change. How about you? Let’s aim higher. Bye. 👋

P 2808 Love triumphs over everything.

/ DVH

The world we are living in today, has created a huge vacuum, by banning some things and not replacing them with better ones. Hubby and I were talking about this yesterday. There are so many rules about how you and I must interact with other people, with no thought to what we can do to replace the things we are told we must not do, except swallow the poison like it doesn’t matter.  It’s left a vacuum…

…so we can’t say this and we mustn’t say that. We dare not imply that someone else’s lifestyle is incorrect, we simply have to accept everything. These rules are pressed right up against our faces, every single day. They batter us through the news, and the TV. Plus there are images everywhere that you can’t UNSEE. And you must not comment on them either! 

These pagan, hedonistic attitudes are reinforced through our kindergartens, schools, and universities, as well as in the work force. We are told we must be tolerant, or we will be punished and penalised. We have to accept this thought and that idea, because we must be inclusive. Actually these thoughts are everything that true faith, by itself, can and will accomplish — but unfortunately now it’s law, not GRACE. Otherwise someone will sue us, or we will go to jail, and be shunned by society to boot! Fear of reprisal comes at us from every corner of the globe. So how can WE – the people whom the Son has made free, live this kind of life – when the-people-who-don’t-know-Jesus-yet demand that we obey things that would make normal Christians shudder?

Glad you asked that!! The bible teaches us to live this life, the only one we are going to get, loving others. That means our freedom lies within. We are told, in the book, by the King of all Kings and the Lord of all Lords that we need to pursue love. However, that does not mean we have to accept everything! So we cannot possibly go forward in this horrifying atmosphere of permissiveness – without His wisdom. We now need Jesus like He is our Air, He can no longer be an optional extra. We will need His guidance all the time. And yes, I know that some things are so repulsive to innocence it is hard to cope. But we need His eyes, His ears, His heart of love to guide us through, so we can continue to live and flourish in love.

I tell the Lord all the time: “I just plumb ran out of my kind of love, I definitely need Yours.” That may be simple but it is a great prayer and it works for me. He always helps me when I ask Him. My prayer is not fancy, but it is heart-felt, because I know I can’t do this stuff and live this way, without Him. I’m w-a-y to opinionated for my own good. Sigh. 

Back to my point today …God’s LOVE can fill any vacuum. He’s GOD He can do anything! Well, YAY! Today, we need to be so familiar with love, and so fluent in its language, that we are societally sweet, but pragmatically out of sync with this world’s ideas and ideals. Loving others does not mean we agree with their behaviour or ideals. Love is a higher law.  We don’t have to live this life down in the dirt staring at sin – we are to live a kingdom life, looking at Him.

Here’s an example of a conversation Jesus had when He met with Nicodemus. This man was a Pharisee. In reality he was in the religious rules camp. He was steeped in the law, because the law was part of his training. Yet Jesus did not dismiss him, or avoid him, the Lord met and talked with the man and gave him access to truth. 

John 3:1-8. “Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with Him. Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” 

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at My saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 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.”

The Lord did not argue with this man’s theology, He simply replied with REALITY – the ACTUAL TRUTH. He was stating a fact. Jesus never ever separated our earthly life from spiritual reality  … like we sometimes do. Instead He spent His time teaching others that spiritual things can, and do actually govern earthly ones. He did not see mankind as fleshly people who need a spiritual reality – He sees us all as spiritual people who have LOST our spiritual reality!

When we live in love, for love’s own sake – we step into who we really are. What people do with their flesh may be utterly repulsive but it is not ALL they are. We don’t have to live inside this world’s vacuum, we live IN CHRIST. He is a spiritual reality that supersedes whatever happens to be in fashion currently.  Love will always triumph, it can take a bit longer, but it is permanent. Bye 👋

P 2459 Run after something worth running after …

/ DVH

“Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 TPT.

Paul suggests in the scripture above that if you want to run after something then run toward something worthwhile — like love. In other versions of the bible, this verse says …PURSUE love. I like that. Chase after love because it is worth chasing after. We will always need to chase after love however, because with some people, it seems like it is always too far away, plus we are not perfect yet! That’s great BTW, that means we are ‘poor in spirit’ and the poor in spirit inherit the kingdom – at those times we need the kingdom!  Sadly some human relationships are often full of surprises, nasty ones. We are going to need the Holy Spirit to be our full-time coach.

Before we start, here’s a great thought to help us focus and praise God – GOD’S LOVE IS ALWAYS RUNNING TOWARD US! Back to the verse, it says if we are going to run, we need to run after knowing, and living in HIS kind of love. Forget human affection – that disappears quickly in conflict. How do you aim at His love? First of all, remember Love is a VERB not a noun. It is not just an attitude, it is an action. It is see-able! It does something good.

Now let’s look at a metaphoric illustration. You are running alongside somebody you know, and everything is going well, … Then they — we both know it’s always them, it’s never me — say or do some dumb thing, and you’ve lost your stride.  And bit by bit, the rhythm we had together is suddenly broken. Now they are nowhere near me at all and we don’t agree about anything. I’ve lost my peace, patience, and eventually my temper… usually in that order!

What happened? Perhaps I stumbled over something they said or did, or maybe they didn’t say something I needed to hear. Or vice versa. Whatever! The rhythm we had together is now lost. However, the point of pursuing love is not about running …it is the fact that you were running together. There is POWER in ‘together!’ Sadly we can end up brokenhearted when we no longer have the same aim as the other person. However, I am not powerless.  I can always aim at love – with, or without them. The result is the same. I don’t need them to love me back, or even treat me kindly, because God’s love follows the Holy Spirit and His kind of love runs on GRACE not performance. 

Further, the bible says: ‘Love bears all things’, so, in those hard moments when we cannot bear what is going on — we will actually need His love helping us to do more than resolve conflict. People are always impacted by God’s Love. Human love is tainted by need, but God’s love is highlighted by the fact it is unconditional.

What to do? Apologise! Yeah, I know, I didn’t do anything. But apologising clears the air, and repentance lets in grace. And grace makes room for the other person to come to terms with their part in what happened. You see the point is not to instantly arrive at agreement, the real point is going straight back into running toward LOVING LIKE HE DOES. Whether the other person comes or not!

When we are pursuing this kind of love we cannot enter into a brawl about who was right and who was wrong, be-cau-se … we cannot get to love, by that route! That route will end up in a bigger argument. The way to pursue and arrive at running after love is to give up your idea of how things are meant to happen, and start running after the Holy Spirit. We need His help. We do this despite how unkind the other person has been toward us. 

BTW, loving someone with God’s love does not mean we utterly approve of everything they are doing. LOVE AND APPROVAL are two different things. God’s kind of love is supernatural. We always need His love flowing through us, and we access it by obeying what the Holy Spirit prompts us to say and do. Now we stay under the instruction of the Holy Spirit – we don’t give in to our own temper or hurt feelings.

At the same time, we are going to need our faith and hope to kick in to help us to keep on running. I ask the Holy Spirit for ALL those things, plus loads of Grace – because Grace saved the world!  Meanwhile, God’s love is accurately described in the bible and HIS Love always looks like this …”Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. So the reverse of these things is a good indicator that we are not walking in love … if we are impatient, unkind, envious, boastful, or proud etc.

Obviously aiming at love means we are going to die to self. But that is fantastic be-cau-se …”greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friends.” If 1 Corinthians 13 is to be part of our daily lives then we must pursue love and obey the Holy Spirit. He will take care of our attitudes and actions. Plus we are also acknowledging our own poverty of spirit. Chasing after His Love means we are running after something worth pursuing. Bye. 🥰