Rage

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 3248 Let joy REMAIN.

/ DVH

“Yahweh, you are my soul’s celebration. How could I ever forget the miracles of kindness You’ve done for me?” Psalms 103:2 TPT. “When You speak to me, I devour every word. Your word brings me such boundless joy. The endless delight of my heart is in knowing that Your beautiful name is attached to me, O  Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies.” Jeremiah 15:16 TPT. ‘I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing.” John 15:11. First of all we let JOY remain by remembering Jesus has chosen to walk with us here and now – and the Holy Spirit is here to lead us.

Joy is like peace, don’t lose it! If you lose it I urge you to go and find it again. His joy, in us, makes this life worth living. It is precious and costly – it cost Jesus His life. Let’s treat our lives like an operating room. Nobody operates on a patient without first thoroughly scrubbing themselves clean, so we must make sure we ask Him to help us look after our hearts. This means if and when, we get angry etc., we need repent quickly. Nurturing anger and feeding irritation, facilitates letting our hearts harden against that other person. Sorrow and suffering are joy murderers, unless our joy is permanently in the One Who saved us. Then circumstances can’t rule us.

Our enemy comes at us with whispers about this and that, and before you know it, there is no joy, no peace, no reconciliation – there is only RAGE and SORROW left. To let JOY remain, we need to guard our hearts against pride, self-satisfaction, revenge, bitterness, self-pity etc. And deliberately repent and remove any reason to justify ourselves, our actions and words. Take all that ugliness to the cross and leave it there. Humble yourself and fix things with others. We can’t serve two Masters … we will end up with divided hearts. Let’s choose Who we will serve and permanently settle it inside us. 

Then we need to deal with the state of our hearts, and the all pervading feeling that we are entitled to be angry, because the other person did or said this and that! Rehearsing other people’s sins is not only a dead end road, it’s a disaster! When we go to the cross we leave our entitlement, our judgment, our need for retribution there – my best advice is this – don’t go back and dig it up!  

Baptism isn’t just a ritual, some people go under the water and come up exactly the same! That means the water of the Word has not washed them clean of this world’s attitudes and systems. Instead this life continues to feed them entitlement and anger – over and over again. There are others who like to think of themselves as wounded beings, and they feel the rest of the world owes them something, because this life has wounded them. Here’s a big revelation for all of us, we are all wounded one way or another. Hurt is not a reason to indulge ourselves.

Thankfulness in the face of adversity is one of the biggest keys to allowing our joy to remain. Meditating on what someone else did or said, feeds the wrong spirit. Eventually that becomes a defensive way to think, and the habit of not seeing the good in things, will drag us under. But God is bigger than the spirit of stupid we can so easily succumb to – cry out for help, and He will rescue us, over and over again. Consider this life to be a journey, and point yourself in His direction and don’t allow detours. 

This is what the Lord said in Matthew 26:53 when people were deliberately murderous, vicious and cruel to Him.“Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”Right there, is the well-spring of our joy. The Lord didn’t try to save Himself, instead He chose to rescue us. Our choices are also powerful! We can help each other immeasurably if we simply stop putting our expectations onto other people. Other people cannot hold us up, that’s like putting your expectations on a badly broken chair. You’ll hurt yourself when you fall down! 

There’s real joy in what Jesus did. JOY is one of God’s glorious traits. Jesus didn’t sail through His earthly life without conflict and confrontation, He walked carefully, prayerfully through it, sometimes one step at time. And every single time He did that with that with US in mind. Our focus matters! “Keep your eyes on Jesus, Who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how He did it. Because He never lost sight of where He was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—He could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now He’s there, in the place of honour, right alongside God.” Hebrews 12:2.

The joy we experience here and now, when we see what Jesus can do with one ordinary little changed life, that is our way through to the finish line. Where incredible eternal joy awaits us. We need to put immediate gratification, or instant relief from annoyance and irritation down … In favour of the greater good. Jesus looked through the pain of the cross, the separation from His Father and the Holy Spirit, and He saw us —- all of us together, in His Father’s house – forever. It is HIS joy we are learning so we need to learn it HIS way.  The Lord Jesus is the best reason of all to choose to learn to let joy remain. Bye. 👋

P 3105 Take regular BATHS in the Holy Spirit.

/ DVH

Isaiah 42:1TPT. “Take a good look at My Servant. I’m backing Him to the hilt. He’s the One I chose, and I couldn’t be more pleased with Him. I’ve bathed Him with my Spirit, my life. He’ll set everything right among the nations. He won’t call attention to what He does with loud speeches or gaudy parades. He won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt and He won’t disregard the small and insignificant, but He’ll steadily and firmly set things right. He won’t tire out and quit. He won’t be stopped until He’s finished His work—to set things right on earth. Far-flung ocean islands wait expectantly for His teaching.”

As you can see, Jesus is our highly recommended example of submission. Plus He is our perfect illustration of how to have a permanent, total loving connection, at all times with our Heavenly Father. He was not interested in publicity, or fame, He is always drawn to those people our society deems unlovely, broken, nasty, and unredeemable. Let us realise that legislating tolerance is not the same as loving acceptance. Father God’s will for our lives is loving acceptance. The Lord Jesus gave His all to obey His Father’s wishes so we could be accepted. 

Meanwhile, doesn’t the whole being bathed in the Spirit thing sound lovely??!! You and the Holy Spirit splashing away, having fun together! Hmmm. Way back in the ark we took baths to get rid of dirt. Are you still there? God’s grace, together with the Holy Spirit, will help us to deal with the stuff we’ve been ignoring, or overlooking because that pile of junk seems too hard and too big to tackle. But first we need to realise we need a bath! To get rid of dirt, grime, hypocrisy, jealousy, rage, and revenge, etc. – we need to regularly take a bath in the Living Water of HIS WORD. 

Our God is so good to us. He will always use His Word to encourage us when we are down, to free us when we are trapped, and to wash us when we are dirty. The following verse in Ephesians 5:26 talks about what the Word of God does in us and for us. “Husbands, you must love your wives so deeply, purely, and sacrificially that we can understand it only when we compare it to the love the Anointed One has for His bride, the church. We know He gave Himself up completely to make her His own, washing her clean of all her impurity with water and the powerful presence of His Word.”

There’s a bonus buy in this verse for husbands who are prepared to listen to it — if you follow the Lord’s advice in this verse you will have a happy wife. The advice is this: be like Jesus to your wife. That could keep some people busy until the next millennia!  And, ya might want to read that last sentence again and remind yourself that we will always need His help! Go to the gospels and see how the Lord Himself treated women. It is a sad fact that in the past men were only too happy to lead, but they kind of skipped the whole deeply, purely and sacrificially bit – not to mention love their wives the way Jesus loved the church!

A-n-y-w-ay! … Back to my real point today – deliberately deciding to take a daily bath in His Word. We can read verses like this, nod our heads and  agree with what it says, and still privately think …‘this stuff was written long, long ago, how can it be relevant today?’ The truth is it won’t be relevant unless you choose to make it relevant. Our personal decisions govern what we participate in. If we sow into the flesh—what we feel, or what we think might happen—we won’t even begin to see a harvest in the Spirit. The way to see what the Lord will do with obedience … is to decide to be obedient and get on with it.

Many of this world’s ideas are the exact opposite of our stated desire to be transformed and changed into the Lord’s likeness. You simply can’t walk with the Holy Spirit and disagree with the Way He does things! Father God is so good, He will not cross our wishes. However, what He has done is to provide us with opportunities to change our minds and turn around and go back into submission. Submission means our human mission becomes subordinate to His Heavenly mission. It means that He knows better than we do what we actually want and need – mankind is ruled by its appetites. God has a better plan, because of the Grace Jesus released at Calvary, the Holy Spirit can and will guide and lead us into His Ways.

Like I’ve said many times before – Jesus overpaid our debt. Now we have a bank of Grace that we can draw on, anytime, anywhere … under any circumstances… it is there to help us change! “…ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened to you …”  The problem is people have bashed on the door of this verse for years now to get stuff that they think they want or need. Things like expensive cars, houses, boats, trips overseas etc.etc.

This verse about asking was used to illustrate to us that we can have the Holy Spirit’s help anywhere, any time. Jesus is talking about receiving, welcoming and being helped by the Holy Spirit, not about me being given a new Porsche! When we allow God’s Word to wash us clean, our motivations become clean too. Let me put it this way – every interaction with His Presence changes us. If we mean it when we say,‘create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit in me,’  then we must choose to engage with His ways. Taking regular baths in the Holy Spirit means bearing in mind that we are looking to be clean — not just tick a box! That will change our hearts and transform our minds. Bless you. 👋

P 3022 God’s faithful family.

/ DVH

God’s faithful servants are always up for change, because they choose to trust Him. They relish the opportunity to see the our world afresh through God-given revelations, and renewed spiritual eyes. These people don’t back away from a fight, instead they know WHO WON and that is enough for them. They know how to stand still until the Lord is the victor.

All these faithful people care about, is glorifying Him, not just escaping from hardship or difficulties, because the Lord promises to be with us in trouble. They don’t go looking for hard things, but they won’t back off if that stuff bangs on their door. These people pray for transformation, as well as patience —believing God will answer them. Their prayers are full of praise. They don’t expect their life to be a perfect because they know it has a purpose, and those two things are not always compatible. 

After praying prayers of commitment or holding fast to a promise  —they know there will be a test. They are alert to anything that could blindside them because they know that they are not perfected, but their trust is in Him. They respond to every situation with gratitude. Even the Lord’s discipline in their lives shows these people He loves them: “…because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son.” Hebrews 12:6. 

The Lord needs His family to cultivate a very strong intimate connection to the Vine Himself, because we can’t do anything without Him. His faithful people realise His power is made perfect in weak people. So weakness does not surprise or intimidate us – instead we rely upon Him to get us through whatever happens.

God’s people know the battle they are fighting to win is in their OWN heart and mind —it has nothing to do with the other person in front of them. That is the true stance of an overcomer. Of course there will be times when other people will jump on any, or every nerve, especially when life is already difficult… that’s because  satan has no mercy…  Mercy is a love gift from our Father!

The reality is, those people who annoy us, are not attacking us. They are attracted to, and need the light that is IN each one of us. Even though it seems personal, it isn’t. Difficult people are tools in the hands of an angry enemy who knows he cannot win because he has already lost! satan will keep right on throwing hate at us, trying to cement rage, hatred, despair, disappointment, frustration etc. in all of us. We need to live this life AWAKE, rejoicing in the light of everything that Jesus has done for us. Sleepy, half-hearted people can make bad choices. 

God’s people don’t forgive their enemies because it is a nice idea —- we forgive them because we have been given the power to retain their sins. All that means is that everyone can get stuck if we choose to hold on to whatever someone did to us. Prayer for an enemy is powerful prayer. Forget praying for the sun to stand still! We pray for the guy who lords it over us and treats us badly. We pray blessings over the people in our lives who despitefully use us. This kind of prayer opens our eyes to new, deeper realities.

The bible says:“Owe no man anything but love.” Romans 13:8. God’s faithful family choose to live a life of LOVE despite the cost – because they know Love can never fail. Bye 🥰

P 2933 Joy is not just happiness.

/ DVH

I’ve learnt this truth from experience, even as I have grown older. When I was about 40 years old, I was misdiagnosed with liver cancer and told I had 6 weeks to live. To confirm that diagnosis I had to undergo a series of large needle biopsies to find the whereabouts of the cancer. A biopsy means you have a local anaesthetic into the area to start with, and then they poke a hole in the liver. If you’ve ever had a biopsy you will know what I mean. 

So the consultant did the biopsy and phoned for results. Negative for cancer.. So she did it again – negative. Apparently it is dangerous to repeat this test over and over, yet they did it 18 times on me, that day. My liver consultant, on the phone, insisted they were missing what he wanted, and he made the female consultant do it again and again, and the results all still came back negative. Even experts can be wrong. At the same time I had to lie perfectly still while they did this test.

After 18 times, the specialist consultant was crying, and so was I .. silently. Tears were pouring down my face but I couldn’t sob or cry out loud because the liver is a vascular organ, it bleeds very badly. So poking holes in it meant I could haemorrhage if I moved, so I had to lie still. In the end I heard this lovely lady yelling at the liver specialist that there was nothing there and she refused to take anymore specimens. Boy was I grateful!! 

They trundled me back to the ward, to lie on my side, doomed to lay there, absolutely still, for at least 8 hours. Fortunately the liver clots quite quickly, but because mine was not functioning properly it was more of a problem. The various liver specialists were so convinced that I had cancer, I had to have a major operation, so they could actually see the liver. It turned out I did not have it, I had an auto immune disease. That’s also when I learnt that joy is not necessarily happiness, because that was when I found out I needed a liver transplant!

Now, let’s look at a commentary, in Isaiah, about Jesus’ suffering: “I GAVE My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help Me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth Me; who will contend with Me? Let us stand together: who is Mine adversary? Let him come near to Me.”Isaiah 50:6-8.

The full details of the Lord’s crucifixion appear in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23 and John 19. Those details reminded me today of that particular day in my own life, long ago. It powerfully reminded me about how hard it must have been for the Lord to keep still as He let them beat Him, shredding the skin off His back. Then they shoved those awful thorns into His dear head, pulled out His beard, and hammered those huge nails into His hands. He did not cry out in pain – the bible tells us He was silent as a sheep is going to the slaughter. He did not choose to retaliate against His tormentors or try to escape.

When the Lord reminded me about that time of difficulty I had, long ago, I remembered all I wanted to do was escape! Imagine the level of self-control Jesus must have had, the love, the patience, despite severe provocation, and the injustice of it all! My consultant, a perfect stranger, kept yelling down the phone: “This is not fair, it’s torture.” But Jesus had nobody to speak for Him. He LET those soldiers carve our names into the palms of His hands with those huge nails. He could have called for angels. Angels were present at His birth. But in this terrible process they were absent. He kept silent and still, and endured the cross because He could see all of mankind on the other side of it. I said all that to say this: “For the joy that was set before Him He endured the cross.” Hebrews 12:2.

WE are His joy! His sacrifice made our transformation possible when He let those soldiers do what they were doing, even though they were tormenting and torturing Him beyond our imagining. Joy comes from completing the Father’s will. You know, the Lord Jesus did not deserve what happened to Him. It was deliberate, a malicious spite-filled action filled with hate, murder, rage and jealousy and death. 

Pilate himself did his best to walk that huge surge of evil, murderous emotion in the crowd, back. … But the Jews were determined. At the same time their prognosis of Jesus’ purpose was wrong! The same people who cheered Him and sang “hosanna”and threw their coats down in front of the donkey He was sitting on … cried out; “Crucify Him.” A week later!

Human beings are often evil, fickle and selfish, and despite all our best efforts we are often very wrong. As Christians we must learn to be pliable within His hands… even as we pray and believe for deliverance and release from any captivity. Almighty God promised us all far more than a nice car, a house, a good job, a perfect spouse, plus intelligent perfectly healthy kids!… He promised He’d make us like Him!🤔 JOY is not the same as happiness – happiness comes and goes. .

Happiness is this world’s answer to everything. True Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. That fruit grows in the face of sorrow and suffering. It grows even when you lose someone you dearly love, or someone betrays you, or even if the doctor is totally wrong. It grows as we let Him rule and reign in our lives. Bye. 👋

P 2754 A most valuable tool.

/ DVH

One of the most useful tools in my interpersonal toolbox is the one that says: “my response is my responsibility.”  I have found it can be much too easy to blame the way I am responding, or reacting, onto someone else’s actions. Maybe someone ticks me off, and instead of doing something (prayerfully) about it, I let it go because I am busy and I don’t have time to poke about in my feelings, or sort out your not-so-nice attitude toward me. What’s inside me, that has been stored up – so to speak, and it will eventually come out … usually at another person!

Unfortunately that kind of neglect buries any difficulties – it does not clear them up. Buried things have a tendency to rot away and stink! The next time you do something that ticks me off, I will have a less tolerant attitude toward your actions. If you keep on bumping into my ever increasing irritation, eventually – I could feel justified to snipe back at you. However, there is no ownership in those actions. I have unrealistically, farmed out my responsibility for my emotions onto you, because I am expecting you to pull up your socks and stop ticking me off! 

The only person in charge of the way I respond is ME! I would be far better off handing my irritation over to the Lord, and asking Him to help me with it, instead of stuffing it down inside me … making it a time bomb waiting to go off. I don’t have to say anything to you unless He says I should… I simply talk to Him and ask Him to adjust my inner ‘dial’ so that I am not so sensitive to the argy bargy stuff that happens in this life. I ask Him for more love and less impatience, and could He please show me what is actually going on inside me?

Babies are a perfect example of uncontrolled emotions. They cry and crank, mainly because they don’t have any language for how they feel. So someone comes and picks them up to soothe them. We have a society full of people who do not know how to handle their own emotions and soothe themselves. They keep waiting for someone else to do it, or they will throw blame everywhere. These people shrug off their own responsibility to manage their anger, rage, whinging, weeping, irritation and plonk it onto the people who are annoying them. It might be the wife and kids, it could be the government, or a neighbour, but I can guarantee that if you ask them, it  will always be someone else’s fault they are angry, full of rage, or sad etc. It will never be their fault. 

This life has bad things in it. People do truly dreadful things to each other and they are not only not sorry – they’ve let the aforementioned storm inside them build up to gigantic uncontrollable levels. We need to learn, with God’s help – how to manage our own responses and reactions. 

Repentance and ownership of my own flaws and faults must be like breathing. The bible clearly tells us that we don’t have to feel bad, or even less than somebody else;   because we know Jesus died for ALL our sins. And I’m not better than them either. I am not perfect myself, and, despite my feelings, I am not as excessively fragile as I think.

God put a fighter in all of us – we are designed for transformation, so we will have to fight our own human inclination to retaliate. I need to use His weapons of warfare. Those weapons I choose will transform my inner life so that it is not a litany of other people’s faults playing over and over and over again. That’s why I read the Bible, I am looking for Him, plus my own sin, not yours!

Today I want to look at those two men who were crucified right alongside Jesus. One man was bitter, the other became bigger. That second man was also suffering but he made hard choices at an incredibly difficult time. BTW, they both deserved their punishment.  

Luke 23:32, 33: “Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with Him. When they came to a place called The Skull  they nailed Him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on His right and one on His left… … 39-42 “One of the criminals hanging beside Him scoffed, “So You’re the Messiah, are You? Prove it by saving Yourself—and us, too, while You’re at it!” But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into your Kingdom.”

Ownership of our own faults is imperative to becoming a mature Christian. We must transform our self-talk by digesting the bible. Instead of dismissing ourselves as innocent, we need to remind ourselves that there is nothing that happens to us that is not Father-filtered. We need to ask for more FAITH to overcome our human inclinations. 1 Corinthians 13 is not a dream … it is a reality, ready to enter our lives, if we live prepared to press in and value the tools He has given us. If I truly want to be free I will deal with ME. Bye 👋

P 2748 Faith is now our reset button.

/ DVH

Colossians 3:1-4: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

Colossians tells us that we have a clear focus – it’s a forever focus. Because of Jesus we have eternal eyes, so we can see what He sees. Now we see beyond the here and now, into whatever the Lord is doing – we don’t always understand … but we can learn. That broken-down car, or that angry person yelling at me, won’t bother me because now I am dead by choice. I’ve hidden myself in Him, under His blood, that made everything eternal possible.

This is what our PAST looked like — Colossians 3:7-10: “You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” 

Because of what Jesus chose to do for me, to set me free, now I have the power to choose to actively get rid of the ghastly stuff of this world, that weighs me down. Colossians says: ‘rid yourselves …’ I think that shows us that we have work we must do – with the Holy Spirit’s help. Our old way to live is no longer compulsory. It’s gone. Now we have the power to overcome our old ways of thinking and doing. So we become focussed on getting rid of that stuff, step by step, as the Lord convicts and convinces us of sin. The old grouchy way of life still rears its ugly head, but we choose a different response. We do everything we do now, simply because we love Him. 

Currently, I am learning to identify, then take off those old clothes, the things that have been fashioned by this life … through my personal choices and experiences. Even the things I think I feel comfortable in — I deliberately put behind me. The Lord’s clothes seem to be difficult at first, as I learn to leave my old responses behind. Maybe these new clothes aren’t always smooth and silky, because in the past I carefully chose my clothes so they won’t irritate me. But choosing to follow Jesus means change and dealing with my irritation.

Anyway … here’s what the bible says to wear! Verses 12-14: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

That’s a much nicer wardrobe! But how does this happen? Do I pray a prayer and bingo bongo – suddenly I have this brand new wardrobe. Meh! Not-so-much. The transformation happens whenever I use my faith to obey and walk with Him, and listen to Him. I have to deliberately choose to change my behaviour, (my clothes) and continually remember that I will always need His help. Meanwhile, those old clothes can be like a siren calling out me to drown in my feelings!

Life happens to everyone. Someone else accidentally bumps into a pain deposit inside us and we realise we are still wearing an old coat of anger, or shame or hurt. Our new way to live means that we pray and step out of that boat of same old same old responses — and step onto the water of a new miraculous way to live. His way.

There is healing in His new clothes. We can walk out of things that seemed to be just our lot in life, and daily discover that Almighty God has a bigger plan for us. There is nothing quite like looking at a difficult situation, knowing full well that 6 months ago you would have had anger issues and now you don’t! The thing is we won’t care if someone else seems to win, or not, because as we walk with the King we start to see this life from His perspective. And that changes everything.

Living like this means we use our faith. We step out in faith, every single day. Faith feels odd when you first use it, it seems risky and scary —  like maybe people will have an advantage over me. However, using our faith brings us into a much bigger arena. Who knows what gift the Lord has put inside us to benefit others? Or what gift they may have that will bless us? Faith will now become our reset button. 🙌

“Wherever I go, Your hand will guide me; Your strength will empower me.” Psalms 139:10 TPT.

P 2738 Avoid at all cost.

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 2735 Who are you angry with?

/ DVH

If someone asked me that question I would probably say: “no-one.” Actually I might think about it for a bit, and maybe I would come up with one or two people that kinda irk me every now and then but my response would be: ‘… I’m not angry! No way!’ Now here’s a laugh for you … or you could cry. I’ve done both. Ask the Lord who you are mad at, and sit and wait for His answer. ps Don’t believe that little voice inside your head that says you are OK. That voice will tell you that you are a perfectly splendid person who never gets mad, it’s someone else’s fault for provoking you. That’s that liar – it’s not Jesus. 

At the same time it could also be you, making excuses for yourself. Err on the side of caution and press into the Lord about it anyway … and take a pen … because you are going to need one. Yeah, I know, I seem so sure of myself about this subject … that’s because I’ve been doing stuff like this for quite a while now. One time recently when I asked the Lord that question He said: ‘the postman!’  I’m like … ‘the POSTMAN Lord??? Really??? What on earth did HE do that gave me an opportunity to be angry at him?’ Then the Lord spoke this magic sentence “… remember when you were waiting impatiently for that important parcel … and it didn’t come?” … …

Aha! The Lord and I were about to have a teaching moment. I am dumb, but I have learnt not to talk over the top of Him! I’ve also learnt to agree with Him and let Him explain to me the error in my thinking. Plus I get a freebie – a way to deal with it. He gave me this picture and I kind of liked it – I hope you find it helpful. Suppose getting mad at someone else was represented with something concrete:  every time you get miffed at another person or situation because it doesn’t suit you – someone gives you an orange. Would you like to guess how many oranges you will have at the end of the day? Mine was 3 bags and still counting!  No wonder I am always tired!! I’m carrying around 3 kgs of oranges, voluntarily!!🍊

Meanwhile calling anger by another name does not change a thing. It just makes ME feel better and more in control. You know what I mean, calling it lesser things like – miffed, ticked off, irritated, cross, displeased, provoked and irked – those are just a few synonyms for angry, and there are lots more …!! 🙄 Just having kids can throw you headfirst into plenty of opportunities to be angry. Meanwhile if you actually stumble into rage, please count me out. I have no brilliant ideas for dealing with that one! Maybe take a cold shower??… Like I said … not a clue!

My very, very elderly parent forgets what she just said. And she also forgets what you said three seconds ago when you answered her. So she asks “How are you?”…   every three minutes. It seems like time stands still just being around her and you are caught in this time warp! You try to change the subject but the minute there is silence – off she goes again! That’s on ME, BTW, not her. I can, however, with the Lord’s help have compassion on her, my brain cells are slowly dying off too.

Another fav irritating thing that happens with astonishing regularity is caused by our dog!  She loves to bark at anyone who comes within a half a mile of our house. I mean they could be 4 houses down and just walking along, on the other side of the road, minding their own business … But she goes off her rocker explaining to us that there’s  a person! I roar at the dog, because I’m embarrassed at the noise she makes – but let’s not talk about me shouting at her, that’s another thing altogether!

Now over to a few solutions. Well there aren’t any. Just get over yourself and repent. My dear parent is going to continue to ask “how are you” because she’s stuck, and she’s polite and wants to contribute, and praise God she is still here to do it! And the dog is going to continue to announce every stranger who walks past our house. However, personally, I am getting so sick of collecting oranges! What to do? Here’s what the bible says: “Be angry but don’t sin, don’t let the sun go down on your anger.”Ephesians 4:26. Now that’s good advice … I need to take it … I often remember that scripture the day after I fall in!

Sadly, there are some things that we can let the sun go down on, and come up again, etc. etc. over and over. Here’s the only thing I can suggest. Forgive whoever it is on purpose. Go in person if you can and ask them for forgiveness, then every single time it comes up in your mind, or that person does whatever it is AGAIN, remind yourself you already forgave them, and repent for digging up dirt on somebody else. Next, deliberately take the time to ask the Holy Spirit if that irritation etc. is standing on something. Do I remember this advice all the time? Of course not!

Some things remind us of the past or someone else, and then we react badly because we are standing on a mound of hurt. Repent, forgive whoever it was and ask for healing. Other people’s sins should fade out of our lives – yes, even if they do continue to do the same thing over and over again. It is OUR sin we are concerned about … of course I am an abject failure at that one too!  My advice, don’t let anger ruin your days… and if you do! Repent quickly. Bye 👋

P 2724 Love …

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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