Reign

P 3145 Who Am I now?

/ DVH

Our identity is IN CHRIST. So if I want to find the real me, I can’t look in the mirror, or even at what our society says about who we are, or what we think we are. We will need to look into the mirror of His Word. Unfortunately, that’s also the place where we will discover the places where we are unlike Him as well! And our destiny lies in what we choose to do about those things. When we brush His Word aside, we can end up going round and round chasing the things of this world.. 

Romans 6:6-14 (bits of it) “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, [that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin… …In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”

What Paul is saying here, is that the way we regard ourselves now we are alive in Christ, matters. We have not been set free to please ourselves, we have been set free specifically so we can choose to obey Him. At the same time we no longer have to sin – those desires and their accompanying actions went to the cross with Jesus so we don’t have to live with them anymore. When we choose to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Him, every day, we are choosing God’s way over our own. 

Then we have put away the immediate gratification of indulging our feelings, or what we think we want, in favour of giving God what He wants.That’s when we act like His kids and begin to become more than conquerors. The biggest enemy in our lives for us to conquer, is the enemy of SELF, not somebody else. We must put away our old attitudes, hurts, actions, and the past, and begin to renew our minds by reading and obeying the Word.

The Lord Jesus was motivated and activated by what His Father wanted. Did He feel like it? We certainly know of one occasion when He didn’t!  But we are clearly told that Jesus was mirroring our Father’s attitude toward us and sin, and that helps us to see Father God more clearly. When our desire to please our Heavenly Father overcomes what we imagine that we want, we will begin to walk like Christ did. His Grace, and the power of God is there with us to undergird us, as we step forward into a brand new way of thinking about this life. This process is not a happy walk in the park! Each one of us still has some sort of wilfulness and a desire to get our own way, inside us. 

The Lord wants us to choose to do what He has said in His book, simply because we love Him and want to be with Him. Personally I am learning that I want the Holy Spirit’s guidance in my life – more than I want my own way. But it still can end up in a real wrestling match, especially in these dark times when everything we see around us is about self-gratification! Also we can each have a poor perception of what we can really accomplish –  mainly because we’ve been acting a certain way all our lives, and it seems insurmountable to us to act differently.

The point is what Joshua said: “Choose this day Who you will serve … as for me and my household we will serve the Lord!” Our obedience comes down to our choices. And when we choose His way, we will die a little. Personally, I have found that being dead looks much better than having my own way! Yes really!! Father God can do a great deal with even one ordinary person who is happy to stop living for themselves and start living for Jesus’ sake.

We simply don’t have to be slaves to sin anymore. Jesus Himself personally showed us the way through that trap – obedience to God’s Word works! Romans 6:17-18 “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” When we see something in the book that the Lord told us to do, that’s when we pray, ask for His help and go out and co-operate with Him.

It is good to ask the Holy Spirit if we are a slave to anything other than Jesus’ righteousness. There is no shame in discovering places inside your life where we’ve been trapped by our own dumb choices. But because we can see it, that means we need to pray over whatever it is, repent, and ask Him to show us the way through it. Then we go out and live differently. So, instead of saying something inflammatory, now we deliberately choose to go with love, kindness and patience etc …

Here’s a tiny clue that helps me: Pray first. Secondly, don’t expect happy feelings to overcome you, this is about stretching your faith. It hurts – just like stretching out a calf muscle will hurt! Find out what the Lord thinks in the bible, and do that. Things can seem to be very entrenched into our personalities – so repetition also helps! That’s how I learn who I am. I am His child, learning His Ways, because He chose to love me first. Bye. 👋

P 3107 We bring Him joy.

/ DVH

Our faith in God’s goodness is His joy – especially when we simply enjoy Who He is, no matter what is going on around us! He is looking for all His people to live by faith, believing He is always good. All through the Old Testament, our Heavenly Father repeatedly gave Israel opportunities to leave all their known and established routines behind them, and trust in Him to care for them. The majority of them refused, because they thought they could run their lives without Him. They only wanted rescuing when they thought it was appropriate … they did not want transformation. What are you looking for? “How can two walk together unless they be in agreement?” Amos 3:3.

In the bible we have real life examples of what God’s goodness looks like in other people’s lives. There are men like Abraham, who left everything behind because God told the man: ‘Come and walk with Me to a new place I have for you.’ And Moses, who saved his nation for a far better life than the one they had. And David, a king without a throne, fighting for his life almost daily, being led every step of the way by God Himself.

Plus there were women like Ruth, who left her own family and became a part of history. She adopted and was obedient to Naomi’s family, and their faith. Noah’s wife — the woman who watched her husband build an ark, when it had never rained! Then she went in to a contained space filled with wild animals … plus she actually took her kids! Then there’s Esther who risked death to save her nation. There are countless others I could name here. These people all illustrate what faith in God’s goodness looks like. It looks like action – it looks like being stretched – it looks like being in danger – it looks like being uncomfortable.

I believe the Lord is still looking for people who will voluntarily live out their knowledge of Who He is to them – day by day. These people will live their lives like they believe to the depths of their souls, that He is a good, good Father Who cares deeply about each and every life. Almighty God’s loyalty, and investment into mankind’s relationship with Him, cost Him everything. Almighty God showed His faith in us when He sent His Son here — and then we turned around and clearly showed our faithlessness – by killing His Son! But the obvious love of His never-ending loving-kindness can still be followed right through-out the bible. It stretches way before our beginning in this world and goes on marching into eternity. 

Let’s look at Genesis 1:26-27… It was not enough for Him to make just another species, God wanted the MAN He made to look like HIM! “Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

And Revelation 11:5 illustrates what His ultimate goal is:“Then the seventh angel sounded [his trumpet]; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom (dominion, rule) of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” Jesus came to this earth to restore an overabundance of the very essence of what Adam and Eve had given away through their disobedience. I think that God Himself wants that garden we carelessly gave away, back. He misses us, because each one of us is special to Him. The intimacy, the fellowship, the shared love, the fun! Meanwhile, AnyOne who can make the variety of species we enjoy on this earth has to have a sense of FUN. 

I believe our God wants us to usher in His kingdom for Him, right here and right now, wherever we are. We don’t have to be “ready” – we just follow our Leader and do what He says. So much time has been wasted with us trying to get ourselves ready to obey Him! As we walk through our lives we are to be His announcers, heralds, the proclaimers — and Jesus Himself gave us the power to do it! Because of what He did for us, now we have become the aroma of Christ in this world. We go from place to place releasing the sight, smell, sound, love, joy, peace, reconciliation of His kingdom everywhere we go. We bring this tired, angry, broken world glimpses of what is to come.

We can use our gift of sight, to see the lack in our lives – most of us have some kind of lack or other — OR we can choose to live in His kingdom now, in our little corner of the world. It is our greatest joy to be given the privilege of fellowship with God Himself, daily, as well as enjoying everything He made. We need to remember that He made all those people around us too – even the grumpy, disappointed, fearful, greedy ones! I can stick my hand up for all those responses – how about you?

Many Christians want to live in the book of Acts, but those men and women were set on fire by the power of the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t just a tiny little match that caught fire, it was like a huge forest fire that spread everywhere. It consumed those who were ambitious for themselves, but empowered those who were willing to die for what they believed. God loves our faith. Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God Who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” WE CAN  BRING HIM JOY! Bye. 👋

P 3067 Rules don’t reign here – Love does.

/ DVH

We are not in the Old Testament, under the Old Will – now we live in His kingdom. So rules don’t reign here — LOVE DOES. It is a very limiting thing to live by rules, because there is no freedom to change or explore other possibilities! In the past few weeks I have discovered that the loss of a loved one sharpens your awareness of who you really are. The pressure and sadness bring up things that might remain undisturbed, or even unseen.

People make choices that separate us from one another. So much more of this life can be explored together, if relationships were valued more than privacy. Sadly, my whole culture values privacy! Have you ever experienced getting angry with people who do some dumb thing you advised them not to do, and when it doesn’t work out — they want you to fix it for them?  Boy do I have a word for you today. It starts with RE and it ends with PENT! We are told to bear one another’s burdens so we can carry them to the Lord for that other person, not collapse under the load!!

Recently I found piles of anger, stuffed into previously unknown corners, all over the place in my heart. Apparently, I also have a postponing habit! I see something in my heart, and think, ‘I’ll fix that with the Lord, later!’ Well, later finally came, for me, and it wasn’t a bit like Christmas! I discovered I was sick to death with being asked what I thought, only to find, lo and behold – the other person didn’t like that answer and threw it away. It wasn’t that I wanted things to be done right – I just thought they could have been done better. 

I’m an external processor. I find out what I’m thinking by what comes out of my mouth and sometimes that is a bigger surprise to me than it would be to you! It’s dangerous stuff, trust me. It is amazing how easily my foot gets into my mouth. Especially as in the natural – I can’t even put my own socks on! Stuff started coming out of my mouth that definitely wasn’t true, and so the Lord began to deal with me about my own attitude toward myself. 

I had developed a habit of thinking that if I had said what the Lord told me to say in a better way, maybe things would have turned out differently. In other words I had picked up false responsibility, which meant that everything that went wrong was most probably my fault. It’s taken a crisis for me to see that I am definitely not that clever!! Other factors have come into play.

Individual people that I care about and respect, gently began to suggest that the way I was thinking about myself was not a great way to deal with things. And then another one came along… before you knew it — I had a queue of them, that nearly went around the block! And they were all saying the same thing. They didn’t all use the same words – but what was said had the same theme. The theme was —- “punishing yourself for other people’s poorly made decisions, is unscriptural and a bad idea.”

That’s the problem with honesty … it’s great but it can be brutal when you swing it like a sledge hammer… at yourself.I had developed an ungodly attitude that was disguised as humility. It seemed to be easier to me to be self-effacing, than it was to say to someone else: “But God said.” The Lord explained to me that attitude was not humility, it was negating the gift He had given me. Then I explained to Him that if I didn’t self-efface stuff, people would not only get mad at me, they would find, and use, that big hammer on me, frequently.! He very gently said: “Isn’t that called fear?” I sure didn’t have any answer for that one. Unless you count … UM! 

But that conversation led me to one question – how often does fear stop any of us from obeying Him? I mean, think about it. We live in a world where there are no rules – because we think rules restrict other people’s freedoms. So now we’ve made rules that say that you can’t stop others from being themselves! Does anyone see the irony in that?

In God’s kingdom, wherever we have had rules — He is actively helping us replace them with His LOVE — because Love is the perfect bond of unity. We can’t get to unity with rules because all of us are rebellious – even the nice people! I can’t get to the place where I am not afraid of you, simply because the bible says “don’t be afraid.” Instead I need a revelation of how great His love and acceptance is toward me. Those rules have not been discarded, they have been gloriously upgraded in one life-changing event! Jesus died in our place.

Sadly, I can keep on doing the very things that are preventing me from growing up into God’s plan for my life – by undermining myself. The Lord wants to tell each one of us today, that there are always areas in our hearts that He is working on. At the same time, He is preparing each one of us to be ready for what comes next, because He knows when those even more difficult things will land on us. 

We can miss the opportunities He brings to prepare us, by not replenishing the oil in our lamps. So don’t tell yourself: ‘I’m just broken.’ Our God can mend anything. The rules have been replaced by LOVE and love cannot, and will not ever fail. 👋 

P 2647 Hitting the refresh button.

/ DVH

“Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Come to Me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis.” Matthew 11:28 TPT. As I have said many times before, I am very literal when it comes to reading the bible. This means that I tell the Lord, “Please help me Jesus, I am tired out of my brain, I need Your refreshing.” I call that hitting the refresh button. Now here’s a truly great refresh button, from the bible, just for you and me!

“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have now received reconciliation.” Romans 5:10, 11 &17. “For if,by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!”

So after I’ve read that, I put what it says in my own words. It goes like this, “If one ordinary guy (and his wife) managed to stuff up the wonderful things God had for mankind – then it stands to reason that His own Son, coming here to earth and living this life the way it can be lived – will release grace, and righteousness, plus the ability to rise above our day to day circumstances.’  Amen.

Here’s a heads up. You can’t do what I just did if you are running by the bible with a piece of toast in your hand, on your way to the office! The best thing to do is to pretend you are a tea bag and just sit in the Word until its goodness comes out! If we want to live this life refreshed, we must allow the bible to wash us, and let it soak in. If a stupid computer needs to be refreshed from time to time, then I sure do. Stuff happens in my world all the time and I forget to duck! 

The other day we went to the doctor and she was such a negative Nancy I wanted to go home and pull the covers over my head. However within days, Father God proved her negative POV wrong. Sometimes people will say and do things … ugly, grumpy, faithless things. You know when Jesus is not in charge, none of us are all that great. Life happens and it isn’t always happy happy joy joy! This means I will often need a fresh page to go on with – how about you? I need to pull focus back to what is real, and separate out whatever is shadows from the past, floating through my mind making me angry, unhappy or afraid.

The bible clearly tells me that God is not mad at me, now I have the freedom that Christ died to give me. After I soak in that thought, whatever I need to do is already done, because I am yielding to the will of the greater One within me. FYI, I’ve learnt to let go of my own way – my way ends in death! So … I forgave the doctor and then I got on with what was going on, even though it was a little hairy at our house for a bit. I want His way, the way that leads to life — life and more life. This means I can have His grace for any situation I find myself in, and if I forget to partake of that Grace — then I have His Grace to lead me back into His complete redemption!

Here’s an important key to living this life refreshed … Don’t look at your circumstances and defer hope by waiting for things to change before you enjoy His benefits. “Hope deferred will make your heart sick!”  Start reading about His benefits and then start cheering.The bible tells us not to forget His benefits in Psalm 103:v2. Remind yourself of everything that He has done in your life. The more we pull on that string of remembrance the more good stuff comes to the surface – we start remembering how good He has been to us.  We can preach ourselves happy if we take the time to really remember, read, and tea-bag soak in all He has done for us when we read our Beloved’s words.

The bible is not just an ordinary book. It is God Himself speaking to us from day to day. Imagine this. Suddenly you are pulled up into the throne room, you have no idea how … and Almighty God starts speaking to you from the throne. That’s what happened to Isaiah and Paul … do ya think they might have remembered what He said? To be refreshed we need to give His book more than a cursory glance. We need to prayerfully ask “What have You got for me today precious Holy Spirit?” Then pause, and read. Read until your heart gets happy and you start to think ‘I never knew that stuff was in there.’

Every day we meet the Lord in His book, and we use that book to refresh ourselves. We pray and talk things over with Him, so we can spend refreshing times with Him. We are His kids whether we feel like it or not. We cannot afford to live in our feelings because they change with the weather and our circumstances. Push the refresh button and drag your thoughts out of hell and into heaven. He’s waiting for you … 👋

P 2526 Some thoughts on what maturity looks like.

/ DVH

To begin, I need to say that I do not think the things I have mentioned here indicate a place of arrival, rather they are personal sign posts. I wrangle every single day with all of these things… but I refuse to lower my aim just because these things are hard! Becoming like Jesus to other people means everything to me.Today, I have added in my own thoughts as well, but I think that this is one of those times that I need to let God’s word speak for itself. 

It is also good to look carefully at Jesus in the Gospels to see how God’s Grace operated. How HE took it in and breathed it out. Maturity sees Grace as the coin of the realm, they freely give Grace away and they also receive it in. Romans 8:29: “For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” Mature Christians have walked way past being dead to sin, that’s a no-brainer! Instead they are so alive they challenge you by the way they live.

Galatians 2:20 TPT “My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives His life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God Who loves me so much that He gave Himself for me, dispensing His life into mine!”

I think we all have a need to mature in the Western World, because, sadly, immature people follow fads as well as people — not Christ Himself. Ephesians 4:14 ”…so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”  The Body of Christ will grow in spiritual maturity, by learning to persevere through the trials and challenges of our life. Mature people are humble because life itself and the Word of God has taught them, who they really are, without the Holy Spirit’s help. 

James 1:2-5 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”  Trials are an opportunity to stretch and grow our faith!

Mature believers seek to live a life that is Spirit-filled — that is, they learn to be aware of and listen to God’s Spirit, who lives within all Jesus’ followers. Romans 6:11-14 says: “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” 

These people Paul talks about understand that sin is a choice and the more anyone gives in to it, the harder it becomes to resist! So they “…present their bodies as a living sacrifice …” instead. They want what the Lord wants. They may not always know what that is … but they will take the time to wait on Him to find out! These people are a generous people. They not only share, but they make sure that their love is demonstrated not just talked about. Their only desire is to please the Lord above everything and everyone else. 

Mature people will quickly admit their faults and their lack, but they also know exactly where to go to repent and be filled again. Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God has forgiven you.” Forgiveness is never an optional extra to these people, it is a way of life. This means they do not judge others either. They know how to repent and admit that they were wrong, because their aim is Christ’s likeness not vindication. So they always repent quickly, then usher in real restoration, and go back into relationship again. Psalm 15:4:“They keep their promises to their neighbours, even when it hurts.” 

Philippians 4:11&12. “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”  These saints have found their contentment in knowing God Himself, and the Lord and His Presence in their lives is all they want. They never have to pray – they simply want to talk to the Lord because they love to be with Him. Maturity will refuse to define what other people’s love should look like, it accepts what the other person gives them with His Grace.

Lastly, in order to grow spiritually and mature in our faith, we must draw near to God, because we cannot mature on our own. Without His personal input into our lives – our works and efforts are worthless.

Bless you and bye for today! 👋

P 2486 It’s the everyday things that drive you crazy …

/ DVH

… and then, bingo bongo – there went your happy day! There is a grevillea right outside our front door, and I sit near that door, typing this blog. A noisy miner bird also sits there on said grevillea, and chirps it’s little heart out, day after day after day … endlessly! It is always there – right when I am typing, and it is not there – when I am not! These birds are permanent, persistent, utterly piercing, bossy boot-type natives, and they are not easily dissuaded from harassing one of my favourite native birds — the lorikeet. 

The local lorikeets also love our grevillea. This means we often have a bird-sponsored turf war in our front yard. It’s like ‘ringside-with-the-wrestlers’ only with birds!! Now, you might perhaps think that a dear little bird singing sweetly to me daily is a cheery thing. It’s NOT! Actually I’m pretty sure this bird would be in with a chance to play the didgeridoo – it can chirp and breathe all at the same time! On and on and on and on, for hours!!  I wish I had a great BIG gun! I’d shoot the blasted noisy miner stone dead. OK, OK – that’s a wish thought! Please don’t climb on your ecologically-sound, avian high-horse!  Despite my wishing this bird would drop dead … Hmmm… no.

My dear trusty, loving, helpful husband … who totally understands how strident and interrupting to my thought processes this bird’s chirp is … … mainly because it annoys the living daylights out of him too (!!!) … My dear Hubby stealth-walks outside. He sidles along the edge of the door and he sneaks up on the little darling and shoots at it with a … (wait for it) …water pistol! 🐦🔫!!  BTW, in case you are concerned we are hurting it, it quite easily chirps it’s head off in the rain undeterred, so it does not, ap-par-ently (!) dissolve in water … More’s the pity.

Instead it simply flies away to return to annoy me yet another day. It may seem like a dumb bird, but once it has been squirted, boy can it learn! The minute hubby’s hand hits that front door again, all pistoled up and ready to fire away… off it flies …And then it comes back quite quickly when he goes back inside, to recommence it’s torment. Yaaay. Meanwhile, it also successfully chases away my real-true-fav-friend, the lorikeet. Yes, I know the aptly named noisy-(I’ll-say)-miner, is not as pretty as the lorikeet. It’s call is definitely right in there with whiny little kids who want an icecream 🍦 …  but I totally refuse to feel sorry for it – ordinary-looking or not. Instead, I quite often feel provoked into bird-icidal thoughts about it!

My not-friend, the miner bird, reminds me of how easy it is to lose one’s cool. Everything is fine and dandy and suddenly … you are on your last nerve ready to thump the next human being who innocently says ...”Good morning!” cheerfully. Hmmm…. apparently today is going to be …complain about the wild life day … and once commenced on my current totally irritated course I cannot escape.🏃 Run for your life!

Perhaps I have been slightly brain-damaged by a rampant noisy miner. So now, let’s move on to my next least-fav indigenous thing, possums. One paid a visit to us last night, plus the night before. It’s a sociable little furry thing …it comes over to practise it’s high jumps for the Olympics at 2.00am. Apparently it is possum hoe-down season again. Wretched little monsters. They are either ON your roof or IN it – either way … grrrrr!. Way over in New Zealand, our southern cousins have more sense than we do – they kill possums. THEY actually think they are a pest. In Australia, of course WE must not harm the little darlings. But our friends, across the ditch, the New Zealanders, are very clever, sensible people. They make wool and knit socks out of their fur. (True story!) 

Back to my critter rant … presently, in our semi-tropic summer, we currently have millions of mosquitos the size of a small dog and they are more aggressive than a black-mamba. My dear hubby has to take our normal-sized dog outside regularly, to do what a dog’s gotta do. To get this mission accomplished, he has to wear even more clothes over his normal clothing – it IS over 30o here! Then he sprays himself with 3 different repellants and puts on his trusty mosquito repellant wrist band … and yet!! …don’t’cha know … Those nasty legalistic little blighters still manage to bite him…Somewhere the repellant wasn’t! 

While we are briefly on about things that irritate the living daylights out of me – I also hate, loathe and despise spell-check … it does not like my informal way of writing, so it yells at me, and bullies me all the time. I’ve yet to figure out a way to yell back at it … but I’m working on it! Now, in case you haven’t already guessed, I thought I might write about a blog about whiny irritations today, because, in the anti-climatical aftermath of Christmas, I’ve very cleverly found some. Actually, I found them when I wasn’t even looking! Meanwhile that stupid bird is ba-ack doing it’s thing.

Have you ever noticed that once you are irritated it is hard to escape from it? Me too! It’s kind of like a whirlpool, and you go round and round and round – gathering in even more stuff … while you are going under. Aha! I think I’ve worked out where I was amiss … I let sin reign. So now, I will depart, before I get totally sucked under and ruin this entire day. I pray you are more successful than I am in fighting off irritations. I just gotta go and find that water-pistol … bye ..👋🏻

Romans 2:12 ESV “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to MAKE YOU obey its passions.” … Now there’s good advice. 😂