Relationships

P 2960 Are you ‘sanctified and enriched?’

/ DVH

“To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified (set apart, made holy) in Christ Jesus, who are selected and called as saints (God’s people), together with all those who in every place call on and honour the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace [inner calm and spiritual well-being] from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, so that in everything you were [exceedingly] enriched in Him, in all speech [empowered by the spiritual gifts] and in all knowledge [with insight into the faith].” 1 Corinthians 1:2-6.

You know, the first night someone eats great spaghetti bolognese it is yummy, everybody enjoys it. But if you leave some for another night, the left-overs will be enriched by time, and the melding together of the various flavours into something new and even more fabulous. Tickling our taste buds into a deeper experience. After we are saved, we learn to love like He did so that the flavour of our life is sweet, rich and good to those around us.

Christians are destined to do more than give mental assent to the truths in the bible – we are destined, right here, and right now, today, to mirror the love and life of Christ to everyone we meet and know. God’s sanctification and richness are meant to flow through us, so He can touch the lives of everyone around us. These holy things, the qualities that are in Christ Jesus, need to soak into our lives and join together to produce a brand  new sanctified, greatly enriched SELF! 

God didn’t just re-vamp us when Jesus saved us, or even update us with some sort of fantastic, whizz-bang upgrade. He totally transformed our lives with His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control as we practice yielding and co-operating with Him. We are permanently changed and … wait for it … ENRICHED and made HOLY.  We are destined to become what He planned for us from the very beginning of time.  Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can be bigger and sweeter, and more loving than we can comprehend.

Sadly it is too easy to be the product of this fallen world all around us. We’ve been influenced, battered and blasted by other imperfect people, who are just like us. Living within relationships and situations beyond our control. Those things have shaped us into the kind of people who live to hide to protect ourselves against the ugly things of this world. There is healing in the blood of Jesus. God planned for His kids, to volunteer to exhibit the same qualities that Jesus Himself had from the beginning of time. And this process is not about what we can do by ourselves. Just like the spaghetti gets better from soaking in its own flavours, we get better and richer by soaking in His love for us and spreading that flavour around.

Christ opened something that can never be closed again when He died in our place. He tore open in this world the forces that imprisoned all of mankind to sin, death and destruction. He flung opened the door to the possibility of change! We have been given the power to choose to be transformed under the Holy Spirit’s influence. Now, if you are happy with who you are right now, then perhaps that is not going to seem like such a wonderful gift. BUT! If being like He was, in this world, seems like a dream to you, cheer up! It’s now a reality.

How do we get there? We go through the same door of death Jesus went through, and we choose to die to what we want, like He did, minute by minute. By the way, I don’t mean you literally kill yourself!  We are to die to self, by giving up our right to live this life the way we want to, the way we planned for ourselves. And instead we deliberately choose to lay our lives down for His sake, just like the Lord did for us – using our faith to do it.

Then you and I will come out the other side of those everyday, deliberately made choices transformed. Selfishness, spite, anger, lying, murder – all those things that have held us captive to our own personal circumstances – even the choices we have made so far –  melt away under the power of what Christ did for us. The way to be transformed, is to choose to yield our will to His will. 

And that is not a part-time job, it is a life-time of day-by-day specifically chosen decisions to live this life Christ’s way. Jim Elliot, the modern martyr, said this better than I can: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.” And the bible itself says that like this: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25.

We will all die eventually, but it is how we choose to live from day to day that matters. We can live this life grabbing at all we can, to meet whatever needs we’ve picked up along the way. Constantly angry with others because they are trapped as much as we are … or we can choose to live His Way. Having a servant’s heart and loving those people around us this world pronounces unloveable. BTW, we are ALL unloveable!! And we all have our own nifty little devices to hide that fact from the world around us.

To live like Christ did, we learn from the Holy Spirit Himself, to be the change we want to see. We too can be sanctified and enriched and be like the Lord in every circumstance, as we choose to die to our old way of thinking and start to embrace and act on His ways. He died to give us the power to change and live a brand new life. What are we doing with that power? Bye. 👋

P 2943 Signs of spiritual death

/ DVH

1. Lack of breathing –

We can easily ‘run out of breath’ as we walk with the Lord, especially when we do things in our own strength. Genesis 2:7:“And the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.” Without the Holy Spirit’s breath on and in us – we will die. He is the breath of life and He is our new best Friend. John 15:5 says:“We can do NOTHING without Him.”

2.Pupils fixed and dilated –

I don’t know about you but nothing ‘fixes my pupils’ like watching TV or playing a video game! You can stare at it for hours and lose half your life doing absolutely nothing! Matthew 13:13:“This is the reason I speak to the crowds in parables: because while [having the power of] seeing they do not see, and while [having the power of] hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand and grasp [spiritual things].” We need new eyes to see and new ears to hear. Ephesians 1:18 says: “… the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, …”

3. No heart beat –

Hearts grow cold and stop functioning when we hold onto grudges, or bitterness toward others, we short-circuit the new life blossoming within. Ezekiel 36:26-27: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” When we are born again we are given a brand new heart – we need to watch over our hearts. Proverbs 23:26 states: “My child, give Me your heart and let your eyes delight in My ways,…”

4. Rigor mortis – stiff and cold –

Boy this one is far too easy, we can become so accustomed to other people’s hardships we don’t see them anymore. The passion of God thrives in a ‘red hot heart.’ Jesus said in John 10:10b:” I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”We cease to really live this new life when we stop following Him. Matthew 24:12 says: “And the love of the great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity, …”

5. No response when shouted at and shaken – 

Some people once heard God Himself speak, but they only heard His voice as thunder because their hearts were far from Him. Romans 13:11 states:“And this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for NOW is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”The repeated, every day rhythms mean we are often lulled off to sleep. We need to be awake at all times, because temptation can sneak up on us. Ephesians 5:14-16: “This is why it is said:“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”

6. Cells and organs start to die –

Our relationships with other Christians get weaker and weaker. Church becomes a chore to be performed, instead of a meeting place of refreshment. Psalm 118:17 says: “I will not die, but live, And declare the works and recount the illustrious acts of the LORD.” Our destiny is not to live ‘dead’ lives, but to be living testaments to the goodness of our God. John 15:1&2. “I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.”

7. The blood has ceased to flow –

We stop even thinking about the state of our spirit and just keep right on doing the same old same old, every day —one thing following another. Hebrews 9:14 explains, the blood of Christ, shed for our sake, cleanses  “… our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”1 John 1:7 states: “but if we [really] walk in the Light [that is, live each and every day in conformity with the precepts of God], as He Himself is in the Light, we have [true, unbroken] fellowship with one another [He with us, and we with Him], and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin [by erasing the stain of sin, keeping us cleansed from sin in all its forms and manifestations].” 

I urge us all to live this life, the only one we have, in the cleansing flow of His blood, filled with His Spirit.  Our new life in Christ transforms everything that would make us into ‘zombie’ Christians, as we leave our old dead life behind us. Wherever we go – His glory follows us instead. Don’t be caught DEAD with these spiritual ‘signs.’ 🤣 Bye for today. 

P 2903 Do I listen?

/ DVH

Listening is an important skill. How can anyone learn and change, if they think we already know? On the other hand, if we think we are right, perhaps we are listening … with an agenda?! I bumped into this particular attitude in myself today – it was not a happy thought! One of the very best gifts we can give someone else is to listen to them. Whether it is our children, our spouse, a friend, or a stranger who needs a listening ear. 

Because we are constantly bombarded by all kinds of media, I think we’ve lost the art of true listening – from the heart. The term social media, by the way, is a misnomer. There’s nothing social, or truly interactive about social media! Because of this phenomenon, people have become used to either oversharing, or colouring in what they say with pretty pencils to make themselves look better. 

I think that this extreme has resulted in losing the art of listening with love in our hearts, and concern on our faces. I have no excuse for my own personal behaviour – as you know, I don’t partake in any sort of social media. By the way, I just bumped into contempt and pride when I said that! 😱 We all know, I have no love for that stuff. Blimey, it’s raining bad attitudes at my house!!

There are times that someone could still be typing their response furiously while the person on the other end is trying to communicate with us, via this or that platform. Instead it becomes a game of one-up-man-ship. Who types the fastest? I also think sometimes our lack of intimacy with the Lord, can actually show up in our personal relationships. And…  our lack of intimacy with others can show up in our relationship with Him! Jesus is passionate about people, He is so passionate about people He died for all of us. The Lord is a great listener, if we will put away our agendas, and simply ‘…be still…!’

Sad to say, we can get so busy doing this and saying that, we can’t hear each other speak anymore! Important words get lost, or people get the brush-off because we think we know what the other person is going to say, or maybe … we don’t actually want to know what that other person is going to say because we are not interested. Either way we are the losers because the bible tells us that iron sharpens iron – and that sharpening won’t happen in a vacuum, we will have to choose to participate.

The bible is all about all kinds of relationships and it teaches  us how to live, side by side, with each other. Sadly, today all the godly motivated ideas about forgiveness have been thrown out —- and instead we get indignant stories about people being disobedient to society’s new laws, which are sometimes called political correctness. I’ve looked hard at that lot, and those things also totally annoy the living daylights out of me! They rub me up the wrong way so hard, I can lose my cool over it all. That’s when the Holy Spirit whispers to me that I have been called to love people, no matter what society tells me I should do. I am to obey the King – my allegiance to His message is my first priority.

You know, I found out that if you pay attention to the stuff you actually don’t like to admit about yourself, you can learn a lot of things you’ve never even thought about!  In this process I learnt that I don’t like being told what to do. I can be extremely compliant when things suit me, but when something is outrageously unjust – the red balloon goes up and so do my anger levels! So much for having a loving inclusive attitude. We can’t be transformed if we don’t admit to having a problem, and I was  totally unaware that this attitude had crept up on me. I was judging people without hearing His heart on the matter, first.

Jesus had injustices all around Him, yet still He only said what He heard the Father saying, and He only did what His Father told Him to do. (John 12:49-50.) That sounds like a great plan to me! Maybe my own personal problems have occurred because I’ve been busy justifying my snarky ways by pointing to the bible, and using it as a club instead of a book that was designed to heal. His book is designed to heal our relationship with the Lord first, and then it heals our relationship with others. We will miss His greatest blessings when we use His Word to justify stuff that is resistant to transformation.

Today, I just want to share that I fall on my head in matters of change, often. Many times I miss the mark and I don’t even know until hours, or even, days later. I’ve been too busy pompously riding about on my high horse to notice. Then I can easily spend a couple of days trying to avoid the only cure … ‘Draw near to God, humble yourself…’ James 4. Humbling yourself cures a whole lotta stuff – I recommend it. It helps me listen. Bye.👋

P 2853 Be real.

/ DVH

Hi! You know, there are times that we like to quote the verse “with God all things are possible …” especially when we need the Lord to do something impossible on our behalf! Being real means we see Him change impossible things in our lives, every single day. Yet, most of the time, we merrily roll along ignoring change, hoping the guy who annoys us will change instead! We only drag out our faith first thing in the morning and last thing at night, as well as on Sundays, and maybe for prayer meetings. OR we crank it up for those desperate times when the emergency bell is clanging away in our lives, and something has happened that we can’t fix!

Ticking off spiritual boxes is a way to appear to be spiritual. Many Christians seem to be totally unaware that we are knee-deep in practising living with the appearance of goodness – without embracing the substance of the kind of change that will transform us. And consequently, we affect the lives of every one else around us. Unfortunately living like that is like a great looking apple that’s been in the cool store too long. On the outside it looks fine but inside it is all brown and inedible. Real fruit is startling in its sweetness with every bite.

We can get by with hiding our faults from other people by going to church regularly, giving to the poor, never swearing, always being seen to do the right thing … but the truth is …if what we are doing is not coming from our hearts, then we actually need the kind of repentance that is followed up by change — not play-acting. Here’s an astonishing and amazing thought: GOD LOVED US WHEN WE WERE YET SINNERS! Pretending, or keeping up appearances, is a waste of whatever precious time we actually have on this earth. His love will never withdraw from us – actually most of the time, we withdraw from Him. Humbly admitting our faults to each other clears up the idea that we are somehow perfect. It is a much safer place to stand.

My point for today is that we always need to be real. Let’s not live our lives pretending to be something we aren’t just so we can fit in. Be yourself, warts and all. Let the One Who has changed men and women’s hearts since the dawn of time operate on your heart. One of the most valuable graces we can embrace – besides repentance, and obedience – is honesty with ourselves. The truth is, we don’t have to be afraid of sin anymore, because Jesus paid it all! So now there is no reason to hide. Hiding from His love is counterproductive – the power for us to change comes through receiving His unconditional love and forgiveness, and then giving it away to others. If we hide we short-circuit this process.

Today I want to briefly look at a woman who threw herself down on the floor at Jesus’ feet, at a dinner party. To start with – she wasn’t invited! And for her efforts the rest of the crowd judged her, plus they judged the Lord as well! But like I said before – HE looks at hearts! “She has been forgiven of all her many sins. This is why she has shown me such extravagant love. But those who assume they have very little to be forgiven will love me very little.”” Luke 7:47 TPT. The result of diminishing our sin is this: we miss out on understanding how much love HE gives us and how much worship He deserves!


Dismissing sin’s very real consequences produces ongoing bad results. To start with, we lose gratefulness. This dear woman did not care what others thought, she knew she needed to be right with God more than she needed their approval! She poured out all she had on His feet in repentance, and total adoration. And the Lord saw her and received her. Her honesty gained her an audience with the King and a chance to worship Him. Who doesn’t want that?

Here’s something I have learnt, over the years … Instead of spewing out my anger or withdrawing from people who hurt me …kindness, mercy and forgiveness opens amazing unseen new doors. Those doors lead to refreshing changes, and deeper relationships. Instead of minimising our faults, and accenting someone else’s sins against us – releasing loving forgiveness takes us out of any hot-headed drama and puts us squarely back into His kingdom.

It will cost us, of course. Worthwhile things are costly – just like that alabaster box. But our transformed attitudes in those moments become like that perfume that was released to the Lord. Jesus is not concerned with sin anymore – now He wants us all to move on into the freedom that flourishes in His Father’s kingdom. When I set you free, I get freedom too, whether you pick up your share or not! Learning to be real about who we are, plus who we are not —removes the weights and burdens we’ve tied on ourselves.

“Those whom the Son has set free, shall be free indeed.” These people will be free to enjoy who God made them to be. We can pick up a lot of dumb stuff in this life, and some of it comes from when we are too tiny to block it out. Let God Himself heal you and reveal how He sees you. Learn to be real. Nobody else can do YOU like YOU can! Bye. 👋

P 2835 A little Christmas gift from me.

/ DVH

““Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”” Matthew 11:28-30 MSG.

I laughed when I read this scripture today, because I put it at the bottom of yesterday’s blog, and it just seems to be following me around – I had better pay attention!  First of all, I think this version is such a sweet one because it is so accessible. It accurately diagnoses the things that cause us to lose sight of what Grace looks like – tired, worn out, fed up with religion. And it doesn’t just diagnose, it also provides sound spiritual medicine! Win, win.

Religious rules are easily learned and quite easily applied — but in my opinion, they do not further productive relationships, particularly spiritual ones. In fact I think religious rules can make you excessively watchful and very cranky about somebody else blatantly breaking them.You can become more like a policeman than a loving participant. The presence of any type of threat does not produce good fruit. It is like a child obeying its parents purely because it knows if it doesn’t it will receive a thrashing. 

Conversely, God’s love brings out the very best in people. So when we have someone who is a thorn in our side, we know we have a person that can be used by God to teach us this God-given, God-kissed skill. But first we will need to choose to die to looking after me, and what I want!  Yeah. You just knew there was a catch eh? We talked about forgiveness yesterday, so we will take that as a given, but we can’t just focus forgiveness, we must move on into pressing into God.  That’s because people do dumb inconsiderate hurtful things – A LOT. Sometimes it can seem like that is their gift to society … when I know people like this, I quite often want a refund! 

I try to be real when I write this blog. So if I recommend something, it is because I have tried it and I know it works, but it only works with HIS help. I’ve checked that out, I can’t do any of this stuff without Him! I want to qualify those remarks by saying, I don’t think I was ever a ‘Lone Ranger’ type. I need my hand held and someone nice to teach me, and the Holy Spirit always does that.  Plus I’m pretty sure I’m the kind of person who seeks shelter in a storm rather than braving the elements … BUT … I know I am also quite opinionated, and I can fly off the handle when I think something is unfair or unreasonable. It’s hilarious isn’t it? I hate people being unreasonable but I can easily become excessively unreasonable about things when stuff doesn’t suit me! There’s a lesson in there somewhere. 😳

The Lord Jesus is giving us brilliant spiritual advice in this verse. Don’t go to your Mum, or Dad, or best friend, or your spouse – go to HIM, first. There are lots of great reasons why we should do this- here’s one: “In His presence there is fullness of JOY.” The secret is to seek Him no matter how we feel, because although the Lord sometimes plays ‘hide and seek’ to draw us closer to Himself, the bible reassures us that we will find Him! The bible is truer than our knowledge or experiences – or lack of them. We can’t measure His book by what we know, or even don’t know. God’s Ways work best when we take His Word over whatever is going on around us. And “help” is still a great prayer. 

If someone said they had left you a million dollars, wouldn’t you at least get in touch with the bank to check it out? You know you would! Everything God says in His book is accessible when we apply our faith. Faith means we can’t see it, but because of the veracity, stature and nature of the One Who said it, we believe it anyway – we believe it enough to act on it. Believing is more than agreeing. If you never go to the bank to get your 1,000,000 dollars it will stay in the bank forever, waiting for you to claim it. God has given us a measure of faith, it’s OURS.

Almighty God knows everything there is to know about rest. The bible tells us He did it first. He rested from His labours on the seventh day. Why? I dunno! As an example to us?? I know He wasn’t tired, because He does not grow weary! That’s also in the book!! The more we know and deliberately act on His word, and seize every opportunity that comes our way, the more the truth of everything the Lord has said begins to resonate in our hearts. Learning to rest is a great place to start. God’s word will stay a theory if we never ever check it out. 

Our personal faith deposit from Him, will continue to sit in the bank unused, until we get desperate, or the ceiling falls in. Unfortunately, when bad things happen to us, that’s actually a lousy time to start practicing faith. When life gets hard, our spiritual hearing aids stop working. Panic sets in. In the above scripture, Jesus is encouraging us to walk with Him and work with Him – absolutely nothing in that sentence is passive. My Christmas gift to you is to exhort you to start acting on what you already know. Bye. 👋🎁

“What good does it do for you to say I am your Lord and Master if you don’t put into practice what I teach you?”Luke 6:46

P 2832 Get ready to be stretched.

/ DVH

Years ago, a young fellow who had no family and would have been all alone for Christmas, joined us for Christmas lunch.  And when he started in on his third helping of a heaped plate, we started to suspect something was amiss. In those days we didn’t know a lot about the munchies, but the evidence spoke for itself, so we sort of kind of figured it out. The sad part was his everyday behaviour was often all over the place, even though he was part of the leadership team, yet nobody had ever noticed that this poor kid was hooked on Marijuana!

Did you know that in Proverbs 11:25, it says: “A generous person will prosper; Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.” Today I want to present what I think could be an interesting idea. Ask someone who lives a lonely life, to Christmas lunch. Have you ever prayed: “Lord please show me something I can do for You?” Well, asking someone you don’t know very well to join you and your family for lunch at this time of the year could open a door to deeper relationships and possibilities, and it just might stretch you … all at the same time. Plus, bonus buy, everyone could make a new friend.

Over the years our family has learnt to have an elastic house. One year a young person slept on a fold-away-bed in our lounge, because his family had chucked him out. This dear young man could break things better than a compactor, but he was the most sweetly natured person. Eventually, after he left us, he matured, he married and now he is a plumber. Only heaven knows why his folks chucked him out – he was a great kid! Having him live with us was totally inconvenient, we lived in a tiny cottage, and we had to move his bed whenever we wanted to watch TV!  Plus at that time I was as sick as I could be. The immediate years post-liver transplant were not fun. But helping out people who were virtually homeless brightened up all our lives. Living an extra-ordinary life is challenging, but the rewards outweigh the negative bits. Especially retrospectively. 🤣

The thing we’ve noticed is that we can’t afford to let our own circumstances, govern our generosity. Back then, our lives were made so much richer by the people who came to live with us … even at the worst of physical and financial times – by God’s Grace we all managed. Father God is not trying to interrupt our carefully planned existence … He wants to enrich us. Other people and their unusual ways of thinking, being, and doing, will stretch us and bring us out into that bigger place mentioned in Isaiah 54:2.“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.”

We can pray that scripture for ourselves, and then wait for Him to do it for us until we are blue in the face, but the truth is, WE must learn to stretch our tents open and take risks… It is blatantly obvious that this kind of stuff is supernaturally natural, because Jesus Himself told us that when we do these things:“…for the least of these…”we are doing them for Him! Hands up anyone who wants to minister to the Lord? OK, you have your instructions. 

Just settle in your heart that it will be inconvenient, and put stuff away if you don’t want it broken! Actually, the surest way to discover the things that we are unreasonably attached to, is to have someone else break them! I learnt that the hard way!!  BUT … no matter what, we cannot lose, because of what we win… “Everything … everything … EVERYTHING … works together for our good, … for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.”

His purpose is to find willing vessels to fill with the Holy Spirit’s love and power! He doesn’t need experts — Jesus Himself chose ordinary  fishermen, a taxman, a former prostitute to be His followers  I mean, did you ever ask yourself Who taught Peter to speak like he did  in the book of Acts? The Holy Spirit did! The Lord is not looking for perfection – He doesn’t have to, He already is!

Like I said before, we will have to stretch ourselves to find His purpose for our lives. Remember, Jesus was homeless,  because there was no room at the inn. To me that means that you will never know who you could be taking in! Maybe a homeless angel, or a lost kid whose life was so painful he had to smoke his way through it. 

I think the poor are so poor, they have no time or energy for pretending, they are simply trying to survive. From a distance, it is easy to be put off by how they look … but God sees people clearly, He knows exactly who they are. We’ve found that poor people don’t need to be convicted of sin, when they are confronted with His Loving holiness, they know. The poor are easier to save than middle class people who think they are mostly pretty OK. 

Christianity is neither a hobby or a part-time job … it’s a life well lived. It’s a life lived the way Jesus would live it. I exhort you to begin to stretch your home and take in someone who might have Christmas dinner alone – or maybe even a bed for somebody who needs a safe place to sleep. That’s the way to get elastic houses. Bye. 👋 

P 2827 Make way for the road builders!

/ DVH

“A thunderous voice cries out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way for Yahweh’s arrival! Make a highway straight through the desert for our God! Every valley will be raised up, every mountain brought low. The rugged terrain will become level ground and the rough places a plain.” Isaiah 40:3 TPT. In this verse Isaiah describes our every day task for Jesus’ sake. He does it beautifully, accurately and passionately. 

Not everyone likes the Passion Translation, so here’s the Message bible as well,  just because it also says it beautifully. “Thunder in the desert! Prepare for God’s arrival! Make the road straight and smooth, a highway fit for our God. Fill in the valleys, level off the hills, Smooth out the ruts, clear out the rocks. Then God’s bright glory will shine and everyone will see it. Yes. Just as God has said.”

You know, you and I are glorified rock removalists…road builders!  Our job is to get rid of anything in front of other people as they make their way toward God. Not to mention the odd stone that we could also fall over that is in our own path!! We must deal with those things that make people stumble. What do I mean by stumble? Well, Auntie Mary can’t get over Uncle Pete’s infidelity. That’s a big one! They need forgiveness and reconciliation.

Or someone has deserted one of their kids because this kid has done so many bad things nobody can count – so now they’ve disowned them. These people need the Prince of Peace. That’s a big boulder! Maybe your neighbour’s dog keeps doing his business on your lawn. That’s kind of pebble-sized, but highly annoying when you go to get your paper and find that stuff with your slippered foot … even little things are sometimes trip-worthy because they niggle at you.

So we pray because as rock removalists we have been given authority to speak to mountains – so a rock is nothing to us! Maybe your attitude to your spouse is antagonistic, or absent, or whatever!! Part of your job is to repair the breach. ←That just means fix stuff – preferably when it happens. The bible says: “…you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” Isaiah 58:12 …so we get to prayerfully fix things around us that are not working, particularly relationships. You know, I think Isaiah picked up a lot of marvellous stuff when he made that trip up into the throne room. 

As an aside, over the years I have heard people talk about an experience, or the feelings they had when the Holy Spirit came and touched them. Unfortunately, I have hardly ever heard anyone talk about the Lord pointing out sin, or changing their hearts! This has always made me wonder…because I know that the Holy Spirit doesn’t come to do nothing. Maybe the person missed the point. Back to road building …

Here’s a few more. We all know there are people we like to avoid … now there’s an easily-tripped-over rock.🎁 It’s nearly Christmas!! 🎁Yay! What about all those relatives you haven’t seen since last year? You know, the ones you aren’t looking forward to seeing this year? Leaving things unattended to makes a big PILE of rocks instead of a little one, and Jesus is very clear … He wants no rocks at all, thank you!! These verses are part of our job description. We’ve erroneously thought Isaiah was only in the bible to give us loads of comfort verses. Wrong!

Rock removalists get to remove boulders! The fun part is they get to blow them up with God’s word and Spirit-led prayer. Don’t be discouraged BTW, some of those blooming big rocks take a lot of spiritual dynamite, but Jesus told us that we can tell any mountain to go jump in the sea, so serve that thing in your life with notice and tell it “ready, steady .. JUMP!” And keep pointing the dividing sword of God at the situation, speaking redemption, peace and reconciliation as well. 

We all want to do cool things, things that everyone will notice, but real rock removalists like to do things unseen, in their prayer closets. How many road builders have you stood and watched lately? That would be … like  …NONE? That’s what I thought. It’s a job that looks boring and repetitive and seems to accomplish not much that is visible.. Do remember those road builders the next time you are travelling along a nice smooth highway! Remember, roads connect A to B… otherwise people get lost.   

And can I just mention that we do not have to be ‘nice’ to the devil? Rudeness is wasted on him, but we can definitely let him have it when we pray! True road building authority isn’t about yelling – it’s about knowing who you are. We must remember what we are here for, because we are walking along pitching rocks off roads … because Jesus Himself is going to walk along those roads. That’s the point of a clear road. It’s for people to walk on it without falling over or falling off, or turning back because they are discouraged.

BTW we don’t throw those pesky little rocks away, we use them to fill in the holes. We smother them with prayer – which is the best glue ever – and flatten out and fill the holes in people’s lives. The things that lack the Love of God — it never fails. Bye. 👋  More on this subject tomorrow.

P 2774 It’s time we started …

/ DVH

… to hear His Voice in someone else’s voice. Someone prayed for this at church the other day and it impacted me. We need to find and see Jesus in each other. How? Well, to start with – He lives there! We said: “Come into my life Lord Jesus, and take over.” And He did. How we feel from day to day is irrelevant. Emotions are fickle they change with our circumstances.

However, sometimes what we are really saying is: “You can come into the lounge Lord. It’s nice and tidy in there, I cleaned that up the other day. But please don’t go into the bedroom, that’s a mess. And definitely stay away from the kitchen and the bathroom, You won’t like what You find in there!” A “Keep out” sign is a warning bell, clanging away trying to get our attention. It is not good to have keep out signs in our lives. It usually means something is badly amiss. Something we don’t want to fix or even pay attention to, because we like it, and we know full well … HE WON’T. It also contaminates our relationships with others.

I had keep out signs practically everywhere, when I first started to follow Him. Life had greatly shattered my trust in humanity. I was afraid I might lose something I cared about. Like my snarky attitudes that I had previously cultivated before I met Him, so I could protect myself. Did you know that keeping a bad attitude toward someone else is like SUPER GLUE? We have the power to stick them there, right in a place where we don’t like them! Read the book. We have the power to forgive people … or not!  A bad attitude is like wearing coloured glasses.

The Lord is far more patient with any of us than we will ever deserve. Praise God, Jesus came here as a human being, so He gets … PEOPLE. If you don’t believe me then read the way He relates to the disciples when they’d lost their brain. Or they didn’t want to change their minds because they couldn’t see anything wrong with their thinking! Those keep out signs stop US from changing too. Meanwhile it’s a wonder, at the beginning of my relationship with the Lord that He had somewhere, at all, to put a toe on. 

But after it took me awhile to realise my error, here’s what I did instead. I’ve pulled out all the keep out signs, because they limit God and I don’t want to limit the Answer! And instead I put up a “proceed with caution, please Lord” one. That sign is for my benefit, not His. He has more loving kindness than I will ever experience anywhere else, but I need to say it, and He listens to me so patiently. I love Him for that.

I think this is part of the problem with our fellowship within the church. Some of us have been so badly bruised by the very people we thought were perfect when we were growing up spiritually, that we put up keep out signs everywhere. On the chimney, on the lawn, in the window, by the front gate… you name it! Now we are just plain scared of other people’s faces and responses, so we live guarded lives. Lives peppered with plastic fruit. Other people could hurt us … BUT …we won’t tell them about it, because that would give them an advantage over us. No faith there.

Here’s a not-so-wonderful revelation — keeping His kids out, limits our growth. The Lord will not limit His right leg, His elbow or His kidneys by seeing them as separate to Him. We are all part of His body. We do whatever we do on His behalf. Jesus has owned us, and become engaged to us, by choice. And He will do everything He can, without violating anyone’s free will, to keep us safe with Him.

Accepting any difficult or nasty people at church is part of loving Him… it’s in the book. Actually it’s often in the part of the book, we don’t much like reading so we avoid it. But the Lord is so gracious, and spiritually attuned, that He can look after us and our overwhelming feelings of fear and doubt, and still not hurt someone else who scares the life out of us. Boy is that a skill I really want!

So, here’s the answer to the church-is-the-place-where-everybody-pretends-to-love-everybody problem. I look for Jesus in that other person. Sometimes  we may need the Lord to install a huge love filter.  My filter is in Colossians 3:14: “Together with these things, the most important part of your new life is to love each other. Love is what holds everything together in perfect unity.“Let the Holy Spirit do this whole relationship thing between each of us – He’s brilliant at it… At the same time we need to prayerfully insist that now, today, we want to accept and love other people. The real deal can take time to grow .. keep pressing on. 

We may have to throw out a whole heap of our own prejudices and smelly attitudes to get there – but embracing love helps us all grow beyond platitudes. Honesty is great, but please don’t tell the other poor sod that you’ve always hated them – that’s counterproductive. Seeing love through His eyes, means we develop spiritual sight, which goes right along with spiritual hearing. We need to turn off that snarky voice inside our head that comments about other people’s sincerity – and aim at love.

My last clue to solving the problem of loving the brethren is pray. Pray, pray, pray pray pray. Then do something nice, like ask them about themselves. You can get a whole lot of insight into someone else’s attitudes by simply listening, it’s a greatly underestimated skill. It is time we started to hear His voice within other people’s voices. The spirit of isolation leads to error. Bye. 👋

P 2770 God has a plan.

/ DVH

If you have been a Christian for a while you may have bumped into Jeremiah. Jeremiah is, in my mind, one of our great faith pioneers. He kept his faith strong even when his life was awful. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11. But when you look at Jeremiah’s life, it was a far cry from being filled with great plans and fab future! I want to comment on this particular verse today, because I believe it has been misused on occasion, to imply that our God is more like a genie, than our omnipotent, omnipresent, always wise, sovereign God and glorious Father – Who made heaven and earth!

Let’s just look carefully at what this verse says: God totally declares that He has plans for each one of us. We have not been left here, in our often difficult circumstances, all alone. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to help us with every second, of every minute of every day. We can now walk with Him like Christ did, that’s the plan! In order to walk with the Holy Spirit – emphasis on the word ‘holy’  … our lives need to change. Our focus has to come off our own comfort, and be firmly planted into whatever the Lord wants for us.

This verse says that His plans are about giving us hope. The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus Christ is our ever-present hope, and this scripture is a prophetic statement about Christ! It is not a promise that this life will never ever be bad again. The hope in our future is Christ Himself. Jeremiah did not live an easy life. His whole nation went into captivity. However, our God has incredible plans and if we ask Him, He may even let us in on them! He has promised He will listen when we pray, and answer us. But we may not understand His answer right away!

We need to consistently remember that Father God will never ever mislead us, quite often we simply can’t see beyond the end of our noses and our need to control everything and make it peachy! However, our future always lies with the Lord. It is very important that we understand that – the scripture above is about security IN God. You and I have eternity ahead of us, so we have an ever expanding future!  Heaven is real and we will go there. I think our God is incredible – He’s planning to spend eternity with all of us! Imagine that!

Our Heavenly Father, has already provided everything we will ever need IN Christ. Sadly we can spend our short lives looking for monetary or physical gain, and we do live this life celebrating the reality that eternity is ours, now and forever … and LIVE that way. Unfortunately we often want ease, now. It matters where our hope is, because ours is always in Christ. …Our hope is not in some scripture that I picked up, or one I decided suited my problem, my hope is in Christ. Christ is God’s demonstrated goodness.

In my opinion, Jeremiah, makes a very interesting example of God’s input into one man’s life. He remained courageous and loyal to his calling despite his difficulties. He faithfully told the Israelites the bad news about their future, over and over again. Sometimes … lucky him!…. he also got to physically demonstrate it too! He was beaten and ridiculed simply because he spoke out God’s truth. The people who follow Jesus Christ do not always have easy carefree lives. However, He will ALWAYS help us, so our faith is in His Character. These things flow out of intimacy. And intimacy is about God always being with us, so we live by faith – because that is the reality.

We must stop thinking that serving God means we will remain trouble free! Our wonderful Father is doing more than one thing at a time. He is answering our prayers for transformation, preparing us for eternity, and restoring and healing relationships, here and now. Jeremiah was carted off from his homeland along with everyone else, despite the fact that he was busy being obedient … doing and saying what God said!  He continually prophesied bad things were coming, not good ones, and sadly the Jews didn’t like it, or him. And he also pointed out that there is a great difference between saying something – even sincerely believing it, and… doing it. Belief must turn into action.

Personally, I think the Old Testament brings a much needed balance into the church-at-large’s current theory of: “let’s all have a jolly old party down here, because SomeBody else paid the bill!”  We cannot choose hedonism and indulgence and expect everything to be AOK with the Lord. What part of ‘take up your cross and follow Me,’ don’t we get? We serve Him – He doesn’t serve us. He proved His love for all mankind when He gave us His Only Son. Our choices from day to day matter, because Father God does not wink at our sins, they were far too costly for His Son. The very least we can do is acknowledge them, and live this life, here and now, differently.

He has a plan to give us a hope and a future. Our future is with Him, today, tomorrow, and forever, and His plan has already given us hope in Christ and all He did. Let’s stick with HIS PLAN and leave behind the idea of some sort of a trouble-free cushy life. Bye. 👋

P 2737 Wound management.

/ DVH

Resentment is like dirt in an open wound. The wound may close, but we our healing is circumvented because there is still bacteria inside. I just want to mention that the wound or the bacteria may not be our fault, it may have come from somewhere else, or even somebody else. But it’s what we do with that wound now we have it, that matters. Ignoring it, or even peering at it, poking it, and making sure it is still sore, will not promote healing.  

Healing comes from thoroughly cleaning out wounds  – with some sort of disinfectant. So it is going to sting! Then we apply soothing ointment, and cover that injury with the same blood we are covered in. Our ointment comes from the Presence of the Holy Spirit – He knows how to soothe every sore place. After dealing with it, we can leave the wound to repair itself, and get on with our lives.

Resentment will often remind us that we didn’t get what we asked for – because it loves to keep accounts of wrongs. Remember 1 Corinthians 13? “…Love keeps NO record of wrongs!” Resentment will take us out of love and chuck us into a side eddy, going round and round. It can swing our spiritual lives so we are now collecting bad dead stuff. It won’t let anything good in, but it twists and turns and shades our overall POV. Then it flings all that dead stuff out into the main stream to anybody who will stand still and listen, leading to gossip. This devilish trait will never satisfy us because it doesn’t produce anything but more suffering. And like a germ in a wound it leaves even more pus in its wake!

Human beings want INSTANT answers — but Almighty God loves constantly progressing relationships! This trait must be fostered by making painful choices. We deliberately leave behind the things that caused a wound and jump back into the fresh living water of the RIVER of God. Doing this optimises our healing. Our feelings can be overrated because they are often fed by stagnant water … plus they are addictive.

Father God wants a loving functioning relationship with each one of us – He lost everything He cherished through our forebears’ deliberate disobedience in the garden. Remember, man was made in His image – we are designed to be like Him, inside and out. The Lord Himself, plus Adam and Eve, all had sweet fellowship together in the cool of the evening – every single night! Right now, He is looking for sons and daughters, who will pay the price to walk with Him again. 

That means we will have to give up any and all hidden resentments, because those things can become an occupational enemy! The Lord is longing for true fellowship with people who value HIM – not for what He does but for Who He is – people who value Him so much they will lay aside every weight that slows them down. We were saved to walk with Him, daily, in the garden of our hearts. His heart is so BIG He has room for every human being that ever lived. But resentment will subvert His plan to love on us and consume our thoughts instead. 

Our God doesn’t just hand out assignments and stand back, waiting for us to complete them – He wants to come with us! Praise HIM, He will also lend us His glorious expertise, and a fresh POV when He does. The very best thing we can do is to go everywhere with HIM!  However resentment turns our heads and hearts away from what our Heavenly Father loves most  — PEOPLE! It grows in an atmosphere that does not include Him, plus it goes hand in hand with complaining. It narrows down any fresh possibilities so we become trapped in half-truths and animosity.

Resentment is also a thief. It comes knocking at the back door of our hearts supposedly to comfort us. It wants to have a cup of coffee or tea with us and then it will point out all the bad things other people have done to us – so we can sit and stew in them! It tells us it is protecting us from future pain so we must keep those hurtful people at a distance. This thing is an evil accountant and a collector, it will keep track of other people’s wrongs!  It produces the wrong sort of fellowship, including lying and distortion. Like every thief, resentment wants to steal — our hope, our peace, our joy, our worship and voluntary service for our King. That traitor wants to hide in dark corners and snipe at others. The solution is simple – don’t entertain it.

Here are some great scriptures to think on: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”Ephesians 4:29.“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”Ephesians 4:31. “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; …” Hebrews 12:15.

Resentment is best dealt with early, because it has the awful power to reproduce and multiply. So we need to break off any suckers like that springing up in our lives,  like we would break off a plant sucker as it grows on a living tree …Break that thing off at the root. Otherwise it will steal all our joy, hope, and colour in our lives with bleakness, because it produces nothing of any worth. I urge each one of us to become adept at wound management – before any wounds poison our system. Bye 👋