Religion

P 3041 Blame and shame …

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… the destructive twins. Those thieves take our peace and joy away and leave us with angst and worry. They make poor governors of our behaviour. They can be aimed at ourselves, as well as others. When we are caught up in this way of thinking, we move right out of operating in Grace, because blame and shame thrive on guilt. And guilt distracts us from the reality of our salvation. 

If our enemy cannot get us to sin, he wants to keep our minds so focussed on our shortcomings, or someone else’s quirks, that we can barely spiritually breathe. The more we allow these thought patterns to rule the less we will love ourselves or others. I have come to the conclusion that who I really am is the person who comes out when I am squeezed by circumstances. That thought has helped me enormously to be realistic about my actions and attitudes, without being obsessive. Instead I confess my faults and He heals me! I don’t have to be afraid to admit my shortcomings, because the Lord has taken care of them. Now I can happily give thanks because of the Grace He releases to me, and through me. 

Sadly, everything we say and do can be disguised to look good to others, by using our own good manners. However, those things do not come from the fruit of the Spirit, but from our own will and our own personal sense of how this life is meant to work. I often spiritually fall over someone else’s lack of manners, because mine were dinged into me from birth! Those things immediately send me spiralling off into judgment. Good manners are great, but spiritual fruit is permanent. It can be eaten. That fruit slowly ushers in spiritual growth, health and transformation, and when you take a bite out of it, it won’t bite you back!

We have His help, always. But we can become so used to acting, or even reacting, without any thought, we can miss those crucial moments to yield. The Holy Spirit is our 24/7, on the spot, Helper. He wants to help us transform our inner attitudes so what comes out is really IN there! Sadly, in many congregations it is almost easier to give a performance of good, than it is to face our short-comings realistically.

If you have lived most of your Christian life on a steady diet of religion, trying to manufacture in your own strength what our kingdom lives need to look like — that can be an enormous weight. We can feel such a failure all the time, because all we can see is fault. Blame and shame love to jump on that bandwagon. So if I feel down, you must have done something wrong, so it’s your fault!! I have discovered that the more I oppress my true self, the more likely I am to hide my faults, and focus on yours.  It is like a being on a merry-go-round I cannot get off! Now I have an image to keep up! 

Letting God into our intimate thoughts and inner self can be incredibly daunting. Some of us don’t let anybody in there! Instead we have constructed ‘devices’ to distract ourselves from paying attention to what is going on inside. Maybe we are afraid of blame or shame. That’s often when our awareness of what Jesus did for us has become dim, and remote— then we try to hide from the One Who already loves and knows us. Jonah is a brilliant example of that kind of thinking in action! He hid in the bottom of a ship because the Lord’s idea did not appeal to Him, he blamed God Himself for wanting to save Nineveh. Yet Paul has several instances where he openly admits they had one idea, and the Holy Spirit had another! It’s OK to be wrong, just be honest about it.

For most of us God’s Love is a strong concept, yet to be deeply experienced. It is not a deep seated reality. We can devotedly read the bible with this awful feeling that we will always fall short, and sadly that can lead to blaming and shaming ourselves, or even to putting others down, because they seem to be successful, and we’re not. At the same time, some of us have learnt to be really great actors! That’s why I love reading the gospels, because the disciples foibles and dumb attitudes give me room to be myself – real, inadequate and normal. I know I need a Saviour!

Religion blames and shames people, and that produces fear, rejection, and pain for everyone involved. The Pharisees and their mates didn’t understand where the Lord Jesus was coming from, and yet they knew the bible, backwards, and inside out. They were the leaders, so they made a visible practice of knowing everything  from every direction. Just like they did back then, a religious bent can colour the way we look at His Word, and affect how we live our lives and regard other people. Blaming parents seems to be a national past-time! ‘They smacked me too much, or they used shame to govern me.” Blame is blame no matter why or where we aim it. I comfort myself that I had a childish mind back then – but I don’t have to have one now!

The fullness that belongs to every single one of the Lord’s kids will always seem out of reach if we continue to wrestle with religious stuff. God loves real people who make real mistakes!  I have noticed a couple of things about blame and shame … if you have lived with it in the past, those terrible twins seem to nag at you in subtle ways in the present, and you are more likely to fall into that pattern of thinking again, as well as reflecting it to others, especially under pressure. Let the oppressed go free – them and me!! Praise God for His Grace.

Bye. 👋

In Romans 1:16 Paul declares,“I am not ashamed of the gospel,”and Isaiah 54:4, which promises, “Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.”And 2 Timothy 1:12: “But I am not ashamed, for I know Whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.”

P 3000 HOW??

/ DVH

“But HOW can people call on Him for help if they’ve not yet believed? And HOW can they believe in One they’ve not yet heard of? And HOW can they hear the message of life if there is no one there to proclaim it?” Romans 10:14 TPT. There are people in your life and mine, right now, who will never hear the gospel if we do not share it with them. The way we do that is entirely between each one of us and the Lord Himself. But we must face facts —there are simply not enough of us to go around! That means many, many, many people will miss out, and find out what they’ve missed out on, when it is too late. 

Fun facts:Only 1 of every 174,463 Christians goes as a missionary to the Unreached. Christians make up 32% of this world’s population. What about the other 68%? I believe that the people who have not met Him yet, are aware that they’ve done this or that, and somewhere deep inside they know God has said “don’t do it.”“They show that the essential requirements of the Law are written in their hearts; and their conscience [their sense of right and wrong, their moral choices] bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or perhaps defending them.” Romans 2:15.

In John 8:9, it also states that “…those who heard, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.”Human beings have a conscience, but that part of our heart can be turned off by repeatedly ignoring it, or by deliberate disobedience. The people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet don’t understand that He did not say “don’t do this or that” to make anyone’s life miserable – He gave us instructions so our lives would be better. 

Many people think that our God doesn’t approve of things like fun! They do not know that there is another way to live and that God has a bigger picture, a bigger plan for us all. The people outside our churches don’t know anything about that – at all. They think the Lord is a killjoy! We can pray someone else will share the gospel with our friends, rabbits and relations, until His kingdom comes, but the reality is this – they are our friends etc. etc. and you and I need to tell them. Everyone needs the opportunity to meet Him before they get to the Great White Throne!

My point today is this, how can we say we truly love others the way He loves – sacrificially – when we are afraid to step out of our comfort zone? He has promised to help us, but we will never know the joy of our salvation so completely until we share it with another person. The Lord never intended us to obey Him in our own strength …we have a Helper! Meanwhile, our incredibly good, forever news is that this life is not all there is! Death is a doorway into another realm, where Jesus Christ is King. True fact!

Courage, I am told, is not the absence of fear, it is doing the thing that scares me – anyway. One time, years ago, that meant I sang “Jesus loves you” to an old man I had never met before in my life! He was in intensive care dying. He utterly refused to listen to his relatives. The dear man was a captive audience! I sang with tears pouring down my face because I knew this old man was not long for this world. At the same time I also knew that the Holy Spirit was going to have to follow up whatever I did. I don’t know what the old man decided, I just did what Jesus told me to do! 

Never ever feel bad about sharing the gospel with someone, even if you think you blew it. Our obedience opens a door that gives the Holy Spirit room!  It does not matter if what we say comes out sideways, or we stumble over our words, or we need to use a book, pamphlet or sign on a billboard. What matters is that the people around us understand that this life has so many options that are unknown to them. Most people think Christianity is just another religion – and many think all we want is their money! They do not know A REAL LIVE PERSON backs up what we believe. They don’t know any better, because they haven’t met Him yet!

Part of our personal growth process is sharing our faith. We simply tell someone else what we know — what we have seen and heard for ourselves— and then we rely upon God Himself to do whatever He wants with that act of obedience. People don’t need fancy words, they need the reality of His Presence! Because the Holy Spirit walks around with us, inside us – we are now His temple. At the same time we have been transformed by His power to be walking talking examples of what faith looks like!

We are not walking love if we do not share our personal knowledge of eternity with the people around us. That is not about presenting a doctrine or a set of church rules or even bible bashing. Instead we simply share our relationship with our Friend and Brother, Jesus, with someone else who has not met Him yet.  HOW?… does this happen? When we each decide that sharing what we know is not meant to be a closely guarded secret. It is part of living in His kingdom to talk about Him to others. It is not a duty, or a chore, it is our privilege. Bye 👋 

P 2981 I’ll never get this stuff right!

/ DVH

“Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for His miraculous power constantly energises you. Now we offer up to God all the glorious praise that rises from every church in every generation through Jesus Christ—and all that will yet be manifest through time and eternity. Amen!” Ephesians 3:20-21 TPT.

What a fantastic bunch of promises in Ephesians we have today!!  We literally need to drag our eyes away from all the things that force their way into our lives, and focus on His bigness, not on our inadequacies. This is the best advice I’ve had all morning…I can’t—but He can!  Boy, I just can’t do some things anymore… it drives me nuts. I used to be able to do at least four things at once, now I have to ask hubby to repeat what he just said to me, when I am typing. 🙄

My mother is 97, very ill and fading. She used to be the most powerful person in every single room she ever walked into …and … that person is quite simply not there anymore. Instead she’s having trouble holding onto her thoughts and confuses the past with the present. But here we are today, reading that God Himself has said to every single one of us: “I will be your strong right arm. I will catch you when you fall. I can take the mess that you’ve made of your life and make a glorious garden out of it.”  Oh, Amen to all that!

There is a terrible tragedy in allowing our sin to be bigger than the Saviour. My mother has lived for years in the wilderness of not knowing whether God loved her or not. And yet she has always believed in Him, and tried to please Him. That’s a terribly scary place to live, especially when you are old and infirmed. It can totally desolate the soul. I think that kind of theology is one of the reasons I hate religion —I love the Lord!— but boy I hate religion! It puts a dreadful fear in the place of faith. 

So this week hubby and I sat next to her and read from one of the books I’ve made, and my dear mum glowed like a light bulb as she allowed herself to bask in the comfort and approval of God’s love. It is incredible how our precious Father’s loving acceptance can do the things we cannot do. Love is the best communicator in the world, and love is all over His bible.

I still have some pretty wild dreams, plus a far dollop of imagination – and yet Ephesians 3 says: ‘Almighty God’s power can do greater than my imagination, or dreams, or requests.’ Not to mention the whole energising thing thrown in for good measure. I can always do with energising – how about you? His love takes me places that I would never dare to venture. There is a different kind of freedom for all of us in His love.

And energising is a huge thing if you happen to have a toddler, or an infant at your house — or two or three, or… maybe four? God’s help is way bigger than them all screaming at once, and the dinner boiling over and the cell phone dancing across the kitchen bench!  I’ve prayed for myself  many times in the past: “please re-energise me Lord!” It’s when we feel like we are going under for the umpteenth time that we let go of Who He is and start to grab hold of who I am not! Grab hold of Him instead. What you think about you, doesn’t count – it’s who He says you are.

Beating yourself up is quite unfruitful. Instead reassure yourself that the God of all the Universe loves you so much He always has your back! He will take our ashes and make beautiful things out of them. Perhaps you have worked all day and then come home exhausted, and you are trying so hard to be the perfect parent. One of the things we need plenty of in this life is the knowledge that our hope is in Him— Who He is. Guilt must never drive us.

Ephesians offers us an incredibly realistic picture of Who God is. We are all still in transit, so let’s stop should-ing on ourselves all the time … “I should do this and I should be that and I should never lose my temper, and if the kids turn out to be wrecked it will be all my fault!’  Instead let’s choose to remember that God can indeed—‘work all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes…’  He’s already got our sin covered, now we need to let His love cover us in our vulnerability. 

Whether you too have a parent you love dearly, whose faith is wobbly, or your kids have sailed merrily off into the sunset and seemingly left the Lord behind… remind yourself that our hope is in His Character. Putting our hope into our circumstances or our own actions is foolish and heartbreaking.  

“Help” is a prayer.“The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears are toward their cry for help.”Psalm 34:15. “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;  Do not forsake the works of Your hands.”  Psalm 138:8. You and I don’t have to always get this stuff right – we just need to remember that He’s a God Who always keeps His promises! Bye, 👋

P 2970 Religion can kill our faith.

/ DVH

“Beloved ones, God has called us to live a life of freedom. But don’t view this wonderful freedom as an excuse to set up a base of operations in the natural realm. Constantly love each other and be committed to serve one another.”Galatians 5:13. We’ve been set free to love one another and to serve God, of our own volition.  

When we read the Gospels, if we look at the hawk-eyed big brother attitude of the Sadducees, Pharisees, Teachers etc. we can see they pounced on anyone who broke even the smallest of the man-made rules. This included some poor schmuck who was born blind. These religious leaders picked on the guy because he was healed on the Sabbath! Like the man chose that day!? He was offered healing and he said yes … wouldn’t you??

Then there was another man who spent 35 years of his life lying by a pool, and he got into trouble for carrying the bed he had been pop-riveted to for years!  All because he was also healed on the Sabbath. There were others and Jesus healed them all on the Sabbath too. But as soon as these healed people were out in public, some enthusiastic religious enforcer immediately demanded to know why they were breaking this law or that one! Sadly these legalistic men skipped right past the joy of those amazing healings and went straight to the so-called infringement.

The Pharisees etc. lived to point out other people’s sinful actions and attitudes. Their laws consisted of hundreds of add-ons to the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses. Father God paid an incredible price when He gave us the freedom to choose! His aim was REAL reconciliation not lip-service or more laws. Today we are free to choose LOVE. You simply cannot legislate against sin. 

After all, the bible says that sin itself, can give our misdeeds a greater appeal! The religious laws of Jesus’ time, alienated and distanced the people from their God. You simply couldn’t afford to even appear to make any kind of mistake, you would get caught and punished. They even had sacrifices for the things people might have forgotten they did! 

Mercy flew right out of the window, rapidly followed by grace. Healing etc. had to be legislated into a suitable time and place delegated by the religious rulers’ discretion. People had no choice, they either obeyed the law to the letter, or they were punished. Sometimes they had rocks thrown at their heads! Or they were beaten within an inch of their lives. Or they had to fork out money they didn’t have to pay for grain offerings, doves, sheep and cattle. The religious rules had been around for so long, they had slowly been perverted away from loving God and each other, into legalism.

I think the very worst part of all this is that God Himself became even more estranged from His very precious children – why wouldn’t you avoid a god who appeared to require punishment for every single misstep? We know that sin starts with an inward attitude, which can result in an outward action against what God has said, but I think the complete truth is when we sin, we sin against LOVE, not rules. When what we do is not from love we’ve sinned. Which makes categorising sin a waste of time. Instead of focussing on outward actions, our hearts need to be changed. They need to have an attitude transplant and God has given us the perfect opportunity to have one!

Jesus did it for us – He is God’s love in action. He is the perfect example for us — unfettered by profit, agendas, prejudices, judgment, appetites and selfishness,. Meanwhile those snarky I’ve-got-a-right-to-do-what-I-want attitudes we cherish so much in this modern age, can go from choice to entitlement in a heart-beat. Sin is a heart condition. We were born with it but Jesus took the huge burden of personal responsibility for mankind’s sin, past, present and future, upon Himself and He met every legal single requirement. He overpaid!

Almighty God sent Jesus to save everyone, even the guys who killed Him. God chose to sacrifice His own Son willingly—to give US back our freedom, and give US the opportunity to walk with Him. Religion takes our choices away, it sets our minds on an impossible task … remaining sin free. And it totally ignores what Jesus already did for us. It also removes Love from our midst. Loving one another is our only hope of thriving instead of just surviving. “Beyond all these things put on and wrap yourselves in [unselfish] love, which is the perfect bond of unity [for everything is bound together in agreement when each one seeks the best for others].’Colossians 3:14. (AMP)

Unless we choose to live in Love, like Jesus did, the law will continue to haunt the church.  We need to do what the bible says, and put aside gossip, resentment, criticism etc. etc. and pay far more attention to our own hearts, than we do toward other people’s sin. Religion chokes the life out of faith. Bye. 👋

P 2965 We owe Him our choices.

/ DVH

I want to be perfectly clear today. The Lord Jesus was tormented about the cross – even though He knew it was His Father’s will for His life and it would benefit mankind – He had to make a hard choice. He prayed for hours that the cup that He knew He would have to drink on our behalf, would be taken from Him. And at the same time, He shed blood thinking about the ramifications of what He was about to do! He became sin, for us.

Let’s just try to imagine what it would be like if every single one of your motivations were pure, right, and just — and you were living to benefit others, but you had to live amongst men and women who had embraced a strict religious regime. Love is the only vehicle that will reach them. They are locked into systems that cause them to strive and worry and lie. Yet Jesus knew His Father’s aim and the ongoing love story between God and mankind. He knew His Father’s heart toward us. So He chose to come here, He chose to live here, and He chose to die, here.

Now He is asking you and I to do the same thing, to make hard choices and choose His Father’s Ways over our own. So the next time the Lord says to us;  ‘forgive this or that person’ we need to remember that He is not doing that from an uninformed, inexperienced place. HE KNOWS the cost of forgiveness because He paid it all. That’s why He sent us the very best HELPER — the Precious Holy Spirit. 

Jesus could never be called ill-informed, or uncaring about mankind’s daily difficulties. That’s why the Heavenly Father sent Him here, to us, in an unheard-of tiny village, as an infant. Oh how I wish we would study the Lord’s attitude toward sinners more — He was a Friend to sinners. He loved to restore people, body, soul and spirit. Right now there are people in your life who keep saying spiritual things you would rather not hear … they keep saying this stuff because they ARE your friends.They have learnt there is better way to live. Jesus Christ hated religion, not people. 

Religion robs people of their God-given birthright to be God’s Sons and Daughters. The Lord Jesus was lovingly, passionately loyal to His Father, and He knew His Heavenly Father was being misrepresented by a system that burdened people. “The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, NOT DESIRING THAT ANY should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.”2 Peter 3:9. Amazingly, Almighty God can do something we can barely understand  – He can love the sinner and hate the sin.

Unfortunately, if we choose to live in satan’s camp from day to day, indulging our own selfishness, then the other guy has a legal right to push us around. But fortunately!! … We have the best Saviour, and the most informed, pure and brilliant Lawyer/Advocate that there ever was, to represent each of us before God Himself. Jesus Christ is God’s righteousness personified. He is our example. We also have examples of the way our God deals with all kinds of people in the bible. The Old Testament is not just a group of stories about how other people who lived long long ago — we need to watch how God Himself perseveres and is long-suffering toward them. He is not a God Who stands a long way off – He came here in Person to reveal His heart to us!

This is why our day-to-day choices matter. The Holy Spirit Himself wants to walk you and I through each part of our personal transformation, daily, until we shine with the light of God saturating our very beings. From the inside out! We must stop thinking of choices as something that are meant to appeal to us … and understand that as each choice is made … we will die a little. That’s the aim! This is why the Apostle Paul said: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21. And he also said …”I assure you, believers, by the pride which I have in you in [your union with] Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily [I face death and die to self].”

Jesus is not asking us to do something He did not do Himself. He is asking us to follow Him through the land of many choices into the solitary possibility of ONE CHOICE…. HIM. He’s looking for passionate dedication to His mission from His followers.Yes, He saved us, once and for all, but He saved us to serve Him, and serve others. I write this blog to exhort you and encourage you to remember that God is always on your side. In His heart He wants the very best for you. He wants to help you and I into the kind of transformation of character and spirit that we can only dream about.

This is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit back here to help us. He’s here, right now, with us, to help us make the kind of choices that will prosper our life spiritually. Instead, we are going to be made rich in the things that LAST. Forget physical prosperity … that stuff has to be protected and fought for … what the Holy Spirit gives us, He gives us for free. It’s free because we didn’t earn it or deserve it.  Because of what He did for us, we owe Him our choices. Bye. 👋

P 2957 Be fruitful not just productive.

/ DVH

After all, Jesus Christ Himself answered to SomeOne else – His Father! John 9:1-4: “While He was passing by, He noticed a man [who had been] blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi (Teacher), who   sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed and illustrated in him. We must work the works of Him Who sent Me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”

Sin is common to man, the bible tells us that, but isn’t it astonishing how quickly human beings go into blame, even right in front of Jesus? They say things like: ‘Whose fault is this, Jesus – him or his parents?’ Religion always wants a reason to blame, and sometimes it wants to excuse itself. ‘It’s not my fault my parents beat me, neglected me, spoiled me as a child I can’t help it.’ Right. So it seems to me that you are having trouble putting childish things away?? Read I Corinthians 13:11. How about you study the power of CHOICE?

I love 💕the way that Jesus sorts these things out… because this stuff really IS a waste of time! His disciples noticed that blind man and they wanted a religious reason for his ailment, but …  but… Jesus just healed him!  I mean I’m on the Lord’s team about that … just do something about whatever is wrong!  Love on the guy, restore his life, and throw blame out of the window. Don’t analyse it. Deal with it. Pray over it. After all we’ve been given His authority!

Not only that, then the Lord says something here we don’t even dare to discuss ……this incredible Being, Almighty God, Who ‘wraps Himself in unapproachable light and has no darkness in Him at all’ ALLOWED that blind man to be born blind so He could illustrate His glory! Ya might want to think about that for 3 months or so, ‘cos it kind of stomps all over all kinds of theology … like right … there. Our God is not the ‘when you wish upon a star, pretty blue fairy.’  When He came down upon the mountain in front of the Israelites they shoved Moses up the front and said “We are too scared of Him, YOU GO!” Let’s always remember that He’s the Mighty God Who rules heaven and earth, and — you’d better believe it buddy!

When Jesus took off His earthly human form, and He was revealed as God’s Son before 3 of His disciples – nobody had anything to say except Peter  — and that poor guy made an ass of himself… again. I always feel sorry for Peter, he says dumb stuff right out loud. Those things we might kind of whisper in corners to each other but we wouldn’t dare say any of it out loud at church. People might stop thinking we are holy if we did that. 

John 9:39: “Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment [to separate those who believe in Me from those who reject Me—to declare judgment on those who choose to be separated from God], so that the sightless would see, and those who see would become blind.”That sounds pretty clear and ‘user friendly’ to me. When the Lord was confronted with a blind man — He healed him. He didn’t form a committee to discuss what they should do next  didn’t care about the guy’s theology – or anyone else’s theology for that matter! He was simply fulfilling His God-given mandate. Is this a good time to mention that we have that mandate too?? Too soon??? Not ready??? Hmmm… I seem to recall the Lord said: “Live ready.” Matthew 24:42-51.

Moving on … Jesus knew that there was going to be a time when He couldn’t work anymore, so He did not waste a minute of the time He had at His disposal. That needs to be our blueprint for this life too. It is also worth noting that praying for the sick is a work that God has told all of us to do. Whether we feel spiritual or not, it’s our job now. I’ve prayed for the sick and they got worse and died, and I’ve prayed for the sick and they got better. And I can’t tell you why either one turned out either way! I simply know He said pray for the sick, so I did.

Whatever Jesus did, praying for the sick, deliverance, personal instruction – He totally did everything He did for the glory of God. He never justified big meetings by saying He had a ministry or some special gift … and yet He had ALL the gifts … better than we ever could. Instead He preached whatever He heard His Father saying to those who came. Whether it was two people or five thousand. He left everything to God and did what His Father told Him, and whatever He saw His Father doing. John 5:19. 

That verse in John 5 has always fascinated me. Jesus was not proud, He was humble, submitted to His Father.  The words “I do nothing by Myself” are pure gold to me. The Lord Jesus had no other agenda. I pray God will remove every one of my agendas and give me HIS! Amen. Now there’s a heart worth asking for! I wanna be with the people who only do what He’s doing and only say what He’s saying. The church has done enough advertising, talking and big mouthing, we need to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit and do what He says. It seems to me that sometimes we talk to cover up our lack. Did I say that out loud? Yikes… yes I did!! 

My current theory, (yeah, I freely admit it is a theory,) is that we need the Word of God to work on us, within us. Transformation will follow as we admit our lack and go after the Answer. Then we will freely flow in love, compassion and kindness. Jesus Himself never lacked those qualities, and we need to go after them, not just the gifts. We are meant to be fruit bearing vines, not libraries, or fun fairs. We desperately need the love and devotion that never fails. Sadly, in my personal experience, my human love can fail all over the place! I am especially convicted when I read I Corinthians 13:7. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 

We will gain compassion and kindness by simply walking with the Lord, and seeing others through His eyes. Plus steadfastly walking through difficulties, sorrow and suffering, without losing any of our LOVE for Him, and others. I pray for everyone reading this blog today that they too would aim at Love over everything else because Love is the best glue known to mankind. As we too work the works of Him Who sent US, we must remember that unless we have Love, HIS love, we can end up clanging away like a fire bell.

We need to get our minds renewed to think like His, and “get our head in the game!” Fruitfulness is life-changing, not just productive. Bye 👋

P 2952 The heart of God is restoration … not condemnation.

/ DVH

John 8 …“But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning He came back into the temple [court], and all the people were coming to Him. He sat down and began teaching them. Now the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery. They made her stand in the centre of the court, and they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women [to death]. So what do You say [to do with her—what is Your sentence]?” They said this to test Him, hoping that they would have grounds for accusing Him. 

But Jesus stooped down and began writing on the ground with His finger. However, when they persisted in questioning Him, He straightened up and said, “He who is without [any] sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then He stooped down again and started writing on the ground. They listened [to His reply], and they began to go out one by one, starting with the oldest ones, until He was left alone, with the woman [standing there before Him] in the centre of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She answered, “No one, Lord!” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you either. Go. From now on sin no more.”]”

The Lord Jesus Himself disposed of this woman’s accusers. Praise God, this shows us we can trust Him to dispose of ours, too. She was a nobody – yet God saw somebody! The Lord did not condemn her for her sin, He FORGAVE HER. Our job after acknowledging His Grace gift to us, is to release to other captives what we were freely given – because we are filled with the knowledge that we don’t deserve His GRACE either. 

In this passage there is Love, Grace, Wisdom, Faith and Freedom, all over the Lord’s actions! Jesus knew they did not bring that woman to Him just to humiliate her – these scribes and Pharisees brought her to Him to accuse HIM! This incident was about Jesus, not just about that woman. It was a set-up, a sting!  But all Jesus had for her was compassion and forgiveness, plus the freely given opportunity to start a new life and live right before God. The greater sin was in the hearts of her accusers. Sometimes we ignore our sin because we choose not to see ourselves. We think of our actions as ‘good’ and condemn someone else because their actions are ‘bad.’

“However, when they persisted in questioning Him, He straightened up and said, “He who is without [any] sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” When absolute truth is in front of us, we dare not refute it, nor should we try to – the best response is to own what we’ve done. Lies, bitterness, resentment, hatred, all these things produce shame and guilt and they thrive in darkness. That’s why we cannot tolerate them, and confession brings us into the light. We are His —  so now we are officially living in the Light, HIS light. 

I often wonder if these religious men had stayed longer to press the issue, what might have come out about their lives? Some versions of this passage indicate the Lord wrote stuff about the woman’s accusers in the dirt at their feet. They were so quick to try and catch the Lord breaking the law, but then they slunk off when confronted with the power and love of God for forgiveness, present in the Person of Christ.

Right after the paragraph about this woman in John 8, Jesus proclaims that “He …is the light of the world”“”…He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” We cannot tell ourselves that we are following Jesus if we choose to tolerate darkness in ourselves. I’m not talking about what we watch on TV or even how we talk … I’m talking about our hearts – the attitude of our hearts toward others matters. Our hearts need to continually be filled with His light. His Presence loves the light. (James 1:17)

There are two points in this story, it is not just a story about Jesus forgiving an adulterous woman! In the church we can push the truth of what He said here away from us, and not take it in, by making this story about something we think we would never do!  Adultery. Jesus wasn’t trying to hurt these deeply religious men – He was exposing the darkness inside them that kept them captive. He came to save them too! Maybe they left because they didn’t want to confront the reality of who they had become. 

Religion counts outward actions more important than the state of our hearts, but Jesus clearly said elsewhere, it is what comes out of our hearts that shows us what is inside! God does not expose our sin to shame us. He wants to set us free, and we need to be able to see our sin in order to come out of harmony with it. The attitude in the Pharisees that accosted this woman, and then tried to trap Jesus with what she was doing, is the same one that will drag us all under if we let it. We can easily see someone else’s sin as worse than ours!! 

Religion imprisons us, it does not set us free. It excuses our behaviour and accuses someone else. That’s called deflection. Jesus did not approve of this woman’s lifestyle, instead He lovingly gave her an opportunity to change, that’s what He does! He gave the religious leaders that opportunity as well. They turned Him down. Walking away may not seem like a big deal, but postponement hardens our hearts. The heart of God is restoration not condemnation – HE loves to forgive…. He did not come here to condemn sinners – He came to SAVE them. Bye.🩸

May God bless you today, as you choose to take the time to remember what was freely done for you.

P 2932 The 3 W’s.

/ 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.MSG

The secret to living like this is in the ‘walking’ and ‘working’ … and …’watching’ thing. Praise God we don’t have to do any of those things by ourselves — we are learning to do it all, every single bit of it, WITH THE REAL VICTOR right there with us! Seriously, we will struggle to win this war if we don’t know how to give into God, and lean on Him. This is where we learn to fight (walk), endure (work) and overcome (watch) – by simply surrendering. And yes, I agree, it sounds nuts. 

But yielding to His wisdom and Grace is leaning on Him so … give up! Tell Him you can’t do whatever it is you feel you should do and then keep on forgiving, if that is necessary. Remember to take your errant angry, or disappointed thoughts captive. If you start thinking about bashing someone up, repent, forgive them again. Go back to the Lord – He understands your disappointment etc. with yourself and others. Ask for His help to practice love in the face of hate. Kindness in the face of cruelty, patience in the face of interminable suffering.

We simply must stop pretending to be what we are not, and … let Him make the difference. Lemme ask this question: do you once see Jesus struggling to be what God sent Him to be? The only struggle the Lord had was with facing the crucifixion and even then He yielded! Even reading about that is a blessing to us. When we struggle with our lives, with really hard things, we are not faithless – we are human. Jesus understands our struggles. 

God does not do things the way we do them. We can’t overcome by gritting our teeth and telling everyone we are ‘fine.’  We do it by acknowledging our weaknesses, because that’s when His strength can be made perfect in us. If someone asks you in the middle of a struggle if you are OK, instead of pasting on a smile and lying, say something like this:‘I’m not OK. But I’m learning to trust that Jesus can do a miracle and make it OK.’ 

Christianity is an upside-down world. We receive by giving. We lose our rights voluntarily. We win by giving in to Him. We rejoice in the face of loss. We forgive by choice, not by our feelings. We learn to give people to God for Him to deal with them. He’s good at it. Read the book! God plays a long game! In today’s sue-them-or-punish-them world all that sounds completely NUTS. But eventually, losing means we win! 

That verse above is a wonderful recipe for walking with Jesus. When everything inside us is shouting:“There is no point in praying. This is the end. You can’t come back from here …things can only get worse!…”  We run like bunny rabbits straight to Jesus and say: “Lord please hide me.” And that’s when the Holy Spirit comes into His own. He’s so-oo good at fixing stuff. And every time you say no to what you want to do… you are growing the fruit of the Spirit in so many ways you won’t be able to count them. It’s HIS fruit, we can’t grow it! His fruit needs to be grown His way.

That person you wish you could avoid, or maybe you actually successfully avoid them, probably IS as difficult as you think they are. You are not lying to yourself. Why would anyone need Grace if someone else is already a nice Godly person? We need His Grace for the people whose aim in this life seems to be about making our life miserable. We must stop using avoidance to bring about an uneasy peace, and start walking with Him, working with Him, and watching how He does it. Most human beings are not nice enough on the inside to maintain a pleasant facade when they are under great pressure. 

Here’s a big thought … and … believe it or not I got it from a TV show – because Christians are too busy claiming this and praying for that … so now the rocks are crying out. “Humility makes a place for new possibilities.” There are things we can’t see when we are in the middle of a terrible struggle …but God can! He doesn’t want wounded warriors, He wants to truly heal us. Everything we meet is an opportunity to see this life from His point of view.

We can be influenced by the bad, hurtful things that have happened in our lives. Every now and then some angry word or action bubbles to the top, and we can’t figure out how it got there. Somebody or some situation reminds us of something that is long gone, but the memory of the pain lingers. However, when we deliberately choose to die to ourselves and we yield, God plants a tree in the place of our hurt and that tree starts to bear fruit. 

The only way through this often difficult life, is to live like He would, if He were you. HE UTTERLY RELIED UPON THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS FATHER! Jesus didn’t pretend – He loved people, yet He did not live to please them, He lived to please His Father. And then He accepted the consequences of that decision. He was always delighted to do His Father’s will.  

Walk away from your feelings, work at holding onto Him and watch what He will do. Bye. 👋

P 2924 The future is HERE ……NOW!

/ DVH

“But you need to be aware that in the final days the culture of society will become extremely fierce. People will be self-centred lovers of themselves and obsessed with money. They will boast of great things as they strut around in their arrogant pride and mock all that is right. They will ignore their own families. They will be ungrateful and ungodly. They will become addicted to hateful and malicious slander. 

Slaves to their desires, they will be ferocious, belligerent haters of what is good and right. With brutal treachery, they will act without restraint, bigoted and wrapped in clouds of their conceit. They will find their delight in the pleasures of this world more than the pleasures of the loving God. They may pretend to have a respect for God, but in reality they want nothing to do with God’s power. Stay away from people like these!”2 Timothy 3:1-5 TPT.

Yeah, I dunno about you, but at this moment, I’m thinking about heading for the hills, because this scripture sounds just like last week’s new’s headlines to me. Isn’t it scary when you can read something like this — which was written in 40-60 AD and yet you still think — boy does this sound so familiar! 

You know, God has never said that other people would like what we say – He just said: “TELL THEM.” And He also said, live like this – “make love your great aim” and the bible shows us how love lives. The news of today is filled to the top with death, anger, sorrow, murder, rage etc.and those things can subtly influence us to think people are not worth the sacrifice of laying down our lives. Sadly all we need if we want to be an influencer,  is to have a sad story, or  give away money, or stuff. Today you can buy people’s interest. And if you call it a competition, they will jump right in! 

But the bible says we are here to to tell them that they will go to hell if they keep going in the wrong direction. Yeah! That kind of changes the colour of anyone’s day. At the same time as we are actively loving them, we need to tell them what they are doing is eternally costly. 

However, we do not have to market God! There is a school of thought that says if we can be as slick and appealing as the things of this world, people will listen to us. This is what Paul was talking about in the above verse: “…having a form of godliness but denying its power …”True godliness is about fruit, it produces substance, not just appearances. There is no power in exhibiting the appearance of godliness, practising that will produce religion. When what we are looking for is inward transformation. 

Now, let’s look at that first line in Paul’s discourse. “The culture of society will become exceedingly fierce.”Hmmm. Does today’s world look like a loving, supportive culture? There’s a lot of talk about empowering people but not much talk about living a life of love. It seems to me that many people in the Western world have learnt to speak badly about others – so they can make money on TV shows by deriding the way people walk, dress, and live — we even pick on what other people EAT! We indulge in gossip simply for conversation’s sake. Gossip has become a way of life – a method of communication – a way to relate!

We need to assure the people around us that there is something much bigger, more important and infinitely more lasting, than working hard to look good. Mankind’s greatest challenge is to continue to be loving in the face of evil, and that will take the supernatural power of God! Meanwhile, the church can’t keep on doing what they have been doing because it isn’t working! Often our worst enemies are exactly who Jesus told us they would be – the people we dearly love.“… a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Matthew 10:36. We are going to need the power of God to cope, and still love them!

We have let our children down. Someone (??) decided the little darlings are basically good. Obviously these people haven’t read “Lord of the flies!” or “Grimm’s fairy tales” or the newspaper lately! Sadly we raised our children to be entertained, not instructed. But despite how cute they are, children are not born good. “All have sinned,” it says so in His book. Did you know that the first word most babies learn is “NO?!” 

We wonder why our kids are careless about the real things in this life that actually matter, and why haven’t they learnt integrity, obedience, and kindness etc? Wisdom and spiritual knowledge come from investing time and energy in people – not just chasing dollars. Our kids need to learn to contribute, not consume, and it is our job to teach them. Inanimate objects don’t cause delinquent behaviour, lack of supervision does.

I think Paul was looking through God’s Time Machine into a telescope of our future, when he wrote this letter of warning to Timothy. Let’s remember, Timothy was his disciple, he was teaching this young man the way he should go. He was also instructing Timothy about the times that were to come …  And now… happy, happy joy, joy, here they are! The future is here. Now! Always remember, the darkness cannot put the light out – HIS light in us will conquer the darkness around us. Love is the vehicle. Bye 👋

P 2902 Give yourself a break OK?

/ DVH

The Lord knows we all need a break sometimes, so God has been incredibly generous to mankind, He has given us gifts to help us. When you read His book you might easily notice that Almighty God often picks the oddest people to represent Him, I think it is because His goodness shines very brightly in needy people. 1 Peter 4:10-11 says:  “God has given each of you a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God Himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to Him forever and ever! Amen.”

We can sometimes overestimate and esteem human beings, because they have been anointed by God to deliver His Grace to His people. Then we face disappointment and a further battle for our peace. However, it is God Himself Who deserves the glory and honour. Those people who represent Him are a gift from Him. With things like teaching, writing, sermons etc. we need to remember as we listen, that the person communicating is His Grace in action. If it touches our heart, that’s our Father, kissing us, hugging us — those things that bless us have been inspired by God for our benefit. 

I believe we desperately need to pray for our leaders – not occasionally, but all the time! Leadership is not only a gift of spiritual stamina, it is a gift of His Grace. These people are out in front of us, right in the firing line of our common enemy. They need our prayers. And we need to consistently elevate and thank the Lord because He gave us those who lead, they are His gifts to the church. Yes His gifts are precious, but that’s because they came from Him! So the glory belongs to Him. Everything He does is worthy of our praise – we simply need to wake up enough to notice what He is doing, all the time, every day.

If any one of us fail, or give up temporarily, or get discouraged or even lose heart — let’s remember that we have SomeOne praying for us, 24/7. Jesus and the Holy Spirit take our walk with our Heavenly Father, personally! Father God could care less if we are successful – He is looking for us to be His own submitted obedient kids, following His Son’s example. Jesus Christ was not successful by today’s standards – yet everything He achieved will one day be revealed in heaven. For now, WE HAVE HIS BOOK! 

I believe we are to be a people who press forward toward the goal, and live every single day, with the knowledge of an  astonishing revelation — we know that our God is always for us! Nothing else can prevail against us because He is on our side. He’s with us when we get it right, He’s with us when we get it wrong. Now here’s 2 Peter 1:3:“Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.”

The ones Jesus loves (Zach Williams):

It may be that this life has become so difficult we have begun to give up on ourselves, because our situation seems so dire we cannot see any answer. In hard times it is so easy to forget Jesus is the answer… to anything. One of the most passionate, desperate prayers was prayed by a little lady who crawled through the dirt unseen to get to Him. Luke 8:43-48. God knows when we get stuck and He runs to the aid of one of His little ones. If He seems to be absent, don’t be afraid – He is confident you will get through this. Incredibly, even at the same time as our troubles, we actually need more than a resolution of our pain and hard situations, even though those things are merciless — we need to be reminded that Jesus is filled with mercy. Pressed down and running over. He won’t leave us or forsake us.

These are the times that I need to remind myself how very much God loves me. How much He understands my pain and loss and sorrow, personally. Jesus didn’t pick out an easy escape route when His life got hard for Him. He totally understands what severe testing is like! He came to this earth, by His own choice, to live this life the way we do. Praise God the Lord Jesus has personal experience, He understands where we are. He will hold us up, relieve our suffering and sorrow and set us free to live in His love despite our circumstances. He has promised to walk with us through our deepest valleys.

Last scripture here! Matthew 11:28-30.“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.”

Give yourself a break and remember that it is not the end of the world to be human. God honoured mankind by sending His only Son to become one of us. What a wonder that is! And oh how very much He loves us! May He shower you with His peace and love, and help you to see those things today, Amen. Bless you, bye. 👋.