Responsibility

P 2837 What we do with what God tells us daily, matters.

/ DVH

I know that many people, past and present, have had a great deal to say about this parable, I personally love the clarification the Lord Himself gave, which comes directly after it in Matthew 13:1-9:

“He (Jesus) taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Almighty God gives us seed to sow from His Word – hopefully… daily!! His book is a fantastic source of life-giving seeds. We need to take those seeds He has personally given to us, and share them with others. That seed that His Spirit kisses, especially for us, has His life in it. Its power lies in the fact that God revealed His truth to us.

It may have been something someone said when they were preaching, and it struck us in the heart like an arrow finds the target. Or it may have been something that stood out as we were reading the bible. It could even be when we were talking to the Lord and suddenly a scripture fell down from our thinking and meditating —- where we had hidden it while we were renewing our minds – and it sank down deep inside us, into our heart where growth can begin. Wherever or however it happened, that fresh seed is now ripe for planting. It can produce a crop.

The seeds of His Word that we sow into our lives – as we daily read the bible and act on it — can behave exactly like this parable describes. Sadly some seed doesn’t even make it past 2 seconds of thought, because it has fallen upon a well worn pathway of previous knowledge, and so it is whisked away by the birds of the air … those thoughts and words that are constantly flying past us, because of everything we are exposed to in a single day. It is so easy to think: “I know that already.” Now we have a seed immediately stolen by pride.

Also in our daily bible readings, if we take the time to treasure His voice, we can sometimes discover “rocky places” in our hearts. They are not like the well-worn pathways that we barely notice, these are hard places that we try to skim over and ignore with thoughts like this: ‘The truth is, I don’t think I have to change, I think the other person should.’ The scorching heat of that bad attitude kills off the power of His precious seed, and it is killed off by negligence. Always remember that true forgiveness doesn’t keep accounts, be-ca-use … hallelujah!!… fortunately for us, Jesus doesn’t keep them either.

“The thorny ground” seeds are the places in our hearts we haven’t bothered to weed and keep watch over our wrong thinking. ‘Weeds of unbelief, or discontent or disappointment’ have flourished there. What we haven’t realised is that, spiritually speaking, any one rotten attitude can take over our thinking. So the possibility of a harvest from any seeds that are sown into the weed-filled patch, is negated. These spiritual seeds won’t receive their share of nourishment from any water and good soil, because the weeds of our wrong thinking are crowding them out, and soon the whole plant of His word, becomes sterile and unproductive.

Now let’s look at “good soil,” the stuff we are to cultivate and watch over in our hearts. Good soil not only gladly receives the seed of God’s Word;  as we act on it, that seed begins to flourish, and grow into a healthy plant. The increase in our seed production, is always up to the Lord, our part is to cultivate the soil of our hearts with humility and love. And take the time to prayerfully water and feed these His seeds with tears of repentance, and acts of sacrifice as the healthy plants begin to grow. Now we have seeds that will bear fruit and can be harvested.

As you can see, there are four different results from exactly the same seed. The seed does not change, but how it is received does. Even if we sometimes feel unsure about what we think the Lord is saying – it is our responsibility to watch over His seed and act on it accordingly. What we do with what God tells us daily, matters. How we receive it matters. Preparing our hearts to be open to change and transformation matters. A huge harvest can come from our dedication and our willingness to yield to His Ways, even to the death. Bye.  👋“They triumphed over him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” Revelation 12:11.

P 2828 Be proactive – learn to speak life.

/ DVH

Hi! I’m following up from what I said yesterday with more road building tips. Forgive me for repeating myself, but to see how to help anyone else, first we need to get rid of the planks/ rocks/pebbles/ boulders in our own eyes. How can we possibly fix anything – at all – if we can’t see properly? 

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:3-5.

I love the way Jesus goes straight to the point. The point isn’t to avoid helping others! Instead we live this life in such a way that we keep our hearts open and clear toward Him. This means we value our relationship with Him more than we value our own perception of ourselves, our convenience, or the way we are regarded by others. 🤔 So if I say something and someone else thinks it’s dumb or critical, I repent on the spot. If I hurt someone and I know it, I ask them to forgive me asap. Why? Because I want to see clearly! I can’t pray blessings for you if I am tolerating a bad attitude in me. The words will fall on the ground or choke me. I sincerely want you to know you are loved, and be blessed by the knowledge of His love for you. 

Love is HIS chosen highway and we are all labouring on it. You’re doing your bit on your stretch of the road, and I’m doing it on mine. We don’t want love to just be words on a page, we want people to experience His love through us. Real love, the love that embraces humanity – love that never ever gives up! God gives practical advice not just pretty words to remember. When we begin to know the will of God, through our own experiences, we will end up praying more confidently. We need HIM. All day every day, every second of our time here. He is our wisdom, our strength, our ever-present help in time of need. 

What do we do with offence when it smacks us upside of our head? This is what I do … I ask for Grace, and I keep right on asking for it. That’s because I am absolutely positive I will respond badly unless the Lord helps me, plus I have plenty of negative experiences with my old nature. My aim is to kill that off asap. I need to stop imagining, and perhaps even saying terrible stuff about the other person who is hurt, or has hurt me, and I ask for His mercy, and compassion instead. At times I pray that a situation will be redeemed. I simply pray the way He tells me to pray and then I step out in faith and do the opposite of what I might want to do!

Compassion is invaluable. Sadly, loving compassion evaporates quickly in the heat of dark situations, so, along the way, we will have to do a whole lot of repenting and dying-to-self. However, we will gain even more compassion in this life when we experience a need for it ourselves, and we recognise our own sinful attitudes, because we too hurt others. Just because we think what we said, or did was OK, that does not mean our opinion prevails over someone else’s experience!  We are not meant to be legalists excusing this behaviour and giving permission for that. Reconciliation doesn’t grow in an atmosphere of justification. I never ask if I have sinned, I ask Him to show me where and when. Then I take care of business. 

Jesus died to make us pure and innocent, and it cost Him everything. He deserves our obedience to His Word, including the humility to say we were wrong. When we say we are wrong, we’re humbling ourselves. Sadly, our old nature is always going to be at war with the new one. So we will have to choose, over and over again, to walk His highway of love, especially when we don’t want to do it. People are not always NICE. And hurt people can be UGLY. Read the book. My thought bubble about someone else might be: “Boy that guy needs avoiding big time. What a grouch!”  But when I pray I stop being blind to my own faults, and I can see my own attitude, then I can see the other guy more clearly.

Many people expect this life to be easy…  we are not in a fairy tale. Life is hard. We need a daily scrubbing with the blood of Jesus to help us develop eyes of love. We are designed to be part of the Answer – not the problem. You know, our enemy wins if we are so busy concentrating on our own problems, and heartaches that we don’t see other people’s pain. Undeserved love is by nature … not deserved! 

Here’s some advice worth noting …  people may not fall at your feet and start cheering even when you’ve repented etc. Nobody is perfect. People make mistakes, and they hurt themselves and others – it’s what humanity has in common. Almighty God will empower us to obey Him, but we need to take faith steps and keep at it. Refuse to believe the worst in others, instead, speak to the good. The power of life and death is in the tongue, and we’ve been given a huge responsibility – we can proactively speak life and build Love’s road.👋

P 2807 Keep your anchor fixed in His Love.

/ DVH

Part of the reason Christians can become inactive is that we have been careless, we have lost our first love. That means we will have no sense of purpose. Here’s what I have learnt … when you watch what the Lord does and is still doing, every single day, you will fall in love with Him over and over again. You know … somebody ought to write a song about that! I believe our love can grow cold, when we are not using our faith … and ‘.. faith without works is dead!’ 

A boat without an anchor drifts about, moved by this current and that storm – tossed around by this theology, or that special event. Our hope is IN Christ, everything He did, everything He said — Who He is, and what He has done for us. Nothing more, nothing less. MY hope is not in my faithfulness it is in HIS.  I must learn to accept that I can get to know Him, no matter what is currently going on. “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”Romans 5:3-4. I don’t care two beans for whatever fabulous Christian teaching book is currently flooding the market place … our hope is always IN Christ. Loving Him is our finest priority. 

Then all we need to do is to reflect what we see when we look at Him, and be ready to tell someone else how wonderful the Lord is. I’m absolutely blessed when our Heavenly Father gives someone I know this revelation, or that dream, and this vision, and I love that they want to tell me about it…. YAY! But I want to see Him for myself thank you. We need to know Him, personally. He is our only hope, so we cling to Him like a baby Koala clings to its Mum.

The bible says this: “That I might know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings; being made conformable to His death,” Philippians 3:10. Over the years I realised that I will have to die to what I want for my life, in order to know Him. I must take personal responsibility for my response to what He’s done for me. Suffering is a part of life and a great leveller. But it is not a happy word.

We all know we will suffer – it’s in the book, but we must still choose to give up this attitude, and put down that expectation and let Him be God. He never sleeps. Now we no longer say this by choice, instead we simply must say that! When we live chasing Him, we will get to know Him. Jesus Christ chose to live His life for our sake. That means we have a shared fellowship with Him as we choose to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily – and live our lives for His sake.

People can go to church week by week and chat to everyone there, but that does not mean we know each other! So, how do we get to know each other? Here’s my little theory … …you knew I’d have one!  …we need to share each other’s joys, sorrows, suffering together and learn to help one another. We must celebrate our victories, and pray for one another in our defeats! Privacy is great, but it can be costly – nasty things hide in the dark. 

Our hope in Christ, is our firm anchor and without that hope it is too easy to drift from this fad to another one. Sadly we can foster and cling to the things that tickle our ears and tell us we can do whatever we like because we belong to God now. We can’t develop our own personal faith, living like that because we are too busy following the way somebody else does it!  The way to develop our own faith is to USE IT. I call that obedience to the Word.. We read what the Lord wrote and find something to do in it. There’s always something to do in that book! But I admit that I do sometimes need the Holy Spirit’s help to find it.

I’ve read about Samson, just like you … and Jonah and Moses and Jeremiah … however, that doesn’t mean I will grow my hair long and avoid whale-watching trips …  Instead, I read the bible looking at the way God interacted with the people who are in it. So I look at how Moses talked to God … and I see how Jeremiah complained a lot because his life was hard. At the same time, I notice our Heavenly Father’s response. I see His patience with Jeremiah and Samson. Our God is so incredibly diverse, He totally loved both of these very different men. I also see that these men had contestable issues with the Lord, they weren’t perfect. But boy!  Was HE LOYAL!

To me that means I can disagree with God and not get zapped by lightning bolts from heaven. He is way more tolerant of my humanity than that –  I just need to live my life honestly, before Him. I’ve learnt if He tells me to do something, I’d better do it, because it did not go well for any of those men I’ve mentioned when they ignored Him! I have learnt through their testimonies, as well as my own life, that trouble cannot be avoided but it can be an opportunity for transformation, it is not something we must hide from. Holding your breath and waiting until it is over doesn’t work so well either!

The New Testament has taught me that I am so much more fortunate to have been born on this side of Calvary. I don’t have to be swept along by how I feel – or how you feel – I just need to keep my anchor fixed by staying attached to Him. This means my life will be run by my hope in Who He is. Everything else passes away. My hope is fixed. It is in Who Jesus Christ said He is, and what He did, as well as what He said He did. He did it all those things for us … …including the big guy in the supermarket who is a grump … plus the receptionist in the doctor’s surgery who is totally unhelpful. I don’t have to go digging around to find candidates who are eligible for His love – they are all around me! 

Those thoughts about Him, His goodness, His reliability – keep my little boat from swinging about, and going under in a storm. I honestly don’t believe it is wise to live my life rushing from this port to that one, trying to distract myself from the fact that I am finite. One day I will leave all this behind me. But I am going somewhere when this life is over, and so are you. That’s what hope looks like. We are anchored into Who He is, and How reliable He is. His book tells me, over and over again, that He loves me. It is my all consuming hope that one day I will hear Him say that to me in person. Bye. 👋

P 2785 “To each one of us …”

/ DVH

In the bible it says that the Lord Himself gave gifts to the church … read these scriptures along with me: “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When He ascended on high, He took many captives and gave gifts to His people… …” 11-13 “So Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:7-8,11-13. We don’t have to wait for our birthday, or Christmas! Jesus has given us all gifts to help us grow and know Him…NOW!

“There are different kinds of gifts. But they are all given to believers by the same Spirit. There are different ways to serve. But they all come from the same Lord. There are different ways the Spirit works. But the same God is working in all these ways and in all people. The Holy Spirit is given to each of us in a special way. That is for the good of all.”1 Corinthians 12:4-7.

“If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honouring each other. 

Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all! Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honourable.” Romans 12:7-17.

Today, I want to say, loudly – that, despite how you might feel, you have a gift. Actually you could easily have more than one of them!! But don’t ask me what they are, it took me a while to figure out what I am here to do! This Grace the Lord has given me to help others, has also helped me to feel that I have a place within the Body of Christ.

Many Christians have excused themselves from being activated for His kingdom, on the grounds that they are not worthy, or clever enough, or gifted enough, or they don’t know what they are supposed to do, or they don’t have time and they hope that the Lord understands! However, we all need your contribution. You don’t have to be an evangelist standing on the back of a flat-bed truck, you simply need to live a life of Love everywhere you go, towards everyone you meet, and be prepared to give an account of the hope within you.  That will stretch everyone’s faith and your gift will rise up as a result.

The thing is, this New Covenant we share is an agreement between us and the Lord – it’s a promise that we enter into between Him and us, and it is binding. (Read the book!) Jesus covered our sins with His blood, so we can be free to live the life God planned for us to live … and it is never too late to start. Jesus deliberately provided us with SomeOne Who will always help us and never leave us. SomeOne Who will teach us His ways, and help us with the process of transformation. It’s the Holy Spirit.

One day, not long ago, I woke up and realised that my complete spiritual poverty,  is my strength.🤔 So today, the Lord asked me to remind you of your place in His Body by using His Word. The Holy Spirit wants you to know that there is a place in His plans for you. Sometimes, for a small group of people, that is a place that is seen, and for many, many, many others, they will remain unseen. But He has promised to touch us all in extraordinary ways, with supernatural gifts.. I look forward to the day when the vast, unseen multitudes of ordinary Christians step into what He has for them.

So today, I just want to encourage everybody reading this, He wants you to participate in His plan in the lives of those people you know and influence. He needs you to be you. Who you are, because of His Presence in your life, will reach others. Last of all, I want to use my favourite vehicle, the bible, to pray for you. I am totally convinced He will answer these prayers because they rely upon His faithfulness, not on anyone’s ability.  

“I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the One who began this gracious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!” Philippians 1:6 TPT. “And I pray that He would unveil within you the unlimited riches of His glory and favour until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His divine might and explosive power.” Ephesians 3:16 TPT.“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23-24. Amen. God gives gifts to each one of us. Bye. 👋

P 2778 Anybody got any oil?

/ DVH

“When my coming draws near, heaven’s kingdom realm can be compared to ten maidens who took their oil lamps and went outside to meet the bridegroom and his bride. But the foolish ones were running out of oil, so they said to the five wise ones, ‘Share your oil with us, because our lamps are going out!’ “ ‘We can’t,’ they replied. ‘We don’t have enough for all of us. You’ll have to go and buy some for yourselves!’ “But he called back, ‘Go away! Do I know you? I can assure you, I don’t even know you!’“That is the reason you should always stay awake and be alert, because you don’t know the day or the hour when the Bridegroom will appear.”Matthew 25:1, 8-9, 12-13 TPT.

I have heard this scripture preached about nineteen ways to the dozen … So much so, I can talk about the bridegroom, or the ten maidens, or the oil, or the lamps/containers, or living ready. You know it seems to me … and I could be oversimplifying a tad – that if we make sure we have a good oil supply, everything else will fall into place! At this point, I need to say that I see the Oil of the Spirit as God’s Love, released freely, to bless other people.

That thought kind of reminds me of something that happened to us ages ago when we were on one of our road trips delivering bibles. My story is not about oil, however, it is about petrol, but it was God’s Love that helped us! When you travel vast distances in a car, petrol stations become very important. Anyway, we were stuck in the back of Burke, literally! And the only petrol available was not the type of petrol our car needed. We eventually did the sensible thing, after freaking out(!) We asked the Lord what He wanted us to do about it. After all, they are His bible trips!  Yet, our love for Him, was greater than our fear. 

On the inward journey to Burke, the town with the wrong petrol, I had developed a nasty ulcer on my side. It kept getting bigger and bigger. As it got bigger, so did my rotten lousy attitude. I got grumpier and nastier toward my poor hubby as we travelled through miles of grain fields, with no hope of  help. No doctors or chemists. We had nothing on us to treat this wound, so arriving at our next destination was really important on a number of levels. God’s woman of paste and flour (me), kept explaining to her hubby, in a tearful angry voice, how he had no right to bring her out to the middle of nowhere when he knows how sick she is: blah blah blah, whinge whine whinge.  Between the petrol lack and the lack of a cheerful, supportive spouse, my hubby’s prayer life improved mightily! I eventually calmed down and joined in with him … after thoroughly repenting, of course.

When we set out, the territory ahead of us was just plain heavily-treed bush, filled with wild pigs and goats wandering about, and quite a number dead on the road. A road train and a beast aren’t really a fair competition. (See picture above.) We knew when we began the journey, that we definitely did not have enough petrol to get us safely to the next town. The needle was in the red.  So for 200kms we both tried extremely hard not to look at the petrol gauge! That’s the whole point of walking by faith, you don’t know what comes next…and it’s often scary! For all we knew we could end up camped by the side of the road waiting for someone to realise we were missing. As we travelled along, deliberately-not-looking-at-the-petrol-gauge, we noticed how very few cars were going in the other direction! That was not a comforting thought. 

Eventually, hubby said in an astonished whisper: “I think that there is more petrol in the tank now, than there was when we started out.” Boy that popped my eyes open! I leaned over and looked. He was right. The petrol gauge needle was up higher than when we started. We knew how much we needed, and we didn’t have it, and … now there was more. To make a long story much shorter, by the time we got to our destination – we had more petrol in the tank than we did when we started out!  BTW, the Lord healed the ulcer – which was still bad – a couple of hours after we arrived, it disappeared.  

I think that the church’s largest problem today is that She quite often runs out of oil. And our biggest enemy is indifference. The pastor or priest, or leaders might have oil, but most of the people in our congregations don’t! These women in Jesus’ story in Matthew are not leaders or religious folk. They are simply attendants waiting for the Bride and Groom to appear … and so are we! What this story Jesus told teaches me, is that WE – that is YOU and I – have a responsibility to make sure we have a living, lively, life-giving relationship with Holy Spirit! He’s our motivation and our source. We look to Him to supply our needs.

He is always ready to be our supplier. Human beings can run out of LOVE –  because they don’t know they will need it until they need it!  However, Almighty God Himself stands ready to supply our every need. We need to ask for fresh supply of His love, His oil, daily!  Then walk with Him. Stop expecting the leaders to be your only supplier and get your own relationship with Him. The Spirit of God will help us survive the next crisis at our house! The Body of Christ cannot afford to run out of oil. So, we need to ask … and keep on asking. Then we step out in faith and do what He says! The Holy Spirit never shuts down His supply of Love and that is exactly what we need. He is with us 24/7. Bye. 👋

P 2754 A most valuable tool.

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 2752 Welcome banners for the lost.

/ DVH

I was somewhat concerned yesterday when I thought about linking something from YouTube to this page. Not because I am unhappy with the content I shared, but, because … guys …  … as Christians … we can be so religious! I am aware that if something dubious popped its head up from YouTube, that those people who do read my blog could miss the blessing in what I was sharing.

It’s a fact that there are people in this world who have evil lifestyles, that biblically speaking, put them in spiritual harm’s way. We all know that there are things that the bible clearly condemns. But, we can be so intent on getting across our disapproval of someone else’s lifestyle, we omit to pass on His LOVE to the very people Christ was sent to save. Those things are not mutually exclusive.  Love is a spiritual gift given to us by Jesus Himself, to disarm the lost and help the needy.

How can anyone know that God loves them while we are afraid of other people’s sin? We treat it like it is CoVid or something else highly contagious. Yet we are not exempt from sin ourselves, otherwise the Epistles are irrelevant and Paul was teaching and correcting people who were already perfected! Just because we are saved, that doesn’t mean we know everything. We need to be humble when we approach somebody else who has been caught in satan’s trap – and there are plenty of his traps about! Hands up those people who have never ever lost their tempers… I can’t put my hand up either. 

People, as in human beings, need to be loved. When love is in short supply, and hatred and disapproval flourish, they will find love wherever they can. Just like a thirsty man will drink filthy water. Maybe the reason we are afraid to associate with some people is because we are not walking closely with our King. Jesus wasn’t afraid of anything. because our God can deliver anyone from evil – even us! Once a man with many demons (2,000!) sat in his right mind, at Christ’s feet. Instead of ostracising or alienating people, we should be asking ourselves why the love and Presence of God is not convicting them through US – without us even having to say a word.

We have a responsibility for what is happening in this world – WE ARE HIS SALT. Sadly, I think the church has not loved others well. Instead we’ve condemned them, and made their sin more important than their spiritual well-being. There will always be some people who are given over to a reprobate mind – but God can snatch anyone from the fire. He saved me … and I had no idea what holiness looked like – I still struggle, how about you?

Almighty God IS going to snatch some people out of the fire. How? I dunno! But I think it is time we realise that Jesus touched the unclean, and made them clean because He, Himself was clean – inside and out. Plus I think it is a dumb idea as well as a poor game plan, to let FEAR rule our responses. We are running away from our first responsibility – to tell everyone that Jesus loves them – what they do about that piece of spiritual information is not up to us. And just to be clear, I am talking about living a life of love toward the people around us, as He leads us.

In the past, loving Christian families have been tormented and tortured by gossip and innuendo etc. because even though they raised their kids in the fear and the knowledge of the Lord, a member of their family has gone off into a lifestyle that the church feels we can’t approve of. So that entire family is held responsible for something that could happen to anyone. At this moment in time, the world we are living in has a tidal wave of positive reinforcement and approval toward those ungodly lifestyles. Those lifestyles come recommended by a society that loves to indulge the flesh.

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Instead of blaming families, we need to fall on our faces and repent that we have not modelled the love of Jesus clearly enough to those who were obviously searching. I know what it is like to commit yourself to something that you know is wrong – the further you walk down the wrong road the stronger your commitment to it gets, and the harder it gets to back up. People can get trapped by their choices. But our God is so much bigger than than our choices. To most people in this world, God’s love is a theory – we are the vehicles He has chosen to demonstrate that love.

It’s time for all of His children to come on home. We must hang up welcome home banners to the lost. Has any one of us been saved from our sins without God’s love reaching out to us, first?“You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Matthew 22:39. “God loved us while WE were yet sinners …” Romans 5:8 “Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”Jude 22,23.  Bye. 🙏

P 2736 Do something different.

/ DVH

2 Timothy 1:7: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” I read this recently and I realised I had not been reading this verse correctly for years!! I missed the bit at the end … “and self-discipline.” In spite of our feelings, the bible says we already have the power to discipline ourselves, we were g-i-v-e-n it the moment we said yes to Him. I strongly suspect that we all like the thought that: “God doesn’t make us timid – He gives us power and love …” bit!  ”But the self-discipline … meh! Not-so-much.

I could spend a week on this subject mainly because very few people seem to be enthusiastic about dying to self. I can count on one hand the number of people I know personally who know how to discipline themselves. Most people I know have an unusual response when they read verses like this. They expect that they would be the exception, because they have legitimate excuses. Good luck with that one! We are dealing with Almighty God – the Person Who knows everything … if that doesn’t make your knees knock together … there’s something wrong somewhere!

People say things to me like: ‘I had a terrible childhood ‘ – We have been  blessed. We do not have to get stuck back there. So forgive, move on! Or they say something like …’you are just being mean, my life is full of difficulties and I’m very vulnerable right now.’  Mature Christians learn to take the rough with the smooth because they understand they are not living for themselves anymore! Let’s remember that Jesus hung on the cross with no clothes on. That’s vulnerable!! Lastly, here’s my all time fav excuse…’It’s too ha-ard, I can’t.’  Whoever said Christianity is easy, should be smacked upside their head every day for a year! Oh my, I think I just found some of that anger I rattled on about yesterday. Moo-ving on … rapidly! Of course we will have to pray to enter into this process of change, otherwise our flesh will rise up and cry ‘uncle’ way too soon.

It is bound to hurt when we stop ourselves from doing and saying things that have become part of the fabric of our old lives. If someone else points this stuff out, it is highly likely that we will probably get snarky at them. I have no clue who said this particular saying but it sure sounds good — they said: “Along with great power comes great responsibility.” If we truly want to be over-comers we will have to seek His help to deal with the stuff in our own personal lives that can take us away from walking with Him. That will not be fun. It isn’t easy either. But it is not impossible – I just need His strength, not mine. I know I will quit far too soon and pronounce the situation untenable rather than deal with it and persevere.

The bible says that the Holy Spirit does not make us timid. And that means if we are think we are timid it’s not HIM! It’s our flesh jumping up and down demanding to be fed or kept hidden. Unless we are planning on joining the undead it’s best not to feed our flesh anything, or hide it anywhere. Just saying …!! Here’s a great tip BTW, it’s a bad plan to feed your old man sympathy and pity – that stuff will turn into self-pity in a heartbeat. Treat these things like a surgeon, cut whatever it is out, cauterise it, put a nice bandage on it and start exercising the new YOU. The more we walk in our new identity, the more it becomes who we are.

Let’s not kid ourselves, this process can feel strange, a bit like you are betraying yourself. Because we’ve spent most of our life giving in to timidity, and calling it shyness – but it is really fear, and God doesn’t give us that! He gave us power, love and a sound mind/self-discipline. I like that it says self-discipline in the Passion Translation, it makes it do-able. A sound mind just sounds like something most people already have – we hope! But self-discipline sounds like work – and it is. 

And yes, I know that Jesus told us that: “His yoke is easy, His burden is light.”  Yeah it is. After we put that yoke ON and pick up that burden. We can’t go with what we can see, because this stuff is never going to LOOK easy. Christianity involves cost. Avoidance goes entirely in the other direction and it creates chaos. That means we are not in-step with the Master. His yoke, is not only easy – it’s REAL. Being yoked together with Him means we fall into step with Him, so we go where He’s going. His strength as our Leader holds us up.

Self-discipline is not just about admitting our own faults, and kind of laughing over it like we care … but we are mostly powerless to change. It is about engaging in His processes and doing something about them. We already have the power to change. We exercise that power when we pray for His help and step out in faith. Let’s do something different! 👋

P 2726 When I get tired …

/ DVH

I have learnt to take a lack of Grace as a signpost that I am walking in the flesh again. It means I’ve been trying, all by myself – to access something that Jesus died to GIVE me. I am bound to fail, without His Grace. To start with I can get very tired of being kind to people who continually hurt me. At the same time, in my own enthusiasm, I can spend ages trying to figure out what to do … when God already has an answer.

My problem becomes something Jeremiah spoke about in Chapter 2, v 13.“Stand in shock, heavens, at what you see! Throw up your hands in disbelief—this can’t be!” God’s Decree. “My people have committed a compound sin: they’ve walked out on Me, the fountain Of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns— cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves.” I can exhaust myself trying to find answers using my own systems. At the same time, I am ignoring His powerful ever-present fountain-provision of Grace, by honouring and using my own strength instead. 

Self-effort leads to frustration with Him, myself and others. It’s incredibly easy to get angry, because I’m making all this effort and it looks like God is not helping me, and neither are you! Changing myself has limitations – my patience and human wisdom will wear out – v-e-r-y quickly! The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:9-10 “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am,and His grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”

This man understood that the way through everything that happened to him was to stay in the Grace of God. God’s Grace is our dwelling place. It is “the fountain of fresh flowing waters.”  We need to put aside our own human rationale toward others, as well as the excuses we often make for abhorrent behaviour, and instead …call SIN, sin … Then choose to forgive it or repent from doing it. This choice means that we are determined to partake of His freely flowing Grace, so we can walk through whatever is going on, without rancour or disappointment. Then we are eligible to give His Grace away to others from a position of fullness and humility – because we know WE also sin.  

Grace is Eternal. Self-effort, trying harder, making excuses, etc. wears out, quickly. Actually, I do not think we should sugar-coat any kind of sin. Sin killed Jesus. IT’S REAL. Our sin had consequences, and HE paid for them! The answer to sin is redemption, not avoidance, or working harder, or even excuses. These things are not just a difference in some sort of personal perception – this means we dare not pretend they don’t exist! Our job is to pray for Grace, Grace, and more Grace, and use our faith to walk in it. We all need to reach a saturation point when it comes to Grace. Grace needs to become normal in our lives.

We pray for the perpetrator, and also pray that we will be able to bear whatever is going on, by remaining in His Grace. Even if that other person simply will not quit behaving badly and they continue to deliberately hurt us or others. We all need His Grace to get through anything – we dare not use the try harder/make excuses for others system. So how do I get this Grace? I ask Him for it, and then I do whatever He says to me – either personally, or from His Word. God’s answers are not like our answers – because His Ways are higher than ours.

Our society today has currently adopted an ‘I can’t help it I had a hard life’ view of abhorrent behaviour. Instead of paying attention to accountability. Are we all three years old and everything is someone else’s fault? If we are old enough to sin, then we are old enough to own it. Unfortunately, we seem to have become a “now” society. Electricity on now! TV on now! And if it causes me pain, then it has to stop – NOW – because you are infringing on my rights, now! We have not learnt to suffer wrong. Jesus Himself chose that way, and Christians are meant to follow Him. Not our own personal code, or some self-help psycho-babble methodology. 

Every single human being needs His GRACE. Otherwise, blame becomes a way of life. Then my personally perceived poor activities, or heartache are the government’s fault – or my parents’ fault, or teachers, friends, or the pastor! When we think like that we are shrugging off our own responsibility. Our responsibility is to take everything to the cross and prayerfully access the Grace of God, as well as leave our sinful attitudes there. Sometimes the only way ahead is to go through our problems, to an answer. And that route may go through a desert or wilderness – where there is no water. This means we go back to the Source and ask for His Grace to bear things so we can keep on walking and following Him. 

Like the saints of old, we may suffer as we lay down the right to figure out man-made solutions – but that is nothing compared to the glory that lies ahead. We simply cannot afford to step out of GRACE. We don’t visit it occasionally, on a good day – WE LIVE THERE. Bye. 👋

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1.

P 2700 Let’s keep our eyes on forever.

/ DVH

The bible tells us to “… above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.”Proverbs 4:23. When I watch over my heart I am watching over who I am and what I produce!

Sometimes the hardest thing to watch over is our own heart. From my limited experience, other people often tread on someone else’s heart unknowingly. However, whoever started whatever has happened, if someone is offended, it means that there is something we both need to look at..Sadly, we can mistake somebody else’s motivation for evil intent, when the truth is this:… a whole lotta people are just big dummies, (like me), and they talk without thinking.

It goes without saying that forgiveness is the key that opens the door to understanding and reconciliation, but we all have people in our lives who are repeat offenders. So today I want to talk to the offended as well as the offender. Have you noticed how easy it is today to take offence? My first bit of advice to the one who is offended, is that forgiveness will require resolve, it will take self-discipline. There’s a happy thought! However, this is how we mature, and grow the fruits of self-control and patience…  by hanging on firmly to the VINE – true forgiveness is in that vine.

So we: “…set our mind on the things above.’ Colossians 3:2. Most growing points in our lives are a matter of forgiveness. The thing is, people aren’t doing whatever they did AGAIN – if we really forgave them in the first place! There may be some times when we read this bible stuff and say to ourselves, “yeah, yeah, great thought, but how do I do that?” I wish I had some snappy whizz bang methodology, that took care of our instant responses – but I don’t.

Here’s my advice for the one offended. My experience in this area of forgiveness has come down to two words – DO IT.  Don’t expect to feel good about it – just do it. Deliberately, and with great resolve, take authority over all the mean, niggly things you want to say to that offender, and ZIP IT. 🤐 When Jesus hung there silently on that cross for us. He gave us the power, by what He did, to shut up when we desperately want to put someone else in their place or comment on their behaviour.. 

Seriously, don’t give into your feelings for a minute, because you will find yourself circling the plug-hole going down for the last time! The bible says SET your mind because sort of kind of hoping the conflict will magically go away, will not work! Let me clarify this – we are changing an internal mindset in our lives, and doing that is not easy. Mindsets change when we consistently ask Him for His help,  use our faith, and keep our anger to ourselves. I say to myself: “I wanna be like Jesus and this is the Way to get there.” People who have no self-control haven’t totally realised what He gave us when He died for us. We already have forgiveness – LEARN TO SHARE. Read Romans! The more we die to self the more we gain!

Transformation takes hold when we find we can say something positive to the person who is jumping all over our last nerve. The bible says: “Bless those who curse you, do good to those who despitefully use you.”  Look, we are not talking about a walk in the park, we are talking about pressing into God until you forget what you were mad about! It IS hard! Hullo!! I say to myself at this point: “Oh there’s that thing that I am not going to remember, because it is a trap sent to distract me!”  That scripture from Colossians is not just a nice thought – it is an essential part of victorious Christian living! Why would we hand our enemy a loaded gun to shoot us? Disarm the gun.

Now to look at the offender: If something is your fault. If you opened your big mouth and hurt someone else and they tell you what you did … then don’t make excuses, and don’t give endless explanations… simply APOLOGISE. Humble yourself. You are not the judge of what hurts someone else! Actually we are not the judge of anything — read the book. Ask what you can do to make amends. People can easily forget that “I’m sorry” is not what the bible says. It says repent. Repentance involves humbling yourself and taking responsibility for what you did. Hurting someone else IS a big deal, because we don’t live by this world’s standards, now we live by His! And He clearly tells us not to make each other stumble.

Offending people is a big deal! I’ve met many people who say they are sorry, but they don’t go that one step further to usher in reconciliation. The aim of repentance is reconciliation. We need to remember that in this Christian life our hearts belong to Him. Father God takes this stuff seriously – it cost Him His life!  When people are mean to you they are being mean to His child. This means we need to pray for them!  Christ’s ministry is all about love and reconciliation, and that is our ministry now too. To live this way, it will help us to keep our eyes on forever, instead of just the here and now. Bye. 👋