Rest

P 3362 Grapes anyone?

/ DVH

It can be so helpful as we are learning to abide in Christ, to read what He says in a number of different versions of the bible. As I have said many times, it is not the words on the page – it is what the Holy Spirit wants to do with them, in us, as we let Him use them to touch our hearts! He wants to open the eyes of our hearts, which have become closed off and darkened by life’s difficulties, broken promises, and lost dreams we’ve had that have not reached fruition. Here is the same verse in three different versions.

John 15:1-3:“I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of Me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing He prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.”MSG.”He breaks off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and He prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will be clean and bear more fruit.” GNB. “Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.” AMP.

To be fruitful we need to be open to pruning and shaping. The Holy Spirit is the One Who knows our story from beginning to end so He’s a safe Person to do it. That’s what staying connected to and being a part of the Vine means – daily we choose to trust in His faithfulness, no matter what is going on around us. It’s not just about growing fruit, instead it is an illustration of our place in God’s plans. He does all the work, and we relax (rest!) and simply stay connected to His Spirit in us. We learn to obey Him and daily value that connection above everything else.

We don’t have a grape vine at our house. Sadly I have been put off all vine-like plants, because we bought a Wisteria. I fell in love with the beautiful flowers that hang down and smell so sweet, but … they only bloom for about ten seconds!  I didn’t read about the fact that Wisterias are a big pest that are trying, bit by bit — with their delicate little innocent tendrils — to take over the entire world! Forget aliens – at our house we have WISTERIA!

If you simply must have this gorgeous plant then my advice is that you plant it in a very large pot in the middle of a gigantic slab of concrete. AND WATCH IT VE-RY CAREFULLY. It loves to roam about when you are not looking. It needs careful pruning, because it has a mind of its own … a little like people, really. Back to the Lord’s illustration about grapevines. Grapevines produce fruit… unlike my wisteria which simply makes loads of leaves and some very pretty flowers once or twice a year.

This illustration Jesus gave us about a grapevine is not just some random word picture, it is a complex and beautiful thing that clearly explains what Christ is still doing for us in our lives. By choosing His ways over our own, we are choosing to stay attached to what He has already done for us. This will allow His love and truth to flow through us, it will correct our growth, help us to be strong and grow in the ways HE wants us to go. We will stay connected to His very life in us. 

We start ‘abiding.’ “IF you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:7.Our prayers will change, our aims will change as we let His sap influence and nourish every part of our lives. But if we become distracted and disconnected, we can become like my very beautiful wisteria, lovely to look at, but it wanders around aimlessly choking out the life of other plants. Without attachment to Him, you and I will become fruitless. However, the Master Vinedresser won’t cut us off the vine, He will prune us. Thank You Jesus for Your Grace.

Otherwise we can easily wander far away from His purposes, and end up where we shouldn’t be, because we have neglected to let His sap flow through us, and produce healthy cells that will promote His spiritual life in us. They will, of course, at the right season, produce His fruit. Nonetheless, He will still prune us! Pruning is not the same as chopping off dead lifeless branches that need to be thrown away, it is a necessary discipline that facilitates further reproduction. Like my wisteria, all those signs of life need to be channelled into producing something that is tamed and beautiful – all at the same time.

So things, people, situations in our lives, can and will change. And at the time, it seems like the end of the world … but it isn’t. It is the Lord doing what He promised He would do. Making us more fruitful. Father God is not just interested in just a couple of handfuls of nice sweet grapes, HE WANTS A HARVEST! And just like a viticulturist or vinedresser knows exactly where to cut the new growth back and prune off the branches that are going nowhere — God Himself knows where and when to remove things in our lives that are going to hinder our fruitful production. 

So when a door to something you love closes, I want to encourage everyone today to start thanking Him. The Holy Spirit is our Vine Dresser and He has our best interests in His heart. Pruning means He is active on the Vine, and we will see the benefits. I have watched the Lord take people I dearly loved and thought I really needed out of my life. And at the time there was much wailing and groaning going at my end! It was a bit like finding out our errant wisteria was merrily flourishing inside our roof and under our house! Not. Happy. Jan! 

But afterward, I saw that some people took up my time because they saw me as their source of comfort, and visa versa, I saw them that way too – not the Lord Himself. It was in everyone’s best interests for them to be taken away … so we could both learn His ways from Him. If we want others to eat His sweet juicy grapes, then we need to pay attention to the process that will foster His kind of growth. We have to learn to abide and trust Him. Bye.👋

P 3352 Holy Spirit please give me strength!

/ DVH

Our daily battles are proof that our Heavenly Father is taking us at our word. Somewhere, somehow, at some time or other, we told Him – “We want to serve You. You are our Lord and Saviour and we choose to follow You, Jesus. Nothing of me, Lord and all of You.”  Amen. Guess what? He remembered that prayer… Yeah I know, bring that up! However, let’s not get offended when He takes us at our word! 

In this life there is always a suddenly! Somebody does something unexpected and we feel lower than a snake’s belly because they just proved we were wrong. Well, maybe you don’t hate that, but I sure do!! Instead of being angry, defensive, or feeling rejected, let’s see what has happened as an opportunity to learn to do this life, His Way.

Here is some great advice from the bible: “Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.” 1 Chronicles 16:11 NIV. It is natural in unexpected moments to realise that we need His strength, but we are better off acknowledging that before we get overwhelmed by our feelings. I know we need His strength to overcome temptation and sin, but we can easily forget how badly and how often we need His strength, minute by minute, from day to day just to deal with ordinary things … not just when the ceiling falls in. Let’s depend on His strength, and run to Him first! 

Sometimes there can be a big catastrophic event … you get a waterfall in your bedroom, and you can’t take delivery of your nice new helpful bed because the roof is still leaking and you don’t want to mix electricity with water, and become a pop-tart! … BUT, some days a disaster consists of the cat deciding to do it’s business in a random corner;  plus a kid can’t find its very important project, and it’s weeping and wailing all over the place! And now you seem to have less money in your wallet than you thought you did. In those moments of extreme irritation and angst, his mother calls to see how you both are!

We need His strength all the time, every single day, because we don’t know what comes next. The following is one of my favourite prayers: “Help, help Lord, I need Your strength.” Sometimes it doesn’t quite come out like that, but He knows what I mean. I can’t count how many times I call upon the Lord’s strength, especially now I have grown older. I feel feeble a lot!

The Holy Spirit says His strength is made perfect in our weakness, and He gave us every right to call on that strength. Here’s a secret I’ve learnt:  don’t start out in your own strength, ask for His strength when your feet first hit the floor. Why would we wait to ask for His help, when we know we can be easily distracted by circumstances. His strength is right there with us, why exhaust our own strength first?! This life has proven to you and I that our own strength is limited – start out poor!  Remember the bible says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit because they will inherit the kingdom of God…” well, that’s kind of what it says in Matthew 5:3. That’s a promise for today not when you are dead. Start and finish poor, it’s one of His ways into kingdom living.

Let’s look at our verse from 2 Corinthians 12:8-10: “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

First of all, I want to say that it helps me to find that the Apostle Paul had a weakness, or three — and he wasn’t ashamed to admit it. Our decision is simple, do we want God’s perfect strength or our own? His strength comes with the understanding that we can’t do it on our own. Our effort comes with a pile of control, agitation, worry, and — don’t forget how anybody can get angry — especially when the other person is not on the same journey we are. How many times have we all said:“I did all I could!” Yeah, we probably did, but we forgot we have heavenly resources now. My best is pitiful, His best means REST.

This is how you get into rest. You give it all to Him and give up striving to do something you clearly can’t do, or even maintain. God has already provided a way, and that way includes Him helping us to reach the goal. Jesus sent us back SomeOne to be with us Who has the Name  – HELPER. The Lord died to give us a brand new way to live, He doesn’t want us killing ourselves trying to be something we are not in order to please Him. It pleases and blesses the Lord when we learn to lean on Him, then we step out in faith as He leads us. We will stay humble and He gets the glory … win win. 

Back to Paul and my last point – God’s Grace is sufficient for me. Sufficient means we always have enough. We have enough for anyone who might be temporarily driving us crazy. We have enough for the kitchen sink tap that won’t stop dripping. We have enough for the kid who seems to perpetually have a cold and is always sniffing! We have enough! God says so. So we pray, ‘Holy Spirit, please give me strength’ and we do what He says – and then we end up with a testimony about what the Lord did. It’s a no brainer. Bye. 👋

P3333 There’s great value in resting.

/ DVH

We’ve been actively resting in the past four days. After the intense chaos of making many deliveries and having lots of positive interactions;  by God’s grace we found a quiet spot on a farm stay, and we’ve done nothing – apart from eat and sleep. We needed it. Neither of us are 23 anymore! There is one thing I’ve noticed about God’s kind of resting, the more you do it, the more you want to — plus you start to feel better.

Resting from our labours here, BTW, consists of me falling asleep several times during the day, as well as sleeping for 7 or 8 hours per night. Hubby nods off regularly and then quietly snores, and then … he wakes himself up with the snuffly noise. It really is better that he wakes himself up – the alternative is that I whack him on the arm and say “Honey you’re snoring again.” OK! You got me, I don’t whack him alright? But-I-do-sometimes-think-about-it!

Rest is something the bible tells us that we are to enter into. In other words, it’s a place where you leave everything else outside the door, take the Lord’s hand, and just be content with the fact that He is in charge. It is God’s gift to us, and He made it clear that rest is available any time, any place. It means that everything else fades into the background. When we are away on a trip, we even like to cut down on extraneous noise from the TV and stuff, and just sit. Sometimes we don’t even talk, or pray. We just let the quietness sink in. At the same time we do restful fun things — hubby trots about taking brilliant photos and I get to see them.

Resting in the Lord, can get even deeper… it’s in the scripture. It’s a place where we leave the results and the work to God Himself. In my opinion this is one of the most challenging ways to use our faith. It’s not the Lord’s fault, it is just that we have spent our lives doing the next thing and the next, and then suddenly we realise we have stumbled back into trying harder and harder. Pushing ourselves to make things work. Meanwhile other people start to give you the pip, because you are tired of wrangling and managing stuff, and nothing is simple anymore. 

God’s rest is the place where you don’t have to make things happen. Here’s my point today — this kind of rest is part of our birthright. The secret is to live in the hustle and bustle of this life without constantly engaging our emotions and our minds. Step back into the Lord and breathe, and defer to His wisdom, simply because we love to walk with Him, even in ordinary things.

I can almost hear a mother somewhere yelling at me: “If I don’t make my kids get out of bed and go to school they won’t do it. They won’t do their homework either!” I really dislike those happy happy pictures of tidy little smiley kids smartly marching out of the door, dressed properly. It’s a wonder they don’t have sunbeams coming out of their ears! In most homes this time of the day is a bun fight – making sure this kid has this, and that kid has it’s socks on, plus leave the house yourself! This is not the kind of rest the Lord is talking about in the bible, His rest is internal. Your kids may not want to go to school, etc., but you can still be at rest in Him. He’s ultimately in charge of your well-being, and theirs. It’s the place to say: “HELP, LORD!”

You can choose to be upset with them, or cry out for His Grace and patience for those moments. We don’t have to lose our cool because the little darlings won’t co-operate. Often we willingly give up our internal rest and peace, because we are deceived into hoping and thinking, that worrying or shouting will work … because nothing else seems to! However, God’s idea of rest is stepping back momentarily and leaning on Him. When, and if you can – remember, humour helps. He organised a couple of million grumpy Jews to get up every morning to a ready-made breakfast … your kids are a piece of cake!

His rest inside of us flows out of us as His peace toward other people. Deal with you, and then deal with them. The whole gotta be, gotta do, gotta go, gotta get it right thing – falls away as we focus on His bigger picture. He’s God and He won’t let us down no matter how it looks, simply because He is so-o-o faithful. I call this stuff my faith work out. It’s the place where all the worst cases scenarios smack you in the head and you can’t think clearly anymore because your mind is filled with scenes and thoughts of “what if.” There are no “what ifs” in God’s rest – there is only the bigness of Who He is. 

We enter that rest by focussing on Him and deliberately choosing to momentarily lay everything else at His feet. I think this kind of incredible stillness was inside the Holy of Holies in the Temple. Any other noise stayed outside. So did agendas. You can be present with the Lord and still do the things that need to be done. It’s good to remember YOU and I are now the Holy of Holies. Father God produces the kind of quiet comfort that releases an atmosphere of safety. Nothing bad can happen in His Presence, He’s just too awesome. 

As we learn to cultivate the Holy Spirit’s Presence by living our lives His Way – we will find our confidence in Him grows. Jesus lived like this. He lived in God’s grace and assurance that He was at the right place at the right time — doing what His Father wanted Him to do. Jesus’ confidence in His Father’s Will allowed the people around Him to experience God’s loving kindness easily. This rest means we cease from our labours and lean on Him and there’s great value in it. Bye. 👋

P 3322  What’s so important about obedience? 

/ DVH

“For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey Me, and I will be your God and you will be My people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.” Jeremiah 7:21-23.

“Why are you so polite with Me, always saying ‘Yes, sir,’ and ‘That’s right, sir,’ but never doing a thing I tell you? These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on.” (Jesus is speaking.) Luke 6:46.

Without obedience, our foundation in the Lord can be a bit wonky. He will never let go of us, but if we ignore Him and don’t obey Him, we are letting go of our relationship with Jesus. It really does matter if the Lord tells you to go and fix things with this or that person. Obedience is not just witnessing about Him, it is the every day practical submission we carry out as we deliberately obey His Words. The Lord Jesus loves us so much — He doesn’t want us to carry those things around inside us. That’s a burden that needs to be thrown down at the foot of the cross. He carried it for us, so we don’t have to.

When it comes to forgiveness there are no exceptions.  God tells us these things for our own good, not because He is a control freak. Why would we choose to walk around in satan’s backyard when God has already picked out His pathway for us to walk on? Unforgiveness nails one foot to the floor, and then we go round and round talking about it – trying to figure out what to do next about that person. Ruminating over imaginary conversations that never work out IRL. Instead, go and ask for the Lord and your abuser’s forgiveness for ‘not loving your enemy and not doing them good.’ It’s probably best not to use those exact words BTW. Remember – healing often needs time – and forgiveness sets me free. 

God’s plan for us is a plan for our good, it includes righteousness, peace, love and JOY, as we walk with the Holy Spirit. He has plans to give us a hope and a future. We can short-circuit His processes when we choose not to obey Him, and our foundations will rock and creak. That’s because they are not fixed on what Christ already did. Jesus did what He did so we can have the freedom and grace to forgive others and live free from all kinds of angst and fear.

Forgiveness is not about giving permission for someone to keep tormenting you. Instead it teaches us to speak one of Almighty God’s languages. Some things work so much better when they are a fixed part of our lives, and obedience and forgiveness are two of them. Jesus forgave us. He didn’t just forgive the men who killed Him – those words from the cross have echoed down the centuries and provided access for us here and now. Forgiveness is a lifestyle choice not an optional extra. 

When we live in unforgiveness, we are rebelling against the very thing that the Lord came here to do for US. Living like that will expose us to self-deception. His blood is our permanent refuge, so put the past under His blood. I don’t care what the person who is still hurting you did. You need to be free of it.  Freedom doesn’t always come when the other person acknowledges their sin – it comes when we choose to put our focus on Him. If you don’t put those carelessly repeated actions down and walk away it will strangle your own faith.

You don’t have to like people to forgive them. And the bible doesn’t say “feel like it” – it just says do it! Remember love is a choice not a feeling. We put our hearts into compromising positions when we harbour unforgiveness. Please remember there are often a lot of things we don’t know about that other person that could be causing them to behave the way they do. Plus I have noticed that when two people collide, one of the best ways of finding resolution is for one of them to change the way they respond to any oppositional stimulus. Be that person – the peace-maker.

I have forgiven a number of people a great deal of manipulation, hurt and vicious behaviour, some of which was deliberately malicious and some of it was unwitting. Some have even insisted that I vindicate their behaviour … but I declined, because their behaviour is not my responsibility. I refuse to take somebody else’s response into account, or let it influence my own actions, as I continue to move forward toward Him. 

If I need protection from an aggressor then the Lord will tell me to avoid them. He has told me to “leave now,” when I was in danger of being hurt again. At the same time, I’ve learnt some things can’t be easily resolved. They need REST, not instant RESOLUTION. Forgive, and then let Jesus do what only He can do. At the same time resist the temptation to hold a grudge. If it comes up again then I forgive again, and give it to back to Him again. We forgive others because God says so. We do it because He told us to do it. It becomes so much easier to do the things He asks of us, when we choose to obey Him. That’s why forgiveness is foundational in its importance. Bye👋

P 3319 Human beings are so fickle!

/ DVH

I was reading Psalm 74 yesterday. Some of the Psalms are almost a litany of complaints against the Lord, which seemed to be the Israelites’ automatic response to a lot of their immediate situations. Meanwhile I was captured by the attitude of the writers. These complaining attitudes also exist in Psalm 44, (74), 79, 80, 83 – and finally Psalm 89. That attitude is there throughout practically every book of the Old Testament. It led to tension and practically no trust! It seems to me that we often have no real knowledge of Who we are dealing with….

Almighty God Himself put the Israelite people where they were – He even gave them someone else’s land. (Read Abraham’s story) Meanwhile, He’s Almighty GOD so He can do that — after all He OWNS the earth!! … Just saying is all. Yesterday hubby gave a lovely aboriginal lady one of our coffee books, and she was talking about what she believes. The Lord asked me to write something at the beginning of the book we gave her. What He said to write really impressed me: “This is the great Southland of the Holy Spirit.” It’s always good to remember we own nothing. Ownership is an illusion.

Back to the Israelites, they wanted an easy road. Don’t we all? We try to figure out God’s ways and get all excited because we think we have worked out a way to get Him to do – this and that … And if we just do this — (pray lots, pray the right prayers, hold up the bible and remind Him of what He said in it, read the bible all the time, or join a worship group/intercessors group) — then He will do that. And we collect facts to back that idea up! Rots of ruck on that thought.

If we read the bits we don’t like much, we can discount that theory. The Israelite people saw Almighty God as SomeOne Who was in their lives to fix things. Like the temple;  or their enemies;  or this or that captivity;  or their unhappy lives;  or even their lack of fine cuisine! They seem to have no clue that God is G.O.D… unfortunately that also meant they had no real ongoing fear of the Lord! Eventually they made a huge list of rules to keep God happy and hoped that would do.

Father God is not a sugar-daddy, or our own personal assistant, or even Father Christmas! He is the Almighty all-knowing, ever-present, everlasting Father of us all and He owes us nothing! We are here to learn that we owe Him everything – including every single bit of our loyalty! It seems to me that this attitude of privilege is not just restricted to our current generations, it’s been an ongoing attitude, off and on, inside and outside the church for thousands of years.  

Bad things have been egregiously attributed to His Character. Like calling disasters “an act of God!” with absolutely no regard to our personal contributions to our own fate! The Lord has given us FREE WILL, and we often respond to Him like we would to the wrong order supplied by McDonald’s! “Lord, why haven’t You fixed this and that in my life? Don’t You care for me anymore?” … OR … my personal UN-favourite …”Isn’t my life hard enough?” What a whiny group of spoilt fuss-pots human beings can be! We throw blame around like confetti, nattily avoiding responsibility

It’s a testimony to the Lord’s great Grace that He doesn’t drown us all, like He drowned everybody but Noah and his family.  Now there’s a cautionary tale we seem to want to forget! But God made a promise and HE doesn’t break His promises. His promises REST on WHO HE IS not how He feels. Seven people followed Noah onto that ark… before the flood came. They did more than just receive the Word of the Lord, they acted on it.  I wonder what can He do with our undivided affection, attention, trust, obedience and loyalty?

Let’s not underestimate the value of our own faith. Somebody else may be watching you, while you are following HIM. Sadly, we can often be fickle and whimsical in our devotion to Jesus, turning it on and off like a tap. However, He is always there for us. Let’s remember that Almighty God has forever on His mind. Bye 👋.

P 3311 Just enjoy the ride.

/ DVH

So many times we can be so caught up in ticking our daily boxes of things to do, we can easily forget that none of us get out of this life, alive! My advice for today is this: take the time each day to allow yourself to enjoy the ride. Taking pleasure in each day is the secret of true ongoing acceptance and happiness. It is much too easy to postpone JOY ‘until things get better.’ Don’t let disappointment jump on you and stay!

We can use up our allotted time here on earth, on things that won’t last, and those things can steal away the truly important things. Years ago, there was a saying: ‘Take time to smell the roses.’ Good advice! Unfortunately, today most people feel they don’t have time to grow roses … let alone smell them! We can spend so much time, planning this, and organising that, we can forget to live in the moment. But sometimes His JOY comes in brief moments that help to perfume our whole lifestyle. 

I just heard a story about two black holes which collided outside our universe, billions of trillions of light years away. There were two astrophysicists monitoring the night sky – night after dreary night – and they were tired of looking at nothing much. So one turned to the other and said: “I’m tired, let’s just go home early.” 40 minutes later, the gravitational pressure waves of those two black holes merging eons ago, washed across the earth! This phenomena had never been noted before. But that night it showed up, and registered on their many dials and gizmos. History happened and these men had gone home to bed. I laughed and laughed and laughed.Missed it by ←  that much → Things like this help me enjoy the ride. The two men laughed at themselves too.

If I have one piece of advice to anybody reading this – ya just gotta learn to laugh at yourself! Some of this stuff isn’t worthy of the angst you are spending on it! Make cherished moments just for YOU!  I truly enjoy the bible — it has lovely interesting, expressive words and phrases … a-n-d puzzles. I do love a good puzzle, and the bible is the best puzzle of all! Big confession! I’m a cheater, so I ask the Author loads of questions and He helps me. The more I read, the more I become delighted. Our Father’s Personhood comes out, particularly in the Old Testament. I enjoy this ride every day. At the same time we are so blessed to be able to know the Lord Jesus, He is there — on page after page, in the Gospels. “Jesus is God’s story!” Don’t treat reading it as info – see the Person.

Our Heavenly Father loves to hide things in plain sight. That to me is a big part of the enjoyment I get on this ride we call life. It’s the feeling that He isn’t half as serious about the things that turn our hair grey, as we are! Cyclone Alfred hit us last February, and we are still working on getting our bedroom fixed. So far we’ve moved out of our room 4 or 5 times – we actually lost count. All the furniture – in and out! At the same time, we’ve had people come to fix this, and remove that, and as a consequence — we have had the opportunity to meet people we would never have met who don’t share our faith. 

Enjoying the ride is a skill we can cultivate. It is like living with silence – it is incredibly valuable! I slowly picked things like this up, right after my last child went off to school, when I found I could think in proper English again! 10 years of babies, toddlers etc blew my brain. Sadly I got sick somewhere in there, and then I stopped enjoying the ride, for quite a while. So the Lord had to teach me step by step, how to see the good in things. Living this way helps me focus, despite what is going on round me. Despair bangs on my door too! But looking for Jesus has made it easier to see His pearls amongst the dark grey gravel of life!  

In Galatians 5: 17,18a it tells us why we need to look for the good. “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other …” The still-being-redeemed part of me can fight against what God wants to give me.That’s why I need to put to death the deeds of the flesh … because I can’t see the good until I change my focus. For me sometimes coping with life, is like turning trouble upside down … to find out what’s good about it! I’m going to shake that joyful sucker out of there somehow!!

One of my best blessings is my dear hubby who has the silliest sense of humour. Somehow I find his peculiar Dad-humour absolutely hilarious!! ‘A cheerful heart truly is the best medicine!’ And I appreciate the Lord’s joy through him. I have checked this out personally, and I can tell you —-‘the joy of the Lord really can be our strength’ … a couple of minutes of laughter will lift anyone’s mood.

“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. The yoke we need to fight against is the idea that this life should be perfect. This verse tells us that God has already given us freedom, so we don’t have to be slaves labouring away to maintain something we already have! That’s like praying for more air in the middle of a forest. I think many man-made yokes rob people of enjoying the ride in their lives. 

Our participation in this life, is that we get to give our burdens to Him. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Matthew 11:28,29. WE ARE WEARING THE WRONG YOKE. Jesus has a better one.  Let’s allow ourselves to enjoy the ride. Bye 👋

P 3263 God’s Will is challenging.

/ DVH

Jeremiah 1:7-10 “God told me, “Don’t say, ‘I’m only a boy.’ I’ll tell you where to go and you’ll go there. I’ll tell you what to say and you’ll say it. Don’t be afraid of a soul. I’ll be right there, looking after you.” God’s Decree. God reached out, touched my mouth, and said, “Look! I’ve just put My words in your mouth—hand-delivered! See what I’ve done? I’ve given you a job to do among nations and governments—a red-letter day! Your job is to pull up and tear down, take apart and demolish, And then start over, building and planting.”

Did you notice that right after the Lord tells Jeremiah, He will be with Him, the Lord tells the man what He wants him to do? Guidance from the Lord is our birthright, but it won’t always be a picnic in the park. It is almost certain to be guaranteed to look bigger than we are!  In Psalms 37:23&24 it says. “The steps of good men are directed by the Lord. He delights in each step they take. If they fall, it isn’t fatal, for the Lord holds them with His hand.” Don’t you just love that? We can’t even fall over when we are His, because He promised to lift us up with His own hands!

Let’s look at a New Testament truth, one of the last things Jesus said to His disciples: “He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:15&16.This task was far bigger than they were! Until the Holy Spirit came, they men hid away from this world, because they had lost their Teacher. But if the Lord always asked us to do things we can do, where would faith come in? We wouldn’t need it. Sometimes the first thing the Holy Spirit teaches us is that we can’t do anything without Him! No matter how clever we are – we don’t always know how to get out of our own way. 

Our daily struggle isn’t about whether we should rob a bank or shoot someone, it is about an individual’s right to have a ‘say’ over their own lives. But the mutinous thoughts tip our hearts away from God. For example, most people I speak to, haven’t got a clue how their behaviour affects other people — they are too self-involved. That’s not smart, BTW, it’s DUMB. Sadly, because of this, there are times it appears as if these people don’t care. We need to remember that other people don’t have our comprehension or our yardsticks. They have their own. If we remain humble maybe we can learn from them. Submitting to God has such a positive side to it. 

Jesus has faith for us to be bigger than our unknown limitations. He said in Matthew 5:14: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.” A Christian’s life is built on a hill! Our lives have been built by God on Calvary’s HILL!  We cannot be hidden unless we choose to be hidden. The first active step into God’s guidance in our lives is this: “…choose this day Who you will serve.” There is no point in going anywhere or doing anything, until we’ve made that choice. Otherwise we can be taken out by the enemy because we are still standing on his ground. We must choose — are we all in — or not? That’s what dying to self looks like.

The bible encourages us to follow Jesus step-by-step into a daily process, a series of moment by moment choices. Our part is to continually choose life. His life in us. So we pick up all those other things, ambitions, dreams, hopes etc. and go to the cross and leave everything there. What stays uppermost in our minds, heart, and spirit is this; now I live for Jesus’ sake, and for Him to live in me, I have to be dead! See Galatians 2:20:

“What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with Him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.”

My point today is this, because of what Jesus did for us, we are ALL sent ones. Whether we have an official title or not. Jeremiah, God’s handpicked prophet, struggled with it, and it has often made me think. We can try so hard to get out of what the Lord wanted us to do, and not like where He wants to send us. We ask ourselves, is that fair? No! Not by this world’s standards! But God doesn’t operate by this world’s standards – He has His own. And they are good, righteous, and give glory to the only One Who can bear it. We are called to be a light, and He trusts us to get on with it. He has so much faith in His kids!

These holy things that form His Character in us will not to be obtained by searching or pleading.  Because Jesus took care of everything. Father God isn’t begging people to follow His Ways — He’s a good, good Father, Who knows the Way we should go. And that’s where our trust needs to rest. Let’s choose to remember that, when we live a life dead to self, we are entering into living by His Grace. We will never be alone in our quest to follow Jesus, because we have the Holy Spirit, our Helper Who also has our good in His heart. Plus we have His book to refer to. Every time we say ‘yes’ to His way instead of our own, we are letting the Spirit of God loose in other people’s lives.

God’s will is meant to challenge us. It’s supposed too! It’s the reason we take our little lives, and invest them in His Kingdom, so we can beam His light into the darkness. Bye. 

P 3259 Family business.

/ DVH

I honestly think that some of the hardest things to wrangle are the things that are happen inside our families.  Those things seem to press right up against your chest, like they are trying to smother you and stop you from breathing. The bible acknowledges this kind of pain. These are the places where our faith can be severely tried and tested. On the plus side, they are also the place where massive growth occurs. 

Psalm 27:10 NLT:“Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD will hold me close.” Jeremiah 12:6 NIV: “Your relatives, members of your own family—even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.” 

It is not good to get stuck by other people’s sins. Instead we need the Lord’s help to focus on the solution! Let’s turn Psalm 27 around. ‘The Lord will hold me close, even if my father and mother abandon me.’  Father God wants to help us into a bigger place where HIS LOVE REIGNS, so we can love those who despitefully use us. Love is not about feelings, it is about our choices.

However, the people we love deeply, are also the people who can hurt us the most. Sometimes our families can use fear, anger, intimidation, neglect and threats of harm, as well as threats of expulsion and rejection, to try to control our adult decisions. It is better in these times not to focus on what is coming at you, instead focus on how much the Lord loves you. Plus His assurance that HE will not abandon you.

It is a basic human need to feel loved and appreciated. Even tiny little babies can die when they do not experience nurturing and love. Emotional abandonment is a terrible thing. But it is good to remember, even with all this going on – you are a sinner too. It is never good to focus on “them” and “us.” We are not victims – we have our Saviour to guide us. But breaking away from family demands can be difficult. These are the people who taught you from when you were a baby. Whether they were neglectful, smothering or abusive does not matter – the love one feels for someone this close, is much more than superficial.

I believe this kind of love is based on human need. So, Jesus Christ is our ONLY Answer. He is fully God and man, and He lives to love and pray for each one of us. Read what He said in the bible, as if He were there with you talking TO you! And remember, Jesus’ family didn’t always understand HIM either! In reality we cannot expect the people who broke us, to fix us!

There can be a tremendous sense of betrayal when you struggle with your family. But I don’t want to comment on other people’s sin, otherwise that becomes the centre of our focus. Trust me, the only Person worthy of every single bit of our focus is Jesus. He cannot, and He will not ever abandon us or punish us like other human beings will. Instead He took our punishment for us. That means, He volunteered to be abandoned, misjudged, rejected, and punished, both physically, emotionally, and mentally. He was utterly despised for our sake.

In any times of family rejection, I want to encourage you to continually go back to the well of righteousness the Lord died to provide for us – and drink from it. Being righteous in His eyes is not the same as being right according to this world’s standard. Our righteousness with God has been given to us. In this world, human righteousness is earned by behaviour. 

It is best to activate your faith, and turn whatever the bible says into action. It looks like this: when a family member is treating you badly, pray and ask for the Lord’s help. Then make a firm choice to forgive them, and then, give that burden to Him. Deliberately put your thoughts about that family member, aside. When memories pop up, allow yourself to grieve, but don’t stay there. Give everything back to Him again, and choose to trust Him to fix it. Now you need to REST in the fact that He has heard you, and we are ‘persuaded that He is able to keep those things/people you have entrusted into His care.’

Put hurtful people down at the foot of the cross – it is our symbol of redemption. Leave them with Him! All the worry, tears, and anguish in this world can’t make someone else understand you, or love you, or give you what you need. However! Our God can do anything but fail! The secret is to keep walking with Him. Don’t look back, just trust Him to take care of all of it.

At the same time, limit set what you choose to do around these people. Don’t cut them out of your life, unless your life is in physical danger, but do set limits. Ask the Lord to help you with it. Finally, please don’t let bitterness or spite get hold of you, because that stuff will muddy His living water, and you will get lost in the mud! 

Let your glorious Redeemer, redeem your old life. Losing your earthly family because of your spiritual beliefs in Jesus is a terrible thing – however, Jesus will help you to survive – and eventually thrive. Praise Him! Bye. 😢

P 3250 Stay poor in Spirit.

/ DVH

“Strong to overcome. From Prayers on Fire, written by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez.                                                     “Every trial is a divine opportunity for our character to grow. It’s a chance for us to discover how truly faithful Jesus is and how strong we are when we’re fastened to His love. When our faith is tested and fear looms in the shadows, we can reach for the Light and He will come.

Trials are a launching pad for our glorious transformation. Though the enemy creates them to take us out, Jesus shakes things up and turns things around. Ironically, trials become things we can be thankful for. If it weren’t for them, we’d never know how faithful He is. If our love was never tested, we’d never truly know how devoted to Jesus we are. To discover His power, there must first be a need for it. To relish the joy of laughing in the face of adversity, there must be an enemy to laugh at.”

“Jesus, teach me to fight my battles from the posture of confident trust and perfect peace. Help me to remember that the safest place to be is in the warmth of Your glory, where the flames of praise are ignited by Your nearness. Your love casts out every fear and fills me with confidence.” Amen.

My thoughts: some Christians have such beautiful insights it blows my mind. I don’t often read this particular site, but hubby receives regular input from “Encounter God” The Passion Translation. As you know, I’m not big on including things, but this particular piece really challenged and spoke to me personally. Boy there is nothing like the truth to sort out your motivation. In this case my trials can show me how faithful Jesus is. 

Sometimes difficult things continue for a while. Unfortunately, they don’t just disappear on command! Aligning our hearts is one thing, steadfastness under pressure is entirely another.  And we never know which way anything is going to go, so we must be prepared to hold fast under pressure. That takes practice. I must say, I am learning that the Lord is not only stretching our faith to grow our faith, He is also revealing His goodness to us through the tough times. He knows better than we do, how far we can go. That’s called trust. 

The following scripture tells me who Jesus is —it comforts me better than someone else’s words can … Isaiah 42:2-4a “He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow weak or discouraged before He has established His justice on the earth….”

Instant comfort! Our part is to believe what He says and hold onto it, by reminding ourselves that He’s good and He’s looking after us. Then we deliberately give the whole situation to Him, and only do whatever He tells us to do. The we leave it with Him. Don’t try to figure out an answer or oppress or berate yourself for being human and hurting, instead allow yourself to rest in Him. He already won that battle you are fighting! Learn to rest.

Matthew 11:28-30 says: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  We are bathed in His comfort, as we read and believe His book. The Old Testament or the New Testament – it doesn’t matter! If we actively listen to what the bible is saying, and act on it, treating the scripture as instructions, we will begin to learn His Ways.

So first step – we need His Rest. Our own rest can be kind of seasonal, it comes and goes with whatever is currently going on. Taking up HIS yoke means we are choosing to learn how to respond, from Him, our Personal Counsellor. We don’t ignore trials, we face them leaning on His understanding and we follow what Jesus said or did. We can do this without fear because of Who He is and What He has already done for us. I put what I think aside. This is not the time to figure out someone else’s POV, it is the time to let go. Our ways are complicated, His are EASY.  So, if it is complicated it is not His Way! If what is happening is heavy and it is burdening me, I haven’t entered into His rest yet.

I only do whatever He tells me to do – if He says fight, I fight. If He says rest, I rest. We are not fighting against other people! Our warfare is against principalities and powers and Jesus already beat them. He has a plan for you and I to get through things. So I pick up my frayed feelings and mentally walk away, and continue to thank Him for helping me. His desire is to reshape my thinking so I trust Him more. I love the line in the “Encounter God” inclusion that says: ‘To discover His power, there must first be a need for it.’  It’s OK to be needy! 

Our God always cares about the needy no matter what the need is! My best advice comes from the Beatitudes:“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3. I am learning to stay poor in Spirit!  And I refuse to be satisfied with the things I think I know — otherwise I know I will stop moving. I just keep going back and back to Him. There are people who fall over and can’t get up again, because their ‘system’ isn’t working anymore. I don’t have a system, I just rely on Him! 

Many of us have gone from trusting Him, into trusting what we’ve learnt about Him – we’ve stopped being poor in spirit and became satisfied. And yes, there IS actually a difference. Bye. 👋