Reverence

P 2530 Reverence, respect and esteem.

/ DVH

Further to what I wrote yesterday, I began to pray and think about the elder son in the parable of the prodigal son. His attitude was less than fabulous about all this restoration stuff for his brother. Maybe he was glad the young man left in the first place! It seems to me he was obsessed with works, and he was angry that his brother had not pulled his weight. He was also resentful because he had to make up the difference, while Junior wafted about doing whatever he liked. So he spat his dummy out about what happened, and his Dad copped it. He definitely found an attitude in there amongst all that co-operation!

Luke 15:25-31 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.  But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours…”

How easy it is sometimes to be the older brother! Particularly when another son is such a whimsical character.  I must say in my life I have been the prodigal, so other people being restored doesn’t actually phase me, I get delighted instead…. A-n-d …that was when the Lord said!!!  … … “Oh really??? So when someone has acted badly toward a person you love, and they choose to forgive them, you don’t get snippy about it?”  At that moment I chose to plead the 5th amendment, and I’m not even American! Yes, I repented. 

Righteo. I can see I’m both guys in that parable. Then the Lord said this: “There are THREE people in that story. What about the father, do you also identify with the father?” O-k-a-ay. On reflection, it seems I can identify with all three characters in this story Lord!  Yikes. This story is a lot more complicated than I originally thought. But as I thought more about it, I found I can also identify with the prodigal’s father, because I too have had one kid that decided it didn’t like me and they went afar off. I am quite familiar with that pain. 

That was when I realised that – knowing the pain, and identifying the sin in my own life — are two different things! Boy did I get mad at the kid that left! I’ve also wandered out to the gate, when I could bear it, and looked up the road, but in the end I nearly gave up. I had to learn we can’t stop reaching out to difficult people in our lives, just because they don’t like us. That’s simply avoiding rejection. But the bible says: Love believes all things, it hopes all things … so we now have the greater mandate — restoration. 

He is right of course, I have totally had bad thoughts, plus words out loud, toward others who seem to get away with blue murder. That’s called jealousy … if you are interested. 🙄 The prodigal in this parable was careless and dismissive of his role in other people’s lives and he did not value what he already had, and what his father generously gave him. But, alternately the older brother was obsessed with what other people were or weren’t doing, and whether what he did was being recognised. 

Meanwhile their dear father loved both of these two young men, despite their shortcomings. In my own life I have found that one person’s sin can uncover a whole lot of things that were already there in a number of people – but they were not seen. And sometimes sin provides an opportunity for revelation for everybody!  However, God’s love remains the same. He is faithful and true at all times. 

I didn’t write these last two blogs to condemn anyone, because I know personally that God’s Grace absolutely covers all our sin. Instead my thoughts each time, were centred on not taking His Grace for granted. Like the prodigal did. Or striving to earn it, like the older brother! Which ever role we qualify for, we will always need God’s Grace. However, I can rejoice that there is not one word of condemnation on either young man. Our God is so amazing – He goes straight to restoration. We need to remember that our God is a God of reconciliation and restoration. So if we want to be like Him we must learn His Ways of reconciliation and restoration! It ain’t rocket science.

We need to allow the Lord to move us past the immaturity of our past, into the same way of thinking and doing that Jesus occupied. We are now eternally, gratefully, His. ‘My Beloved is mine and I am His and His banner over me is love.’ This is to be our focus now – and if we fall on our heads, then the Holy Spirit is here to help us. If we do not reverence, esteem and remain grateful for His Grace, that lack can lead us astray. Let’s remember the Israelites, they immediately forgot what Almighty God had done for them, and went off chasing other gods. 👋

P 2494 Have you nearly dropped your bundle?

/ DVH

Well, make sure you drop that heavy darn thing in the right place!! ““Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Come to Me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis.” Matthew 11:28 TPT.

Hmmm. You know, we don’t need a ‘spa’ day, or new shoes, or some fantastic overseas trip to refresh our lives. King Jesus gives us living water, for free – anywhere, any place, any time. My best advice is to stop and take the time to drink, as well as drop off that bundle on your back. He is the place where PEACE lives. If you or I need peace, then we actually desperately need Him. Never leave home without HIM!

Jesus told us in the scripture above that He is our oasis, and He spent a lot of time outside, sometimes walking though desert places. He knew about people needing somewhere to stop and put down their burden, permanently. The Lord spoke in spiritual metaphors a lot, and I love the way He did that. This way of speaking takes intangible things and brings them into a place where we can begin to understand His truths and absorb them. It is an interesting thing to take note of the imagery presented through what He says in the stories recorded in the bible. When things are weighing us down, we need those tangible insights to help us understand spiritual things and get rid of our burdens. 

Today I would like to briefly talk about the story of Hannah and Samuel, even though it is actually in the Old Testament. Because boy did THAT lady have a burden! She shows us that the Lord deals with each one of us as individuals. Fortunately she knew where to take that thing that weighed on her! Let’s remember in those times, the gods worshipped by other nations were not personal or interested in someone’s life – those gods had to be regularly pacified. But this snippet shows us how personal our God really is – there is simply no detail of each one of our lives that He overlooks. That’s a great trait in our wonderful Burden Bearer, Jesus. 

Hannah’s huge burden was that she was barren … not to mention that there was another wife in the picture, so she had competition too!  After great suffering, loss, persecution and pain, the Lord took pity on her and He gave her a child.. And what a child – an Old Testament prophet! That little boy knew the Lord from when he was tiny. Back to Hannah, who prayed about her barrenness every time she went to the temple. I think she wanted a child to validate her role as a wife and God understood it.

Life has greatly changed from then until now – but our God has not changed – His eye is always on the one fervent, weighed-down sparrow. At one stage the High Priest thought this poor woman was drunk she prayed so deeply. (That’s a good thing to do with a burden, BTW, passionately pray over it.) The other wife in this story lorded it over Hannah because she had given their husband children and Hannah hadn’t. My best guess is those two women were not friends! Meanwhile … what man in his right mind needs TWO wives??  

Moving on … I actually think Hannah’s husband was not switched on to the feminine mindset – he didn’t understand her pain. MEN: here’s a little lesson for you – what you think is not always what she wants!! But he was trying to be sweet to Hannah. Actually, it kind of sounds like he thought the fact that he loved her more than the other wife was enough – the big self-centred dill! This teaches me that other people can try to help us with our burdens, but they don’t always understand how deeply we have been affected by them.

Incredibly, after God answered her prayers, Hannah gave that beautiful God-given little boy right back to Him, even though the child was very young. Giving that little boy she’d prayed so desperately for, and loved so very dearly, back to God, must have cost Hannah so much. But the Lord gave her five more children to comfort her and by doing that, He restored her status. It shows us that He cares about the things that we care about.

Today I want to finish with this thought, our God always has a way to comfort us, but it may not end up looking the way we think we want it too. Part of the wonder of Almighty God is the fact SomeOne so amazing even bothers with us and our little lives!  Even though He has taken great pains to become personally engaged in humanity’s affairs, yet He IS still God! Oh, the wonder of knowing that such a glorious Being cares intimately about every single details of our lives is a an opportunity for reverence, not for carelessness.  

Almighty God is the only place to take our burdens and bundles, but remember, just like Hannah – we don’t just want His advice, WE WANT, and DESPERATELY NEED HIS INPUT! Take your burdens to the burden-bearer, He cares for YOU.👋🏻

P 2380 Gentleness has been greatly underrated.

/ DVH

Today, gentleness can be sometimes seen as weakness, or even a particularly feminine quality. But Jesus said: “What blessing comes to you when gentleness LIVES in you! For you will inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5 TPT. Jesus Christ was Father God’s perfect expression of gentleness and mercy toward mankind.

Let’s look at the One Who gave us the best illustration ever of being gentle, and showing mercy under pressure, from the cross. “Then he (the thief on the cross next to Christ) said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into your kingdom.”Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” Luke 23-42-44. And there it is… mercy and gentleness without rancour, or a lecture. It just automatically flowed toward the one who needed it, despite the Giver’s pain. 

Here’s something I’ve learnt that I will pass on for free. We need to LET gentleness LIVE in us. That means we need to be aware of what it is like, and then use every single opportunity to use this particular form of Grace to cultivate it. Let’s consult the dictionary about gentleness:  kindness, tenderness, mercy, understanding, compassion, kind-heartedness, tender-heartedness, love, mildness, humility, peacefulness, serenity, reverence, and meekness.

Yeah. I put this list in today because many of these words are no longer common. We are not often likely to use them in every day language …However, I believe many of the responses we meet from other people are based in fear. People who do not know that they are God’s original creations, hold onto the images of who they think they are, very tightly. They can use anger, pride and spite to shove others away. I’ve watched gentleness in action, and it does not threaten or create fear – it lovingly and carefully opens new doors for His love to go in and then it waits. Gentleness is aware of the other person’s need to be authentic and to feel safe and unthreatened. 

The bible talks quite a bit about sowing and reaping, and I believe we need to learn to sow mercy, and gentleness into other people’s lives because there is so little of it around. We are to live that way because that’s the way Jesus was. He gave us mercy when we didn’t deserve it in the first place. He didn’t appear, all guns blazing like Rambo! But He came here in the most vulnerable disarming form ever – as a new born infant. When the Lord Jesus spoke to people His loving kindness went right around their objections and piqued their interest. This is what I have found the Holy Spirit is like in His Character. He is not rough with people. He doesn’t threaten them, He walks with human beings, gently suggesting other ways to interact and approach things. He doesn’t push or pull.

I often laugh when I see people and their dog going for a walk, because, even though the owner will say they are walking their dog, to all intents and purposes, their dog is walking them!  However, on the market there is another form of leash, it is called a gentle leader. It wraps around the dog’s muzzle instead of its throat or chest, and the dog, no matter what size it is, finds it impossible to pull with its nose. So it trots alongside the owner peacefully. Without trying to be blasphemous, AT ALL (!!), the Holy Spirit leads us like that. He doesn’t push and He doesn’t drag, He waits for us to walk together, in agreement.  

The thing is, with the kingdom of God, whatever is given to us will flourish and grow inside us … if we cherish it. His kingdom is not like this world — giving love, mercy, gentleness away to the undeserving, or a perfect stranger, actually helps those things grow inside us. In this world if you give something away, you’ve lost it – but in the kingdom of God, generous humility helps gentleness and mercy to flourish in our hearts. 

When we sow gentleness into the lives of the people who cross our path – the love of God is released to create a harvest. We do not have to be a fierce people – our war is already won. So this is how we deal with others …”Brothers, if anyone is caught in any sin, you who are spiritual [that is, you who are responsive to the guidance of the Spirit] are to restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness [not with a sense of superiority or self-righteousness], keeping a watchful eye on yourself, so that you are not tempted as well.” Galatians 6:1. 

Save your warrior face for fighting our common enemy! Not the people you meet. They may never ever deserve it, but we are releasing His Grace into their lives and that means that a little seed of gentleness or mercy is planted into a life to flourish in His timing. So Instead of a harsh word, we have a gentle one to turn away someone else’s anger. That’s what sowing gentleness and mercy looks like. It means that thoughts of revenge or punishment disappear from our thinking.

The people who give His Grace, His peace, His gentleness, His mercy away, are not just being nice, or polite, instead they have an inner barn on the inside of them that is filled to bursting with these things. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Matthew 12:34. What’s IN there will come out under pressure. That pressure is simply life from day to day, but the other person’s need will create an opportunity.

Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit, it is neither soft or girlish – it opens doors that would remain tightly closed because it does not push … it respects the other person enough to lovingly watch and wait for an opportunity. 👋🏻

P 2116 But because YOU say so, Lord.

/ DVH

There have been many times in my life when I prayed about what was going on in favour of my own convenience and I didn’t talk to Him about what He thought first. On occasion, I have actually asked the Lord to find me a carpark, please? Is my face red (?)  😡 At other times, I just wanted some bad thing that was happening to go away far more than I cared about what His thoughts on the matter were. Yikes. 😳 

The bible was not given to us simply to prove our own personal denominational POV or make our lives more comfy-cosy. It was given to us for instruction, correction, and reproof. (2 Timothy 3:16-17.) This book is supposed to train us up in the way we should go, so when we are old we won’t depart from it. So it is not just a book of bonus vouchers or add-on free benefits. We were saved and now we will live with Him forever …that is all the benefit we need. And all that is His GRACE – freely given.

The sad thing is, there is a whole generation of older folks out there that have been taught that this, the benefit bit, is exactly how they are supposed to appreciate and use His book. For us that comes under the heading of “…forget not all His benefits.” There is way more in His book than the God-given astronomically expensive benefits. What the Father gave us for free cost Him His Son’s life, and I think we all need more reverence. I exhort you to ask Him for it. Personally, I think the bible is a book about relationships – Him and us, and us and others.

Reverence is kind of an out-of-date word in our society. However, reverence is not simply tacking a ‘please and thank you’ onto the end of our prayers. Reverence is about the way we regard Him and obey Him. True reverence is a mirror into our own hearts and souls. When I looked into His mirror lately, I was shocked  … ‘how on earth did I end up thinking like that again?’ I realised I had started feeling like a terrible failure because I’ve been praying about some stuff for years and maybe that meant that my faith was not good, or I wasn’t praying right, or I had some sin I hadn’t confessed yet. I was looking for results, and not looking at the Saviour.

I realised by thinking like that I was making our God too small. The God of the bible is incredible! The thing I forgot is that I have a precious Father Who is not only bigger in His heart than my repetitive mistakes, He is also more than capable of correcting me. That means I do not have to be in charge all by myself anymore. My part in what He did for me is to love Him and others, AND obey Him, and live in forgiveness and reconciliation – not just in word, but in deed.

Today, I would like to share a personal testimony about the fact that God actually does know everything. I was a Catholic when I was much younger and Catholics use special beads to help them pray. Whatever! I threw all of mine away under the Lord’s guidance when I was first born again. I am not implying anything about anyone who uses  beads like this, I am simply repeating what happened to ME. One day when I was in my late 20’s I was reading the bible, and talking to the Lord about stuff in my life and I asked Him if there was anything He didn’t like that I was doing, or books or anything else that He didn’t want me to have.

His answer was immediate and very clear. “You still have some of those beads in one of your handbags and I asked you to get rid of them.” Well! … I got on my little high-horse and explained that: ‘I did not! I had thrown all of mine away! He insisted. I argued. In the end I took each handbag I had, and opened it up and lifted it up towards heaven … so He could see that there was nothing of the sort in any of MY bags! But He kept quietly insisting… 

As I continued to try to prove the Lord wrong, (bad move BTW! – ya think?), I felt something lumpy in one of my soft vinyl bags. Between the lining and the outside vinyl of this bag was a rosary. I had no idea how it got there, you couldn’t see it, at all, it was hidden under the lining. I didn’t even remember having it. I repented instantly and threw it in the bin. Then, the Lord said this to me: “If you WILL hear Me for correction – you will hear Me for direction.”  I learnt that day that it is essential that we learn to let the Holy Spirit counsel us with His eye upon us (Psalm 32:8) – Because we can often think we are right when we are actually extremely wrong! Maybe we’d better pay attention and learn how to listen. The Lord did not tell me about those beads until I initiated that conversation. It is up to US to keep our hearts right and it is NOT an automatic thing. We need be intentional about it.

Here’s a little snippet from the bible that is really interesting – it shows what real obedience looks like. Peter and his mates had been fishing all night when Jesus called out to them: “Have you caught any fish boys?”  They said ‘no.’ (At this point I would like to point out that these men were very experienced generational fishermen who earned their living fishing!) “Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because You say so, I will let down the nets.” Luke 5:5. It is time that we stopped explaining away what He asks us to do and simply obey Him in spite of our own personal feelings and discomfort. “Obedience is better than sacrifice.” 

ps Read the story of Abraham and Isaac and their God-initiated trip up a mountain. 👋🏻