reward

P 3163 Mercy

/ DVH

Mercy seems to me to be the least appreciated spiritual gift! “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us… …if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. “ Romans 12:6a&8b. It seems to me that everybody wants to be the resident prophet or a leader! And encouragement, giving or serving, come a bit further down that list of desired gifts. In spite of those attitudes – mercy seems to be the last one.  Um when is the last time you heard or read a sermon preached about mercy? This world would be so much better off if we learnt to embrace God’s mercy for ourselves and others! Mercy has been given to the body of Christ for everyone’s benefit just like leadership or generosity.

All those gifts that are mentioned in Romans 12 depend on the measure of faith we’ve have been given by God, but it seems, strangely (!), some things seem to stand out more. I wish I could say I have found a reason why mercy seems to be an overlooked body ministry … but I can’t.  It seems that many Christians want to aim at  leadership or prophetic gifts. Meanwhile I’m pretty sure encouragement flew out of the window years ago. I know about 3 people who flourish in this gift, and one of them is my husband! Encouragement is a transformative gift, the person who encourages others sounds like our wonderful heavenly Coach – the Holy Spirit. And He is always right here, cheering us on.

Has anybody else noticed that each of these gifts are traits of Almighty God’s Character? I mean, how exciting is that? Operating in all or any of them means we will be daily walking in His shoes. So we get to do what He does for US and others. We simply pass on what He gives us, to other people. Meanwhile, maybe mercy seems to be an old-fashioned concept? So let’s look closely at it, because I have this funny feeling we cannot afford to miss out on this gift — bearing in mind what Paul himself said about gifts. He said some body parts don’t seem to beall that special! I think that mercy is incredibly important – it is not just a whole lot of sweet loving old ladies up the back at church knitting socks for the poor!

Here’s a couple of verses to think on: Matthew 5:7: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” In the Message bible it says: “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.” Then there is: Luke 6:36: “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.” See! Here’s a huge bonus! We get to be like Him when we walk in mercy! Last one – Lamentations  3:22-24. MSG: “God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, His merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great Your faithfulness! I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left.” 

Hah! MERCY IS A GOD-QUALITY! It’s revealed in His enormous daily generosity toward us. He makes sure we have new mercy every morning. I like that. I need new mercy!! I can run out of His qualities even quicker than I run out of toilet paper and toothpaste! I have found that our Heavenly Father hides important truths in quite ordinary places – you have to look to find them. This is why we ask questions, and why “we study hard to show ourselves workmen that are approved by Him.’ It’s not for a pass or fail mark. It’s so we can know Who He is and the riches of His glory that He has already given to us – in the church.

The Lord Jesus’ life was anchored into His Father’s Will and Character. We are to be like that too, simply because we are daily given the opportunity to get to know the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. All three of Them anchor us into the Kingdom of God and His kingdom  is realer than anything else. Because of Their ministry to me, I am learning to think in  ‘scripture’ instead of regurgitating rubbish from TV or man-made concepts.

Meanwhile, like I said before – our God loves to hide things! Half the fun of reading the bible is chasing around going after ‘what He wants to teach me today.’ Our spiritual eyes pop open and we go:”Aha! Now, I get it!” One of God’s Ways is to ‘Sneaky Pete’ things in His book. Translation —- He hides the good stuff in plain sight – but when you ask Him He will give it to you. So this means we are going to need to be diligent to find out what He wants from us – after all we are exhorted to: ‘not grow weary and never give up because eventually we will reap the reward.’

In the Gospels there was a widow lady who badgered a judge into submission, and at another time some guy got bread outside of shopping hours – all that happened because they wouldn’t quit. I’ve learnt to insist. I have found the Lord rarely puts a sign on the stuff that He says or does, He expects us to notice it, to be alert and present with Him. A whole lotta people miss a whole lotta blessings because they aren’t paying attention … just saying is all!

Let’s be clear, mercy is a Way God uses to reveal Himself. He doesn’t have to scrounge around to try to find a good attitude. Every single morning He simply hits the refresh button and mercy is there for each one of us. Feel free to cheer! It’s always the same consistent mercy, on a different day. Mercy is something we can’t earn or deserve, just like our salvation. We have His mercy every day, because it is backed up by His faithfulness. Plus it’s demonstrated wonderfully by Jesus Himself in the bible!

This is stuff we stand on. If I need mercy I know I am going to get it, because it isn’t like a new house, which benefits ME, mercy is something of HIM that will benefit everybody!  People don’t have to get what they deserve anymore – we can give them His Grace instead. FYI you can’t have mercy and live in judgment – one cancels the other out. We have a brand new page every single day, and at the top it says: “God’s mercy toward ME is waiting for me to wake up, it was released and manifested through what Jesus Christ did for me.” 

I want to encourage anyone who feels like they might have the gift of Mercy – PLEASE USE IT. We all need it! What we really lack from day to day, are the heavenly qualities only God Himself provides through other people and their ministries. ‘Lord, please help us all to receive and sow Your mercy wherever we go. And please bring Your appointed ministers of mercy out of hiding so they can minister to and help the Body of Christ .. plus everybody else around them.’ Amen. Bye.👋.

P 2945 God’s TEAM needs HIS preparation.

/ DVH

“For the Lord is the greatest of all, King-God over all other gods! In one hand He holds the mysteries of the earth, and in the other He holds the highest mountain peaks. He’s the owner of every ocean, the engineer and sculptor of earth itself! Come and kneel before this Creator-God; come and bow before the mighty God, our majestic Maker! For we are those He cares for, and He is the God we worship. So drop everything else and listen to His voice!”Psalm 95:3–7 TPT.

““I tell you this timeless truth: The person who follows Me in faith, believing in Me, will do the same mighty miracles that I do—even greater miracles than these because I go to be with My Father!”John 14:12 TPT.

“Whether you eat or drink, live your life in a way that glorifies and honours God.”1 Corinthians 10:31 TPT.

Our total faith in God’s unchanging goodness, together with our decision to deliberately lay down our lives unconditionally — as lovers of Christ – IS glorifying to God. We have been destined to stand with the same steadfastness David had in front of Goliath, sure in the knowledge that God will help us, so nothing can stand in our way! You and I can walk into an enemy’s camp with nothing but lights and horns because He said to do it… and then we get to win! The Old Testament has profound teaching in it about the love and power of God in action in a people-group’s lives. Today I want to talk about difficulties being a part of our preparation.

Remember Job? God Himself set that man up for a huge test! He didn’t kill the man’s kids, or take his money, or cause his financial problems, the other guy did that. But we don’t like to think about what God will allow in our  lives, because we all love a happy ending! Unfortunately the bit in the middle of that process leaves us cold! Sometimes that is because fear has a foothold and we are not acquainted with His unending goodness. However, Job clearly shows us what life is like without the Lord’s protective hand … Job came through that awful test, because even though his faith was often misplaced and sometimes wobbly – He was still God’s man! 

The Lord wants to lead each one of us to those green pastures in Psalm 23, but we may need to go through the valley of the shadow of death to get there!! Even if He has to drag us through a bramble bush backwards! We need to approach this life dedicated to actively learn every day, to CO-operate with Almighty God, just like Jesus did. We need the same mind toward God HE had.  “Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself;  He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. Yes, and He will show Him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.” John 15:19&20. 

This life we have here and now, is our chance to be the people who co-operate with God’s plan. But we must remember that we cannot choose how that works. That’s because God can do more than one, or ninety-four things at a time. So at the same time as we are walking in His power, we are growing fruit for His glory, fighting off the enemy and standing firm. Staying attached to the vine means we don’t move, we are there through thick and thin without doubting His love toward us.

The biggest mistake we can ever make is to see God’s goodness as a reward, or an add-on to what we already have – or even what we think we want or need – His goodness is about His character not our actions. God did not save us just to bless us and make this life peachy-keen! He is looking for A PEOPLE.  Read the book. He wants a people who will act and speak love toward others, just like Jesus did! He chose YOU because He knows what you are capable of when you choose to trust Him.

These daily tests we face are preparing us for what comes next. We are to be His salt in a bland, blah world, as well as His light shining brightly in the darkness all around us. We need to learn, through our own personal experiences, to be confident in God’s love for us even when things get difficult — because: “Depths of purpose and layers of meaning saturate everything You – (He) do(es).” Psalm 92:5 TPT.

Everything that comes AT us, is Father-filtered. So when we gave our lives to Jesus we put Him in charge of our new life. Now we are “His people, the sheep of His pasture…” It is good to remind ourselves that when we gave Him our lives, He took them! 🎼”It’s no longer I that liveth, but Christ that liveth in me…🎶” … that is not just a sweetly sentimental song … THAT IS AN AIM! …  A purpose … A battle cry!

Let’s stop trying hard to make our own lives perfect, by telling ourselves that when that happens we will have the freedom to obey Him! Otherwise we end up telling ourselves that when everything is going well for us — that’s when we will engage in His alternative unknown plan … after we’ve done this thing and that aim — THEN we can go be about our Father’s business. We need to GO be about our Father’s business, all the time — ready or not! Almighty God has not been, nor will He ever be, an add-on. Nor is the blood of Jesus just a free ticket to a better place after we have died. He’s the meaning of life!

We have been commissioned by the Lord Himself to tell others they need to be ready for what comes next … but are WE ready? “… However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [persistence in] faith on the earth?”  Luke 18:8b. Obedience to His heavenly vision is the key that unlocks the door to an eternal perspective … here and now. God’s team needs His preparation – and He chooses that for each one of us. Bye. 👋

P 2891 Obedience is its own reward.

/ DVH

People say odd things sometimes. things like: “I can’t hear God.” Here’s a big fat clue. Did you obey the last thing He told you to do? How are you going with putting Matthew chapters 5&6 into practice? That’s a great place to start!  I think the Beatitudes will keep us busy for a lifetime of practising, listening, learning, and allowing His Word to transform us. I must admit I have never quite figured out why we skip those first two commandments, and still feel good about ourselves, because we’ve obeyed all the other ones.

Opportunity came knocking on this man’s door! “Why do you ask Me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”“Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honour your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbour as yourself.’“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” Matthew 19:19-22. Jesus is not talking about our owning stuff, by the way, He’s talking about the kind of stuff that owns us.

Point number one: This young man was on the right track:  when we choose to follow Jesus, we need to ask Him this kind of question. Yes I am serious! There is way too much back-slapping going on in the Body of Christ, and not enough soul-searching. I ask myself questions, because I know I am not done yet.  I know I’ve wasted a great deal of my life so far, trying to fit in, and find approval. However, this young man had approval from the Lord immediately, because he had done his best to obey what he already knew. God is so generous – He values the attitudes of our heart. But, at the same time He’s not shy, He will also expose what’s else is in there too.

Point number two; Never ask a question when you are not prepared to get an answer!! I believe this man was sincere, he wanted the life of God in him and he wanted to be wholly His. Jesus gave him what he asked for – right there, on the spot! There are many times we go to the Lord and all we want is to be petted and patted. Life has gotten rough and we need a big cuddle. If we want to be mollified and pronounced excellent, then we need to go to someone who wants something from us and ask them the above question. Those people will tell us how great we are because they have an agenda!

Personally, I think we are better off asking our enemies to give us their opinion – they may not be entirely accurate, but they won’t pander to our needs either. Our enemies may have a great read-out on what’s wrong with us!  In the interest of full disclosure I must say I haven’t done that one yet…! I’ve been put off because I’ve had plenty of enemies tell me – they volunteered! … what’s wrong with me. My problem was … because they were enemies I didn’t think I had to listen! Ya might want to Selah that thought a while.

Point three: did you notice that Jesus praised the man for his ongoing efforts? Yet at the same time, the Lord actually knew what was holding this man back from his expressed desire to do whatever God wanted from him. The desire to do what is right in God’s eyes, is not the whole ball-game. There is always more, and in this guy’s case the ‘more’ was in his finances! None of us are perfect, so learning what we need to know is a blessing, not a criticism.

Now let’s not miss the punch-line, shall we? After Jesus tells this young man to sell all the profits from his own hard-work and give the results to the poor — then He says the most amazing thing: ’YOU can be My disciple and follow Me.’ This is the reason I wrote this blog today, we all have things in our lives that we want more than God – we just choose to ignore them. We live our lives virtually unaware of what could be holding us back from utterly yielding our lives to Him. Maybe you could ask yourself this question: What is it that is holding me back from giving the Lord all of my life, and choosing to obey Him – no matter what it costs? 

I can’t answer that question for you. I can only tell you that in my own experience, you can never ever out-give God. His plans for us are to give each of us a hope and a future. Sometimes we can stumble over full-surrender, because we don’t know what is on the other side of yielding everything to Him. However, we do know that God is gracious, He is kind, He’s OUR loving Heavenly Father! 

If we only focus on what we will lose … we’ve missed the real point. God is good, what He does, is always GOOD. We just don’t get to define ‘good’ for ourselves! Obedience is its own reward — check it out:  Deuteronomy 6:24; 10:12-13; and Proverbs 9:12; Ecclesiastes 11:5b.  Bye 👋

P 2889 People disagree …

/ DVH

… sometimes very loudly! When you read the gospels you will find different people from all walks of life that are outrageously unkind, plus people who cheat each other, or they hate each other for all kinds of reasons. The thing is, disagreements are not necessarily about who is right and who is wrong – that’s this world’s way of thinking. ‘I think I am much right-er than YOU are,’ is a really common theme. I hate disagreements … everybody loses!

To be perfectly honest with you, difficulties can have a positive side, they can usher in change in us – if we put down our sword of attack, and pick up His Grace, the people around us would feel much safer! God’s Grace needs to be the way we live now. What Jesus did at Calvary, released an incredible, overabundant Grace, and it is ours for the taking. We need to use our faith. Let me clarify that into English – let what you’ve been given by God be your new motivation – it makes it easier to apologise! Do it for the Lord!  He deserves to see the reward of His suffering in our lives.

This is our highest form of worship. This, in its very essence, is Romans 12:1 ”Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”When we choose His will, His Way, we are choosing to worship Him! Here’s another scripture nobody much likes, Jesus said it: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13. We live this way for people who totally don’t deserve that kind of attitude or action from us! I’ve known people who said: “I would die for you” – but they haven’t considered that dying for the other person might include not liking or loving them very much at the time! 

Jesus chose to die for us, and He loved us while He did it! Good place to praise God for mercy!! Before you throw your hands up in the air in frustration, because we all have difficult people in our lives …think about it. Name somebody in the bible who had a happy, trouble-free, carefree life – you can’t do it can you? Our happiness, our purest joy comes from knowing Him – other people and relationships line up behind that. It often seems to me in those angry moments, that I’ve forgotten that love is a choice not a feeling!! 

Human beings stagger about doing the weirdest stuff, searching for that mythical land that is called “my happiness.” It won’t happen – it can’t happen. If we don’t find our happiness in serving Him, and learning His Ways – we are doomed to keep repeating the same rubbish mistakes over and over again. We will remain stuck in a mire of our own choosing. The answer to other people driving us crazy isn’t them changing – It’s our own personal transformation – we change the way we think and see everyone else, and they don’t bother us anymore!

There really is a place where other people don’t have to get on your nerves – Jesus Christ lived there and He was a man just like us. Every single one of those irritations are giving us an opportunity to die to self. Jesus didn’t have to wrangle His emotions, because He knew what was important – He knew the book from when He was 12! Everything He did He did to further His Father’s Kingdom. That’s now our job.

Christians admire other people’s testimonies. Things like: some dear missionary went to some lost tribe, and the tribe was saved but they chopped the poor missionary into little bits.’ Let’s pause a minute … the thing is, we don’t have rampant indigenous tribes waiting to kill us … instead we have Mrs Kerfoops who is always gossiping about everyone and she comes to church every Sunday … that dear lady needs to know His Grace. Obviously she has none, because she can’t keep her mouth shut. Somebody is going to have to be a source of God’s Grace toward her!

The bible works as a WHOLE. That missionary who died released Grace to the pagan tribe …  they left their comfortable homeland and went to a strange place for the sake of the gospel. That’s GRACE. Today’s Christians don’t value GRACE enough. We expect other people to understand US.. Instead we need to learn to turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile, right in the middle of the time when we feel so provoked we just want to thump the person who is provoking us. 

This means we will need to put His Grace into action to manage our painful circumstances. Think on this — the Grace that we cling to while the world around us continually shifts on its axis, is the same Grace we give away to other people when they don’t deserve it. In those moments I remind myself — “I don’t deserve His Grace either!” It really does help. Right along with my all time favourite prayer. “Help help!” Prayer is so much more than words, it is an attitude of our hearts!

Some of the time people disagree because they don’t know Him well enough yet. So there are no hard and fast rules as to who should be the one to give away Grace. I’ve found if I can actually see what is going on, then that means He will help me to get through it. I step out in faith, and I ask for His help to holster my own opinion. I’ve yet to start cheering when a disagreement comes up, but these things are opportunities for me to practise what I preach. Bye. 👋

P 2795 We serve Jesus … no matter where we are.

/ DVH

The MSG bible says this, about working for a living and serving others: “Servants, do what you’re told by your earthly masters. And don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ. The sullen servant who does shoddy work will be held responsible. Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t cover up bad work.” Colossians 3:23-24.

Well that’s pretty plain eh? In a nutshell these verses explain what our attitude is to be toward our working life. We are serving the Lord in our place of employment, no matter what the man says … we are no longer just working for the man! Submission, thoroughness and meekness are not signs you are weak, or a loser or  – they are a sign to the Lord, and others, that you are following Him, no matter what people say. If you are doing it right, people may not agree with you, but they will be attracted to the Saviour within your life and heart.

We are not influenced by this world and its upside down ideas anymore. We have a whole other way to live, and not just at our house where we feel safe. The way we live now, is to ask for the Holy Spirit’s help and seek His transformation in every situation.That means we will be a better employee than anyone else, because we primarily serve Jesus as He leads us in His ways, in our place of employment. 

Now if your earthly boss wants you to do something dodgy, then you will have to take the time to give him or her your opinions, prayerfully and respectfully. And then politely decline. But feel free to tell your boss that you serve Jesus and that means you won’t lie, steal, manipulate or cheat others. You can also tell him that the UP side of your beliefs is that you won’t lie, steal, cheat or manipulate him either! Be prayerful and remember: “Help! – Is a prayer!”

“When we are pressured to do something wrong, we need to depend on God’s power to stand firmer against evil than we ever believed we could. Yet we also need to bear Christ’s word of compassion and forgiveness when we find that Christians cannot over­come all the evils of the world’s workplaces.” (The Theology of work.)

Meanwhile we need to engage with, and take every opportunity to practice listening to the Holy Spirit, instead of trying to manipulate anybody else into doing what we think will benefit them. Even if we know personally, that our plan is better!  I honestly think this is where a whole lot of people have missed the rails and been sidetracked. Manipulation, no matter what our motivation is, is not God’s Way. His Way always involves people’s freely-given choices. 

Some people vacillate between wondering if they should stand up on the tearoom table and start preaching about Jesus … but that thought terrifies them … so they shove that aside … and do nothing at all. They turn into ‘undercover brother instead!’ I truly believe you can serve Jesus and others, and not be a bible basher or an evangelist. You just need to be ready to give an account for the hope that resides within you, and let love rule. Simply be ready to talk about the Lord as opportunities occur, and He leads you. Feel free to be natural, and be sweet and kind in your speech, not pious!   

The Lord talked a great deal about faithful employees, and I recommend that employees or employers read His parables prayerfully because they are relevant to working situations. (Matthew 20:1-16;  Matthew 25:14-30; Matthew 7:24-27;  Matthew 21:28-32; Matthew 21:33; Luke 16:1-13; Luke 17:7-10; Mark 13:34-37) Jesus’ parables were often in the context of a manager and his workers. They highlight the servants loyalty to their master, and his instructions were a premium point in these stories. 

We don’t have two lives! One at work and the other at home. HE is our precious Lord in either place. Otherwise it is like trying to wear two hats. Plus it’s in opposition to what the bible says! His book says we work for the Lord wherever we are. We don’t just work for money – we live and work and receive our reward from HIM. We care about the way we treat others because this is our mission field. It is extremely important to be prayerful over the way we use our time every day. A Christian will work harder, as well as more efficiently than the next guy, who cheats on his income tax and feeds the boss bribes at the pub…

Ephesians 6:5-8 says:“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favour when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.”

This is a big subject and there are a lot of scriptures pertaining to it, which is good, because work is a big part of most people’s lives! I think this work ethic applies to all of us, even those engaged in caring for their homes and kids. I will leave you today with my initial thought: We serve Jesus no matter where we are. Bye. 👋

P 2788 A new way to think …

/ DVH

It has become way too easy to look at the things of this life from our own personal POV. What do I mean by that? Jesus died to give us a new way to think. Unfortunately, we can get stuck in our own needs, and thinking, wanting everything to happen for our own pleasure. That’s what happened to Solomon, he mistook God’s favour for His approval. Thinking like this, has led to many people into imagining that their success or failure in this life is a direct result of their spirituality, or lack of it.  

Let me explain my thoughts – I won’t unfortunately, be able to put everything in here, (read the book) …but let me try. 

Solomon was considered one of the richest and wisest men who ever lived. But he disobeyed God and married 700 women, plus he also had 300 concubines and many of these women worshipped other gods — yet Solomon had the favour of God over his finances. He was so rich, He made the billionaires of today look poor! However, those wives etc. that he chose, for his own benefit, led this King astray from the faith of his fathers. 

However, because God is so faithful, He prospered Solomon, as well as the nation of Israel during this time, for the sake of his father, David. The Lord declared David was a man after His own heart, and He promised that young man, that his son would be a predecessor to the Messiah. Remember, God “… is not a man that He should lie…” He absolutely keeps His promises – He just doesn’t always have our timetable.

There were about a thousand years between His promise to David, and its fruition. Which is why we need to learn to adopt the Lord’s timetable. My advice? Don’t take your prayers back or give up on your faith – leave it out there! Outwardly, it looked like Solomon was a very blessed man, but his character showed a lack of spiritual maturity and he had a propensity to think every sweetie in the sweet shop belonged to him. That led him astray.

God gave this man’s father a promise. He promised David that his son would one day be a predecessor to God’s own Son. Solomon, and eventually the Lord Jesus Himself, was the result of that promise. The fact that this king was immeasurably rich was because Solomon was aware of his own lack, so at the beginning of his reign, he asked for wisdom. And God said “Yes.” And gave him riches as a bonus buy.

We must stop seeing answers to prayer as a reward. They are the glorious Grace of God in action on our behalf, so let’s praise and thank Him for everything He gives us. You and I have the favour of God because His favour is on His Son, and when we accepted His Son, we came under Jesus’ covering shed blood — that ALONE gives us favour. We have not earned these things nor do we deserve them – love gifts are love gifts, they are not earned! There are many many wonderful promises in the bible, and I think one of the best things we can ever do is to check out what God Himself wants before we start rattling off lists of what we need — especially before we start trying to cash in our pile of ‘You promised’ vouchers! 

‘Unless the Lord is building that house we are aiming at, we will labour in vain.’ We can carefully explain to the Lord how important things are to us until we are blue in the face, even when some precious person we know deserves to live, and get well, or prosper etc. But our development spiritually is more important to Him than our comfort — He wants Sons and Daughters who value His Ways, not people who use Him!  This is why we need to be engaged in learning His Ways, so we can walk with Him.

Jesus didn’t die to give us spiritual vouchers that we can cash in whenever we like. He wants relationship. Relationships are intentional. We choose the same person over and over again, despite our circumstances and how things look! We need to invest in our relationship with Him more than any other. Sadly Solomon chose to invest in 1,000 women! How the heck he found the time and energy I have no idea – but that is beside the point. God still honoured Solomon because of His promise to David. He was not approving of Solomon’s lifestyle and marriage partner choices! Engaging with that many women who worshipped pagan gods, led this King astray.

You know, just because the Lord graciously healed Sister Susie’s ingrown toenail that does not make you or I eligible for the same grace. BUT, we are ALL eligible for a relationship with Him, on His terms.That’s why we need a new way to think. God Himself went before us to provide us with a Helper. He knew we would need the Holy Spirit. Let’s think on that. Bye. 👋

P 2719 Our faith is a faith of paradoxes.

/ DVH

“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”2 Corinthians 12:10. Paul gets happy when most of us would run away. Ya might want to think on that for a bit. 🤔  When is the last time you cheered when everything went wrong and you couldn’t fix it? …. Me neither!! When is the last time either of us remembered that the weaknesses we feel are a sign we are strong in Him? 

“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.” Matthew 5:11-13. When we suffer for righteousness sake, we are blessed! And if people hate us then we are even more blessed. Yeah… r-i-gh-t! “How enriched you are when persecuted for doing what is right! For then you experience the realm of heaven’s kingdom.” Matthew 5:10 TPT. So, in keeping with the theme of today’s blog — when is the last time you ran about shouting gleefully: ”I’m rich, I’m rich?” — simply because people were rude to you, or cursed you, or criticised or threw rocks at you or made your life difficult. Rocks can be words too! 

Here’s another one to chew on:  “As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed;…” 2 Corinthians 6:9. These are things nobody in their right mind would want to experience – yet when we chose to follow the Lord Jesus, that way of life became our portion. We have paradoxes by the bucket load:“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs in the kingdom of heaven.”Matthew 5:3. As Heidi Baker once said: “My poor in Mozambique know they are poor, in the Western world, you don’t know you are poor.” Here’s a big fat revelation … she’s not talking about money or goods, etc. She’s talking about us being spiritually poor… Having stuff can cause a huge pre-occupation with keeping stuff … or getting even better stuff. We can be so obsessed with keeping our routines and systems ticking over, that our spirits can be in abject poverty. 

One of the greatest paradoxes of all is putting what we can see or feel above what He has already said in the book! Or maybe it’s thinking we can live this life however we want, and still enter His kingdom…?  Here’s another interesting one: “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:3. Usually effort means we gain something!! But in this verse effort is secondary to something that is so ephemeral, so subjective – we need His book to define what it looks like!! And it looks like stuff we cannot naturally do – fancy God asking us to do stuff that we cannot do!

The real thing about paradoxes is that they run contrary to the way we want things to happen. Up becomes down;  in is out; and saved becomes a way of life, not just a ticket to heaven. The bible says that salvation needs to affect everything, especially the way we relate to others. If you find yourself getting snippy with someone, it’s time to do a spiritual check up, with His help. Just like you would check your temperature if you feel a bit off. Each time we say ‘yes’ to His Ways, we are saying ‘no’ to our own way, and that’s when we step into our own personal battle. 

The paradox of our faith is that it has no evidence until we act on it!  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1. It takes faith to say nothing when you feel provoked by circumstances or someone else. It takes faith to speak to another person about the Lord. It takes faith to be kind when someone else is unkind.  Ya might want to think on things like that today. The Christian life is filled with paradoxes that cannot be understood except through the eyes of faith. Bye👋  

P 2714 “Blessed are they who mourn …”

/ DVH

In the Western world we have weird ideas about mourning and loss. We treat it like it is a terrible flu or something and other people stand by patiently waiting for you to get over it. If only. As if someone else knows how much grief is enough for you! The loss of someone close is not just a small thing – it can be devastating. I love the fact that in the Eastern parts of this world grief is allowed to be expressed, and passion for another person is not pushed away when they leave this world. Instead grief is expressed – loudly. I think that is quite healthy. Jesus told us that mourning is a blessing, so perhaps we need to revise our way of thinking. Grief is something we must go through, not avoid.

Grief comes in many different forms and has many different causes, like losing a career you love. Maybe you have been forced into a severely financially straightened life-stye. Perhaps you have been injured or ill, and you’ve lost your old way of life and you have to reinvent yourself. Or a much loved child has wandered so far away from everything good, right and worthwhile – you cannot even allow yourself to think about it… so your prayers turn into groaning. The bible says this for people who are so grief-stricken they can’t pray: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Romans 8:26.

Thank God He is praying for us when we cannot!

There are also times that we can be suddenly dragged under into grief by things that have happened to people we love. Truly loving people means we share their sorrow. At the same time, other people’s actions and attitudes can also cause much grief. Or we can be greatly misunderstood personally, and not able to explain ourselves, and that causes the terrible pain of grief as well. Bin there, dun that! I think of grief as some sort of emotional drowning, and the surface of the water – where the fresh air is – seems too far away to reach and unachievable. Maybe we will never reach the surface again – that thought causes even more grief! Whatever the cause, grief, sorrow and suffering are all a reality, and we can get stuck there.

I have observed that grief weakens even the strongest people. I’ve known people who could not find their way out of a grief cycle. It was as if their grief was a terrible burden that horrible circumstances had tied to their backs. So they clung like mad to what they had lost, because their grief was all they had left! I’ve also known other people who carried their grief as proof of their love for someone else who has long since gone to their reward. Grief then becomes an unnatural tie that cannot easily be dealt with or resolved. How long is long enough to grieve?  I have no idea. I can only say that we need to pass through this process, one step at a time. If we hurry grief, we run the risk of postponing it – only to have it grab us by the throat unexpectedly.

What does God say about it? Actually grief made an appearance in the garden of Eden! We barely get to Chapter 6 of Genesis when this verse appears:“And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart.” It is too easy to pass off the Lord’s grief over mankind’s sin as something that He can absorb, because, after all – He’s God! But this verse teaches us something about Him, and us. The bible tells us that we are made in His image and we have shared characteristics with our Heavenly Father. That one line in Genesis shows us that under some circumstances, grief is normal – He feels it … we feel it. You can experience it after you have been betrayed. 

In Isaiah 53:4 it tells us that we can have grief because of our sin. “Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for His own sins!” Grief can be misunderstood, because our society hates pain of any sort – even the natural pain of aging! Unfortunately then we can easily miss the point of any grief we feel because of our own sin. That kind of grief is good. Grief, sorrow and suffering lead us to repentance. But at the same time we need to realise that because we feel those things, it means we have a tender heart.

In Matthew 5:4 Jesus says: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” And in Revelation 21:4 the bible says this: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

These two verses tell me that Almighty God has a plan for those who are not completely comforted in this life. One day He will wipe all those tears away, forever. That’s how important our grief is to Him – He has a plan and He will deal with it. We know that even Jesus Himself stood outside Lazarus’ tomb and wept – yet only minutes later, that man was resurrected. Personally, I see what happened to Lazarus as a sign that dead to this world is not really dead. People may be gone from this life, but they are not just plain GONE. We are eternal beings, made to live forever!

Lastly I want to mention a verse in Ephesians 4:30 that has great meaning for each of our lives because it involves the most sensitive and dearest Person Who truly cares for us: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by Whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” The Holy Spirit totally understands grief, because people grieve His precious heart every single day. Seeking to cultivate His company is the greatest privilege we have been given, why would we cause Him unnecessary pain? We are blessed when we mourn, we learn that we are limited beings who need Him. 👋

P 2706 My thoughts about prayer.

/ DVH

Matthew 6:5-15 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, Who is unseen. Then your Father, Who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Many people think of the Lord’s prayer as a model for prayer. I think prayer is simply talking to the Lord about the things that are bothering us, asking Him to help us. Rightly or wrongly I personally pray about temptation etc. when it comes up! Our Heavenly Father loves the kind of prayers prayed quietly, away from other people’s eyes, and approval. He doesn’t want long endless prayers, as a matter of fact, Jesus refers to that kind of prayer as the sort of prayer that is meant to impress God and others. Whatever someone’s reason is, praying quietly by yourself is a wonderful way to sit with Him. Jesus’ own prayers were personal and often private.  Moses talked to the Lord face to face, and sometimes Moses was ON his face, but it was personal!

The Lord’s prayer shows us our priorities in prayer. Our heavenly Father, and His role in our lives, then what He wants us to do in this life to bring about His kingdom. Our Father is not a just a title, it is a reality. If you think about that the next time you pray it will change everything! We are reminding ourselves of Who He is, and who we are not! After that we go on to pray for the people who sin against us. The thing is, we are praying because we see HIM as our Answer. We don’t need a list, we need connection. We are not going shopping, we are meeting with SomeOne Who loves us and is our great priority. We have been told that we can ask for the things we need. 

We all know that forgiveness is an ongoing need, it is an always optional decision to obey Him. What we do about someone else’s sin is carried out to honour Him. I have found that feelings come, and go, but prayer is like air – necessary. As I’ve said recently, I’ve been learning that we must simply let go of some people, as well as our expectations that they will change to meet our needs and make us more comfortable. Talking to Jesus, Who was a Master of letting go – is a fantastic idea. Praying for things means we have lost the importance of Who He is in our lives. He’s the priority – not just the answer!.

But what about when someone maliciously hurts you over and over again? Then we are suddenly at the pointy end of their jabbing stick. Forgiveness negates the pain of being prodded by memories over and over again. I’ve learnt to accept people from my past, as well those in the present, by letting go of their mean spiritedness, their attitude is not my business. We can easily have an unrealistic aim for others to be perfect. However, I know I’m not – so I can forgive you! Sometimes I have to let go of things and forgive, minute by minute, as well as daily. I make that decision FOR HIS sake, not the other people. I owe those people Love and I will receive that love by sitting in the Presence of the One Who did everything to restore me.

“…do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others” — it is not the size of our prayers or our ability to outtalk, or even outshine others, or present a good case— what counts is our relationship with the Lord – it’s Him we are talking to! He’s told us that unforgiveness cements us into a bad place. This whole thing comes down to what we care about the most. Our embarrassment, pride, or the desire to simply let go of the past – so we can all get on with our future. We injure ourselves when we hold onto things.

When we pray in secret this means we have become eligible for unseen blessings. Those things are only recognised by the person who prayed, unseen!  I don’t know if you have noticed this or not, but our wonderful Heavenly Father loves to do things in secret. When He asks us to pray that way, He is inviting us into a place where He often works, and at the same time we will get to know and understand Him in a new way.

If God knows what we need before we need it, it stands to reason in my peanut brain that if we do need it He will supply it! I have learnt to say to Him: “Surprise me!” and He does! Prayer is a privilege we all share because we love Him and we want to acknowledge Him first. Bye. 👋

P 2662 “In this world you will have trials …

/ DVH

… cheer up! I have overcome this world.” John 16:33 … well that’s sort of what He said. It definitely is what He did! We are over-comers IN Him. Troubles come, and they go, but our God’s Word stands forever! Hallelujah! To have faith in the midst of hardship we must look away from the troubles, to Jesus, He’s the Author and Finisher of our faith.

“Don’t you remember those days right after the Light shined in your hearts? You endured a great marathon season of suffering hardships, yet you stood your ground. So don’t lose your bold, courageous faith, for you are destined for a great reward! You need the strength of endurance to reveal the poetry of God’s will and then you receive the promise in full. But we are certainly not those who are held back by fear and perish; we are among those who have faith and experience true life!” Hebrews 10:32, 35-36, 39 TPT.

For those of us who have been Christians for a while we can easily identify with this scripture. Sometimes all we can do is … stand. Even with our earthly legs wobbling and giving out, we will always need His help to keep standing up spiritually. That means we use the power our God-given choices and refuse to let the enemy steal our hope in Christ! This is how you get endurance. Standing firm in the face of adversity and holding fast to His goodness – which never changes. It is too simplistic to think that getting answers to our prayers will strengthen our faith. Most of the time, that simply makes us feel comfortable — because then, we have a well-ordered life to show to others.  The enduring life can be, and look … messy! 

Believing in His goodness in the face of adversity, means we are still standing … even if we have to lean hard against the wall of His Word to do it! We remain undisturbed spiritually, when that terrible bus of adversity keeps running over us. Even when our enemy is shouting through the broken windows …”He doesn’t love you, He’s gone off and left you all alone!”  And we lie there, bleeding. Blasted by our circumstances and pain, feeling every jolt and bump as the bus of infirmity, calamity and hardship keeps driving over our broken body … back and forth, back and forth. Endurance is a difficult thing. We get it by hanging on to Him, in spite of our terrible circumstances. We believe in His goodness when everything around us says He’s gone off and left us to our fate and weak devices. 

I hate to say this because it is not very cheery, but I do believe it is true – sometimes our REWARD will come in the next life, not this one. We simply must stop seeing answers to prayer as a reward — answers are His GRACE extended toward us, not rewards. Answered prayer is a place of thankfulness and worship. Even our covenant with Him is founded upon sacrifice. His incredible sacrifice at Calvary, and our daily sacrifices and choices that are made in His favour, instead of our own convenience, safety and comfort. 

Psalm 40:1-3 “I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;  He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in Him …”

Trusting God when you are in the middle of “stuff” is incredibly hard. If you ask me in those dark moments when I want to be delivered from trouble and strife — my answer would be ‘about 30 minutes before it even happens!’ But the 23rd Psalm tells us that He is with us even when we walk through death’s dark valley. He is the Person who stays when the rest of the world walks away. We need to rely upon Him in those moments when we want to give up and give in to despair … because holding fast will stretch, strengthen and increase our faith that He will never leave us. 

I’ve found it works like this for me. Suddenly something awful happens, so I pray: “Lord, I need You badly.” And very slowly, as I hold fast to Him, my insides begin to calm down. If I turn my head to focus on the bad news, it will easily get bigger and panic will set in again. But when I focus on Him, those ugly circumstances may still exist, but inside I now have peace. In those moments, however, I need to stay alert, because the destroyer is still around. I have to  keep reminding the Lord, and myself: “I can’t do this without YOU.”

Don’t just grab at Jesus’ Arm to steady you – live your life clinging onto Him like a limpet – then those trials will eventually come and go, but we will still be standing. Whatever the immediate answer seems to be – the real Answer lives inside us. Bye 👋