River

P3403  Let’s keep jumping in the river. 

/ DVH

Many people have been hypothesising about the type of fruit on the tree of life. The bible says that fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. I read 1 Corinthians 13, and it says “…the fruit of the Spirit is …” Huge hint there!! Right. Now that is clear, let’s choose to follow the Holy Spirit, deny ourselves, and take up the cross of whatever this life throws at us – and joyfully serve Him and His purposes, right in the middle of our strife and trouble. Keep your eyes on Jesus.

We often want to gather the strength to do what is good and right and profitable, before we jump into the stream of the Holy Spirit’s Love. Here’s my advice – JUMP IN FIRST. All that other stuff gets added unto you while you are in there! We can get so busy on the side of that river of life and love – trying to fix ourselves, our attitudes, our actions that sometimes we get stuck trying to figure out how to fix someone else. All that means is we never get around to actually jumping in! If our enemy cannot corrupt us, he will try to distract us with the things we can’t change. We need to utterly trust the Holy Spirit to finish what He started in us. He’s the One with the Plan.

Let’s use the fruit of self-control as an example. Our aim is for any self control in our lives to become a natural response. It’s good to know what you are aiming at! Clenched teeth, and yelling and shouting, kind of defeats our purpose. As we jump into His love, we need to repent and repair, then throw off blame, straining and striving – self control will flow out of us because self control is IN that river.

Like Jesus said, staying attached to the Vine produces fruit. We can’t produce fruit without the Vine, so let’s just grab hold of Him, jump into the river of His love and learn to float. If Jesus says “pruning” then we say “OK!” If He says “time for rest” then we say “OK.” Our task is to stay attached. Obedience to His Will – plus focussing on His Love which never ends – will keep us attached to Him and floating. Keep continually thanking the Lord for loving you, and teaching and helping you with this life.

We will begin to take on the Father’s characteristics toward us, as we deliberately choose to learn to obey Him – whether it is convenient or not. No matter what kind of fruit we are producing, that fruit develops and grows because of our obedient responses to God’s Word for us, today. Don’t excuse yourself from obedience, instead, be honest, tell Him ‘I can’t cope, it’s all too much’ – He’s kind and compassionate, He will help us. He knows we are all just glorified dirt.

Christianity is the way we’ve chosen to live now. Let’s learn to lean into His Ways and yield to Him, no matter how inconvenient it is, or how hard it seems to be. Obedience to His instructions facilitates His life in us. Read the Beatitudes, start there! Now there’s a lifetime adventure. Valuing the Father’s Ways above our own, also gives us glimpses into Who He is. 

Jesus was obedient to the Father’s Way even though it killed Him. He’s our Leader, our personal human illustration! The Lord Jesus had so much faith and trust in God’s goodness, He allowed Himself to fall into the hands of men who could not be trusted, because God told Him that was the way to complete His mission. 

Many other blessings will flow into our lives as we yield to the Lord, and let go of those things that are holding us back. Then those blessings start overflowing onto others. The point of Christianity is not sameness — it is about transformation. All kinds of individuals have been personally challenged, and then changed, by walking day by day with Him, daily jumping in the river of His never-ending love, while still doing the seemingly ordinary everyday things we usually do.

We will see the fruit of the Holy Spirit blossom and bear fruit, first-hand in our own lives, as we participate in doing things His Way. Jump into His eternal, unshakeable love and stay there. Hold tight to your birthright! We were born to live in the river of His love, and be washed, minute by minute in our fresh clean new life. We must learn to use our faith, because this is how we bear God’s fruit. Obedience to Jesus’ instructions, clearly written in the bible – will produce Almighty God’s life in us, as well as total transformation in our lives. 

Living for Jesus means we will release the Holy Spirit with every single step we take. We can’t know what He will do in that other person’s life, but we know it will be good. If eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil produced death —- then eating from the tree of His life in us produces His living eternal fruit. That life is not a feeling … it is the flow-on result of loving, walking and living with Jesus. All of the fruits of the Spirit are born out of His love.

We had trouble with our mango tree last season, the mango buds came in abundance, but the fruit didn’t ‘set’ and it fell off before it reached maturity. This tree that had dozens of mangos in previous years, but last year it had barely more  than a half a dozen fully formed fruit. Under pressure the tree dropped it’s fruit.  That was a big lesson for me. It can happen to all of us – we can let go of how much He loves us when we are swamped by this life all with it’s trials and sorrows.

Our God is so good- even these bad things have a purpose. Pressure and discomfort are potentially developing faith-filled resistance in us. These are the things we are going to need on the next stage of our journey as we walk with Him. They help set His spiritual fruit and keep it attached to the tree. Attachment to the tree is just total dependence on Him – we all know we can do “nothing without Him..” It also says in John 5:19: “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.”

Jesus chose to limit Himself, by simply obeying His Father. The fruit from the Tree of Life in our lives, will produce God’s life in us, for others. People will come and pick that fruit and take a bite out of it. The real question is — what will our lives taste like?  Heaven? Or unripe, unformed,  unpalatable fruit. Let’s just keep our focus on jumping in that river. Bye. 👋

P 3341 There is a bigger reality.

/ DVH

And it is not pie in the sky when we die … it’s right here, right now. Jesus died so we can live like He taught His disciples to live… in our own daily reality with all its ups and downs. When the Lord Jesus says: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”  He’s talking about you and I – here and now. We are the vessels He has chosen. Personally my vessel often feels like it can’t hold water, but when He steps in I find it can hold water and His love after all!

We’ve been chosen to usher in His will, His way. To bring His kingdom into this war-driven world, grasping for fuel, and clean air, and rapidly polluting oceans. And let’s not forget those people who live their whole lives struggling for clean water and food! Man’s greed has reaped it’s reward – for many people it seems like hell is already here. Which is what you get when you put satan in charge, and not Jesus!

As Christians – His Body – we are here to show the world, first-hand, that there is more to this life than the state of the oceans, or the lack of trees, or global warming etc. We are here to show them what God’s love looks like, live and in person, through US. We carry Him with us, everywhere we go. Our power is in our ordinariness. We choose to give others, who don’t deserve it anymore than we did, the kind of love that is patient and kind, full of faith, and does no wrong to anyone. Because each one of us is here to contribute something; then doing nothing, is simply adding to the problem.

None of us are here by accident. The greater the trials and tribulations we have had to overcome, … the greater God will be glorified. Sadly, we seem to think we can just float along going to church, paying our tithes – as well as praying and asking for what we think we need, and that’s that. The unspoken subtext is this: “of course, God knows we are way too busy with our daily lives to live for Jesus!” He’ll understand, He’s God, He’s supposed to be loving, nice and kind etc.

Jesus Christ is our LORD. Jesus says in Luke 6:46: “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and you don’t do the things I say?” What we say is not enough, what we DO counts. And there’s you and me with egg all over our faces. We were never meant to be alone, struggling along, trying to be nicer than we really are. He has given us new clothes, inside and out! (Colossians 3:12.) Our inheritance is God’s kingdom, and we, you and I, take it with us wherever we go. But there are times when we look a lot more like the Prodigal Son — who wanted everything, here and now to make his life better.

Our enemy wants us so busy watching our own backs, we stop caring about the poor sod next door who is going under for the third time. I’ve noticed that sometimes the greatest villains in our lives, turn out to be the best soldiers for Christ. Many times I have prayed for someone in my own family who was persecuting me. Did they all get saved? I dunno, there were really stubborn people in my forebears! Don’t give up on people because of their unredeemed behaviour —  our God can bring beauty out of ashes.

Let’s get this clear. He does not have to rely upon us to bring Him glory – HE simply IS GLORIOUS! And transformation in a lost life brings Him glory because only He can do it. Only God Himself can take someone who has lived their lives the wrong way, and transform them in a heartbeat on their death bed. I’ve seen Him do it. We think salvation means God will raise up great marvellous mighty men and women of God to lead us to victory —- yet we still see ourselves as passengers instead of participators. We lovingly sing “it’s all about You, Jesus” and then go away and live our lives like it’s all about US!

Job knew some stuff even in the middle of his personal, heartbreaking disasters. “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.” Job 13:15 or “I know that my Redeemer lives” 19:25. And Job 1:21:“The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away: blessed be the Name of the Lord.” We seem to think our God is like Father Christmas, and He will bring me what I want when I want it. Let’s take the time to look at this man’s responses. The real blessing is in the way in which Job accepted what happened to him, with such enormous Grace. Yes, Job ended up better off – but that was a byproduct, not the aim!

There are days when I do not like laying down my life for others. I want to bam my renewed mind into a small space, and throw it into a safe place and lock the door! BUT! I have the Holy Spirit inside me and He never leaves me… The Lord Jesus died to give me the power to live a different kind of life – not just to get what I want. By all means let’s pray for bad stuff to go away … and sometimes it will … and sometimes it won’t. That’s because He’s God, and He’s good, and He knows stuff I don’t.

Inside me, where I really live, I know full well my excuses and actions are just emotional pity parties. I can’t afford to choose sympathy over real love. REAL LOVE IS ALWAYS COSTLY. Jesus offered mankind His precious life and death lived in love, and what He did will last forever. There is a bigger reality —you and I are now ‘kingdom people’ – and that will cost us too. Let’s make a quality decision, count the cost and jump in the river … Bye. 👋

P 3312 Staying in the river!

/ DVH

“Believe in ME so that rivers of living water will burst out from within you, flowing from your innermost being, just like the Scripture says!””  John 7:38 TPT. Great scripture! … I love to watch things on YouTube that many people might think are a bit boring. Every morning we put on one of those supposedly, sappy Christian music videos, that feature pretty pictures of nature. They can stream away for like 11 hours. And then I just let that stuff quietly run, so I can be engaged with my blog, bible reading, prayers and thoughts. You might like just plain silence!

I’ve personally found I’m far more likely to recognise His ‘rivers of living water’ when I am not distracted by other noises, or things that fly past on the TV screen trying to capture my attention! Meanwhile, I’m incredibly blessed and grateful that my time is my own, and how I spend it is up to me. Many people reading this don’t have that kind of freedom. But I think the secret to staying in the river of God begins with staying aware of Him and giving Him my attention. Have you ever watched a well trained sheep dog? The dog never takes its eyes off its Master. Meeting with Jesus is the place where we can ‘let it all hang out,’ because He knows our junk anyway!

Today, I want to talk about the importance of spiritual breathing. Living this new life the way God Himself has designed it, is a natural process with no striving involved. It’s just as natural as breathing IN and OUT. After all we do that without even thinking about it – unless we have some sort of disease or obstruction – we just do it!  “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 3:12-14. 

Jesus has taken hold of my life for a reason, He will help me find my real life in Him. I am greatly cheered up by the fact that the Apostle Paul, who wrote most of the Epistles — who was, some say, taken up into the 3rd heaven  — told us, he hadn’t arrived at that goal yet! This means that the best bits are still out in front of each one of us. However, just because this goal can seem unattainable, that doesn’t mean we should give up on aiming at it! It simply means we are in the best company, so I shouldn’t give up I should press on! He is now my focus.

Pressing on involves dogged dedication. So does finding out,  knowing and liking the same things the Lord likes! Plus doing whatever Jesus would do in any situation. All that takes focus, time and energy. To do this we need to sort out our priorities. Is it to be God – or the washing first? Jesus has to be more real to us than the people around us. Be assured that I don’t always get it right, that’s why I keep pressing on. However, I have learnt over the years that when my heart is pointed in His direction, the Lord is incredibly loving and tolerant of my muddles and misses, and ‘He makes my paths smooth.’ 

His infinite patience lovingly watches over us. He despatches angels to catch us when we fall, or fail. He can redeem everything and anything. “Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, Who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercy;…” Psalm 103:4. In other words, to the Lord, human beings are not just a hobby, or a pastime – we are the focus of His attention and affections. Let’s not relegate Him to the back burner as SomeOne we call on when the ceiling falls in. He is our refuge, not our emergency standby. 

“But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9a. What does that scripture mean when we are talking about the River of God? I think we can often put an accent on one bit of scripture over another, and in this instance that means we will be skipping over the best bit. The River bit. The bit that says: ‘My grace is sufficient for you…’ that is the important bit. His Grace is always enough! We just need to return our focus to Him when distracted, and GRACE WILL BE THERE.  Instead of looking into our hearts and seeing our inner cupboards bare and bankrupt—choose to look into Jesus’ eyes and heart, and see the abundance He has for you. We dare not try to manage the weakness we see in ourselves without looking at the greatness of His Grace toward us. Despite our whimsical feelings, we are not poverty stricken!

His power is made perfect in our weakness, but we can’t afford to be distracted by those weaknesses! Instead,let’s pray that He will give us the Grace to comprehend the incredible POWER that was released through the cross.  Our weaknesses cannot stand in the face of that power. Let’s not focus on the negative, let’s focus on Jesus and what He already did. The only thing that can negate His power from releasing itself into our situations, is our decision, or choice, to believe that our badness can possibly be bigger than His goodness!

The Lord Jesus did not just emerge from that grave ‘alive’ like Lazarus did! He was filled with so much Grace and power, He instantly saved the world! That included those Who believed before He came and all those who came afterward. The Grace He gives us is without limit. We need to cherish it with every part of us. The river of God is always available to us, so let’s jump into His love and grace, and stay there on floating on our backs. If we fall out of the river, then we need to jump back in again. Bye.👋

P 3264 Running over.

/ DVH

“Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything —every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.”       2 Corinthians 9:8 TPT.

Grace is a precious gift from our Heavenly Father given to us, to reconcile mankind to Himself. This Grace was given to us, for us, and for others. It was unbelievably expensive. Jesus came to earth and died to provide us all with an unlimited supply, forever. It is good to remember that Grace goes hand in hand with MERCY. It doesn’t matter who we are, or where we come from, or what someone else has done, or left undone, God’s Grace is freely available to every man, woman, or child ever born, it begins to transform lives around us as it flows through us.

God’s Grace is like a river in full flood, it refreshes every dry thing around it for miles! Here are some ways God’s Grace will transform us in our day to day lives. Saving Grace… the Grace that washes us clean from all our sins;  operational Grace  … the Grace we need to accomplish something He has asked us to do;  forbearing Grace … that’s the kind we need when someone else is driving us up a wall;  enabling Grace, the kind we need when we are overwhelmed by our circumstances;  plus extraordinary Grace… the Grace we have been given to  believe what Jesus said, when everything coming at us tells us it can’t happen. This Grace leads us into more faith. BTW, this is not by any means, a comprehensive list of the attributes of Grace!

Grace is the vehicle we deliberately climb inside when we accept the fact that Jesus died for my sin. My point today is — don’t ever step out of the vehicle!  Stay inside Grace!  I am going to need Grace all the time, for me and for you. Almighty God Himself, in the Person of Christ, has freely supplied it. I can’t trust myself because my old nature will rear its ugly head when I least expect it, and I will hurt someone. Praise God! He is not stingy. He showed us that when He gave this world His only Son to heal, deliver, transform and save us all. 

Jesus didn’t just sort of, kind of, only just scrape through overcoming the evil that we have participated in. No! He triumphantly overpaid. Our God has so much Grace, the bible describes Him as being rich in it! It is important that we realise that we cannot afford to entertain any idea that who we are, or what we’ve done, could ever even make a dent on the incredible deluge He poured out on all of us. Our reconciliation with our Father and each other is a direct result of Jesus’ actions.

Ephesians 2:4-10. “But God’s mercy is so abundant, and His love for us is so great,  that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience He brought us to life with Christ. It is by God’s grace that you have been saved.  In our union with Christ Jesus He raised us up with Him to rule with Him in the heavenly world. He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of His grace in the love He showed us in Christ Jesus.  For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it. God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared for us to do.”

We can easily lose sight of the power of Grace when we aimlessly wander over into our own strength. Speaking for myself it can be much too easy to think: ”Oh, now I know what the Lord wants,” and toddle off and do it by myself. However, I discovered that the bible says: ‘His strength is made perfect in weak people,’ so my own strength is no longer an asset. Especially if I want to enjoy the fullness of His Grace! Grace is as tangible in this world, as heaven is. Let’s cherish what we’ve been given as the best thing we have, use it, and be thankful for it. 

There are times that when we want or need His overflowing Grace, but we discover we must wait for it. Waiting on the Lord renews our strength, stretches our faith, and thankfully it reminds us we can’t do anything without Him!  This position is not about just sitting around staring at the ceiling waiting for something to happen. Waiting for Grace is an active thing, that involves the faith we already have in Who He is. We deliberately invest and fix our heart into and on Jesus’ character. 

I’ve found that knowing what I can’t do is an enormous blessing. Asking for His help with anything and everything is not a sign of weakness – it is a sign of respect for what He has said and done, as well as what we have already seen Him do. When we ask for more of His Grace we are honouring Him, because we are asking for more of Jesus’ love, life, kindness, patience etc. to manifest itself in our lives toward others. This means we see Him as the Answer — to everything.

Our earthly limitations are just opportunities for God to make Himself real to us in a way we haven’t seen before. We have no comprehension about what the Lord can do with an ordinary life — one that is totally surrendered to Him and His Ways. I have experienced this in a small way, personally. When I refuse to listen to my hurt feelings, and indignation about how someone else treated me, and instead I choose to ask for and extend Grace to them, with the Lord’s direction and help — that’s when everything changes – especially my stinky attitudes. 

Grace is powerful. It is a mistake to reduce the meaning of it to something that HAS saved us. It did. Grace is a powerful weapon to overcome our inner and outer enemies when we rely upon it the WAY Jesus did. When we choose to embrace what the Lord means by Grace, it is life-changing. Grace is like a river in full-flood when the banks of that river start running over, affecting everything else around it. Bless you. Bye 👋

P 3014 On our trip.

/ DVH

Today, I just want to tell you one story – it’s about a single family. While we were on the road, we heard story after story of dreadful hardship, and it was overwhelming each time. BTW, all the government agencies are totally swamped, the need is so great. By the time we got to our last stop, we were so tired. We went to that destination to drop blankets and food into a men’s shelter. 

As we drove into our accommodation, on the right hand side of our cabin, there was a family. They were packing up to leave. They did not have a car, or even suitcases – everything they owned was in a series of medium sized plastic containers, and they were moving and stacking them away from the unit door. These containers each had labels on them with a person’s name on it. The Lord spoke to my heart and said: “These people are homeless – they have nothing, and nowhere to go.”

It transpired that the managers of the place had given them 4 nights to stay there for free — it had been so bitterly cold they took pity on them. But now this nice couple were caught because they didn’t own the facility, they managed the property for someone else and their employer would not have been happy that they let them stay for free.The family was quite literally moving on and they had nowhere to go. We started to pray. We didn’t even unpack, hubby went to talk to the father. 

Every single thing they owned was in those plastic containers.They also had a tent, and had been previously camping by the river, but it became too cold for them to continue to do that, because the two youngest kids were fairly small. The little girl was about 4 or 5, and still in nappies. the other child about 6 years old. He had a fishing pole and he was practicing casting about, presumably hoping to catch fish. The Lord said: “He is trying to help.” 

Hubby quickly ascertained that they had called some relatives for aid, but they were uncertain anyone would come because their extended families were as financially strapped as they were. Then he told the father that we were giving away blankets and food and asked if they needed anything? The father nodded and told hubby he would take 2 blankets and we also gave them all the food we had for the men’s shelter. Hubby queried the man gently about only taking 2 blankets, and only then he said 4 would be better. 

My dear husband emptied his wallet to provide them with some money, because they had no funds at all. He prayed for them, and hugged the wife, who was weeping and weeping. The little girl was attracted to him, she kept wanting to shake his hand. We’d bought a cute stuffed toy, as a gift for someone, and the Lord indicated it was to be given to her. She was so excited about it, and carried it around.. I’m pretty sure there weren’t many stuffed toys in their boxed belongings! 

We asked them what else they needed etc. and then we went off to the shops to get things like milk and nappies. Plus we also managed to replace the food and blankets we were originally taking to the men’s shelter! Then the little family went and settled down outside to wait. Their husband informed mine that someone was coming along to collect them all … eventually.They had a teenage boy with them who had attached himself to the group. He had just lost his mum, and this sweet couple, who already had a lot of things to deal with, took him in. 

Before we left them, hubby gave the younger children little books. Their mother started reading to them about Jesus right away. The Lord was quite clear with us, He told us what we could do, and what we could not. So we just did what He said, and prayed – lots. Because we were just passing through, we could not solve their entire problem.

The money hubby gave to this family was not spare. We couldn’t afford to buy all that extra stuff either — but almost immediately, somebody put funds in our account and God provided for us – and them! Plus we were also able to witness to the manager and his wife and commend them for their generosity. The family was gone the next day.

Nobody sets out to be homeless, without a job or money, but life happens to all of us. “But You, O God, do see trouble and grief; You consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to You; You are the Helper of the fatherless.” Psalm 10:14. “Rich and poor have this in common: The LORD is the Maker of them all.” Proverbs 22:2. Bye. 👋

P 3011 He is a Merciful Father.

/ DVH

“Lord, You’re so kind and tenderhearted and so patient with people who fail You! Your love is like a flooding river overflowing its banks with kindness. You don’t look at us only to find our faults, just so that You can hold a grudge against us.” Psalms 103:8-9 TPT. This Psalm was written 1100 years before Jesus was born. Imagine that! Just spend a minute drinking in the knowledge of Grace that exists in David’s words. He had such a clear, wonderful picture of Who God is. Almighty God was this man’s singular focus. Not sin. Not what he did, or what I did, or even what some Philistine did! His focus was on God Himself. David knew God and His mercy so clearly.

It would be an utter tragedy if we became so obsessed with our failures, that we cannot see, or imagine the Niagara Falls of our Father’s Grace falling, falling, falling into our lives, day after day after day. Let’s always remember to thank Him for it! He’s such a good good merciful Father! We must continually chase after Him, longing to know more about His goodness and mercy toward us, until it fills our thoughts and eyes. If we look at our failures, we will end up obsessing over them and letting those things rule us. That is that kind of stuff that makes people hide from God.

What we need is balance. The ability to see His mercy-in-action in our own lives and yet not presume on it.  To do that we rely upon what the bible says and the Holy Spirit’s help and guidance. His singularity and purity of mind and heart is like our compass, pointing us to true north. So we press on hoping to be more like David, he treasured our God with so much passion. Let’s leave our sinful attitudes and actions at the foot of the cross and praise God He didn’t given up on us!

The letters in the Epistles were written so we can understand the comprehensive everydayness of God’s divine intervention into our lives. Like the people who followed Him then, we lay aside the weights that try to attach themselves, and keep thanking Him for His goodness. Always remembering we are never ever going to deserve anything He has done for us. The pressure to perform is a weight. These saints knew, firsthand, that they could not have done what was done without our Father’s Divine Love, plus His incredible intervention. They marvelled at what they were allowed to see and take part in – their joy, suffering, miracles and troubles. 

That’s the starting point for each one of us, giving thanks that He loves us. We cannot move past that. Then we will begin to understand our role in His plan and receive power from Him to do the works He has prepared for us to do before we ever arrived into this world. I like to cultivate, fertilise and weed the seed beds of my life with His totally engaged oversight. When God puts His finger on something, then it is important and it needs to become a priority … not a postponement. He does this with loving mercy, not accusation.

I often think about all those other people-today-who-don’t-know-Him-yet. The people who worship so-called gods that have no power to help their followers to change the very things that have driven them to find someone, or something, greater than themselves in the first place! And, how I love the Lord Jesus so much for coming here and illustrating what LOVE looks like in a Person. 

Mercy is a greatly underrated virtue, today. Many people think it means we go soft on someone who has terrible attitudes and actions. Actually, mercy means we don’t kill them for what they’ve done, we forgive them instead. But mercy is not about standing against a wall for someone else’s target practice – that’s giving that person the opportunity to abuse Grace. It is not just bad for you – it is bad for them! Grace was expensive. We need the Holy Spirit’s guidance to help us live in it and administer it. Jesus persevered with those who persecuted Him, but He did not excuse their behaviour. Mercy is no-one’s free ticket to punish someone else.

Our God is full of mercy:  “… that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them [but canceling them]. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation [that is, restoration to favour with God].”2 Corinthians 5:19. If you want to know more about what His mercy looks like in action – read the book. Bye for today, 👋.

ps For those who have asked about our trip: on this trip we gave away— nearly a hundred blankets. Plus donated tinned food, toothpaste, deodorants, baby clothes, baby bottles, nappies, toys, handmade bags, children’s books, bookmarks, pens, paintings, thank you cards, blocks of chocolate for the maids, prophetic words, plus nearly 300 bibles. That’s approx. 678 things in 8 days. We could have given away so much more, but our car was stuffed full, and we tied more to the roof! We had countless conversations talking about what we believe – many of the people we spoke to, wept. 

There are governmental agencies doing their best, but the funds are incredibly low for the sheer volume of misplaced, abused and over-looked people out here in the country. We met a worker in Nanango who had been a police officer for years. She had to give it up because of post-traumatic stress disorder. She looked at us with eyes filled with tears and said:“I couldn’t take the dead and abused children anymore. It nearly finished me. I couldn’t even talk to my husband about it for a year.”  Please pray for her, now she helps the homeless – you cannot stop a mercy gift and she has one!

The church needs the kind of mercy that stops seeing broken people as just someone we are meant to harvest for God’s kingdom and purposes, and simply see suffering human beings instead. 🙏

P 2898 Wot’s in YOUR way?

/ DVH

As you know, we go away regularly on the road, to give away bibles and other Christian materials. This time, as we’ve been preparing, it seemed that my health was going to be more of a problem than it has been in the past. Yet hubby strongly felt that God wanted us to go to Robe SA, plus a few places along the way. That town is over 2067 kms one way, 4,134 kms there and back! That’s a whole  lot of driving and traveling.  

In the end our only option seemed to be to travel down the inland road, which would take us 10 days –  nearly 20, there and back.  We can only do about 300 kms each day because we both have health issues, plus we always want to allow time to go to talk to people along the way. We had already eliminated flying because neither of us were sure if either of us could manage the long flight. However, we weren’t very concerned about any of it until the time got a lot closer, and by then, it became apparent that physically neither of us would be able to cope with such a large journey. 

Plus, our middle daughter, Kylee, and her son Jed, suddenly had to move house. The house they’d lived in for 11 years is going to be sold in June/July. She is a single mother of a 14 year old teenager, and she is homeschooling him, plus working 3 jobs. Fortunately recently she cut those jobs down to 2 – otherwise we might have to clone her!! Like a lot of other people today, she has to work very hard just to pay the rent, and put food on the table. And right at the time she had to move, and one part of her back-up team was about to trot off and leave her! She also can’t afford time off, she will still have to work as well. That’s the trouble with money trees, you over-pick them or they die!

Parents like to fix things. To be completely honest I personally probably jump in and ‘fix things’ without always praying first! Ho-hum. Because we want to help our daughter, it seemed that we couldn’t go on this journey at all, unless we went at some other time. Fortunately hubby hadn’t booked anything yet, so we prayed and the Lord confirmed our choice – March. Meanwhile, while we weren’t looking God had already taken care of ‘what concerns us’, as He promised He would in the bible! Our daughter and grandson have found somewhere to live, praise Him! I think, that when we make arrangements in our own strength, driven by worry and concern, God laughs. 

However, it seemed to us like we were between a rock and a hard place at the time! Over to my point: After this complication I gave it all up – my plans, plus all the bits and consequences to the Lord, and shut the door between me and the whole thing, very quickly. Then I left it alone. The next morning I continued to read the bible in my normal place, Mark – about the Lord’s death:

Mark 16:1-3“When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” …

Did you get that? It is easy to miss. These dear women had not planned ahead, they were already on their way to do what they set out to do. It was their final act of Love for the Lord. And it suddenly occurred to them they were not going to be able to GET IN. Now let’s read verse 3.

“… But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away!”  The pressure on these precious women had immediately come off. God removed the impediment, right out of the way, and they didn’t even pray or ask for it … because they didn’t even think about it until they were nearly there! How good is God?!

Boy, that scripture hit me so hard … right between the eyes…. I realised that I had to use my faith and step out, despite the impediments. Yeah, can you believe it? After all I’ve written here! Then He spoke to me in my heart: “You can go on the plane, I have removed that stone.” That stone was unbelief I’m thinking!! The Lord patiently explained to me that travelling by plane actually meant only 2 hours of discomfort, against 10 days of tiring, uncomfortable car travel.

When you look at it like that — it’s an easy peasy choice! The minute we heard from the Lord: “Go by plane” — every single thing fell into place. We had favour everywhere we booked – especially with the plane bookings! People bent over backwards to help us, because God Himself was working on our behalf.  

I want to finish today by saying this — there will always be a stone, a rock, a canyon, a river, an ocean, a boulder the size of Uluru in our way, when we decide to choose to obey Him! Whether we remember to ask for His help or not, God is still faithful. Stuff happens …all of the time. We can choose to do things with Him, or without Him – but with Him is so much better! And sometimes, because Jesus is GRACE personified, as we make a decision, He takes the impediments out of our way.

He is waiting for our ‘yes’ … …so wot’s in your way? Bye. 👋

P 2803 Choices.

/ DVH

All our lives we have been influenced by our own choices. Even if we choose not to choose – that’s still a choice! Yeah, I know irony central!! We are the people God Himself has chosen to represent Him, so we need to choose to do things the Way He does things. We have come into agreement with what He says and He will not enforce His will upon us. He will not take over, instead, the Holy Spirit has been given to us to lead us.

Jesus made choices while He was here on earth. “I don’t speak on My own authority. The Father who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to say it. And I know His commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells Me to say.”John 12:49-50. My point is this, we all know SomeOne, personally, Who knows how Jesus would choose if He was in our situation! He wants to help me, so I need to choose to rely upon the Holy Spirit’s guidance and wisdom. Look, you can make a cake with a fork and a whole lot of effort, but if you know you have a mixmaster you will do it far more efficiently and thoroughly!

We can fall into doubt and unbelief when we don’t know what the Lord says about something. And then our choices can get muddied and muddled. That’s where the bible, as well as prayer need to be our first choice. We cannot leave out the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He is the Person Jesus deliberately chose to send back to His people to help them. After choosing Christ to save us – the Holy Spirit is the BEST CHOICE to help us grow. He can be everywhere, at all times, all at once. We have SomeOne Who now lives within us, and He will help us make the kind of choices Jesus made, and He will give us the strength to carry them out!

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was ON certain individuals to carry out the Father’s wishes. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is now IN us. He flows through us because of our choices! I have a great sadness in my heart when I think about the doctrine that says that the Holy Spirit is all about speaking in tongues. He is so much bigger than a heavenly language, which, BTW, is for an individual’s benefit. I have no opinion either way about whether anyone else should speak in tongues. I refuse to major on this issue because I believe it is a personal choice. The Body of Christ has inadvertently majored on minor things, and it has separated us. Obedience to His Word needs to be our first priority.

However, in my opinion, speaking in tongues is a Holy Spirit aid. Doing this helps me get my own thoughts out of the way. Let us say I have an argument with Mrs Kerfoops down the road. She’s a bit of a nasty old biddy. When I pray for Mrs Kerfoops using my mind, I could easily pray for her attitude toward other people to change – I might even do that with great passion and fervour! But when I pray in tongues the Holy Spirit prays His truth from within me, through me. So I could end up praying for the lady like this: “Ke-yesus se min Abah  etc.etc.”  

If I were to translate that, and translation is part of speaking in tongues, I could be praying like this: “Jesus please help me to love Mrs Kerfoops like the Father does.”  And YES! I can also just pray that in English! Like I said, it’s a choice!  “Then what am I to do? I will pray with the spirit [by the Holy Spirit that is within me] and I will pray with the mind [using words I understand]; …”1 Corinthians 14:15 AMP. I need to remember that the Holy Spirit knows Mrs Kerfoops better than I do – He knows how to pray for her perfectly. After I’ve prayed as He leads me … that’s when something from His word that I already know, rises up within me, and helps me pray the way He wants me to pray.

So, instead of praying from my mind: ‘change her because she annoys me!’ – I choose to let Him guide me. The Holy Spirit speaks Armenian, Icelandic, Pakistani, and every known language on this earth. He also speaks in the tongues of angels. Sometimes my squirrelled-up thinking gets in the way of what He wants. I have found that speaking in tongues helps me to pray for bigger things than I could possibly think.

It is a common thing for human beings to excuse their own behaviour, and accuse other people about theirs. The fact that it is common, doesn’t make it Godly! I know this from personal experience. When hubby and I argue, it is often because I have lost my Peace somewhere, and I’ve just plain run out of Grace. As peace is like a RIVER and Grace was released by what Christ did at Calvary. What I need is already within me – IN HIM. I just need to access it through my choices. There are times, sadly, I don’t want to let go of my own opinion, I want to make my point instead! Yeah, I know … awful ain’t I?

The Holy Spirit is a Person Who is activated in and through our lives by our choices. Let’s look at using our faith. The bible says: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not yet seen.” (Hebrews 11) I will give my own personal faith substance when I choose to act on what I’ve read in the bible, or whatever I feel the Holy Spirit within me is saying to me. That prayer takes whatever I am praying and turns it into an action. That’s what gives my faith substance – ACTING ON IT.  Christianity is not a faith of theories, it is a faith of choices. It is up to us whether we make those choices or not, but many people will judge what we believe, by the way we live. 

We are not powerless. We are now citizens of His kingdom. Some things in our lives are more stubborn than burnt-on grease on the bottom of a frying pan! So it will take perseverance and choice to shift them. It will also take devotion to the stated end game;  and the end game is transformation. At the same time, as we concentrate on working out our salvation day by day – we need to be helped by the Holy Spirit. His input helps us see, understand, and appreciate truth, and He inspires us to go after it. He helps me to make the kind of choices that lead me after God’s ways. Our choices matter. Bye. 🕊️

P 2696 “This is the Way.”

/ DVH

“But the love of God will be perfected within the one who obeys God’s Word. We can be sure that we’ve truly come to live in intimacy with God, not just by saying, “I am intimate with God,” but by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.” 1 John 2:5-6.

I may surprise some people when I say I have enjoyed the series – ‘The Mandalorian.’ I’ve watched it several times, and the theme behind this fictional story, is that this man lives by a strict code of honour. His tribe adopts and looks after orphans – James calls that pure religion. Man I love it!! PS I hate all the creepy, ginormous creatures in that series – the ones that startle, pounce and munch. Back to my real point, I think there is so little honour in our society today. People criticise their spouses, friends, children, parents, teachers, workplace companions, bosses, our country’s leaders, church leaders … judgment seems to flow through most people’s lives like a river. That’s a polluted river! … Bad plan.

Because God Himself honoured us with His Presence and came here as a baby – plus He chose to obey man-made rules, He set the standard for us, His kids. Jesus Christ voluntarily submitted to His parents as well as the authorities of that time. And … He didn’t judge. His desire was to please God, and benefit others – and if He had to correct people, He did it with love and grace. Then He left here and went back to heaven, but before He left He released the power for us to live like He did.

In our current society I think we have completely overlooked the very real benefits of not judging others. Judgment is like garlic, you barely have to wave that stuff over the top of food to get it to flavour whatever it is. Our society chops judgment up and throws it into everything! We simply cannot benefit from soaking in a marinade of judgment – we’ll just STINK!  Personally, I think the lack of the flavour of the Living God, in and through our lives, can easily make us distasteful to others. Let’s always remember, religion tastes terrible, but the sweetness of His Presence enriches us as well as others. Unfortunately in our world, we have learnt to call what we say an opinion, and we think it is something we are entitled to. Sadly, God Himself still calls it judgment.

The Way into living a life of honour is to make informed choices, followed up by actions – based on the Word of God. We need to act on what we read. EG: Feed the poor. If we leave caring for the poor to established institutions, we will have totally missed out on the blessing that is promised for us when we bless others! Likewise if we judge our pastors,  … for things that we do ourselves, then they may become discouraged and leave the ministry. Plus if we deliberately harbour grudges, spite, unforgiveness, hatred, anger, sarcasm and criticism then we will spread those destructive flavours around us, and they will spoil whatever we do. But when we spread love it saturates and covers all things … including SIN. Yours, mine and ours.

Please don’t waste your time waiting for the moment to be right. The best time to do good is while it’s still daylight! I find if I wait to do good to others, I can end up talking myself out of it. So I try to do what He has told me to do – right away. Here’s the very best most fun thing to do – like EVER!  Do good to the people who are deliberately maliciously mean to you. Wow! What a buzz. When I do that my feet barely touch the ground for a week. Meanwhile saturating people in His goodness, is sometimes the only thing that impacts those people who have been hardened by this life. I’m crazy about the saying: LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, IT DRIVES THEM NUTS! However, I don’t recommend actually …doing it TO drive them nuts!  ‘See through you we do.’ 

When we are intimately involved with someone we dearly love we can’t wait to see the world through their eyes. We want to spend hours together just sharing thoughts back and forth. You and I dearly love Jesus – so we need to esteem the Holy Spirit directed skill of seeing the world through His eyes. There is no judgment in the Father’s Eyes. Judgment and all our sins fell on Christ on that cross. IT’S GONE. So let’s not drag it up again. Strangely other people don’t like being reminded of their sins about as much as you and I don’t like it! Speak life instead.

We cannot successfully walk with Him if we do not walk LIKE HIM. God’s power does its best work through the humble wisdom that comes down from above. The Way to walk with God and know Him intimately and bless others, has already been provided for us. “This is the Way.” That fiction character understood the power of loyalty, and choices. Bye. 👋

P 2686 The way we see others …

/ DVH

makes all the difference!! 

For years I had quite strong expectations regarding the people who are close to me – people like family, friends and relatives …I hoped they would be nice to me because I had a broken-heart because of a difficult early life. That’s what you call an unwise expectation!  I was very immature and quite dependant on other people’s approval. My time recently has been spent growing UP!

I think I kind of expected other people to be nice to me because I was abused as a child. And those people who hurt me, were still in my life. Some of their personal faults and proclivities meant they actually formed my world-view in the first place!  But I’ve learnt over time, that unless Jesus is in charge we all remain the same, and sometimes … we can get worse! Putting the key to our happiness in someone else’s pocket is a very dumb idea.

This was kind of like a giant chip on my shoulder, but I didn’t know it was there, I thought how I felt was normal because of my greatly disrupted early life. I saw myself as broken and it was someone else’s fault, not mine, so I couldn’t help it. Meanwhile I totally ignored the fact that as an adult I now had the power to change! Everyone else seemed so normal, and it often looked to me like I was the odd man out. I did not make allowances for the fact that others are as broken, if not more so, than I am. We are all broken in different ways.

When we choose to view life through pain, sorrow and suffering, it can result in a distorted view. I was a very disappointed, broken-hearted, and sometimes angry child – now walking about in an adult body, with a warped view of others. Sadly that meant at that time I was making a choice to go round and round in a little whirlpool, instead of advancing up the river, under the Lord’s loving Eye. Meanwhile, if these people happened to hurt me again, then that was often the final straw. That action meant that they would never change, they would never be nice to me! And despair joined the party.

I wish I could say that Christianity totally healed me from any of those thoughts and ideas, but it didn’t. It sort of kind of fed them, by telling me over and over that I was fine, God loved me, but I was definitely broken, it was not my fault and I desperately needed healing! I was one of those people who were never going to triumph in adversity purely because of my back ground. That meant that I chased healing up one hill and down the other, using pretty messed up faith. Unfortunately what I believed at that time actually cemented me into the very place I wanted to escape from!

That’s when the Lord began to deal with me. He was gentle and kind, but firm and unrelenting. He made it clear that I could no longer go forward excusing my behaviour whilst I was holding other people to account for theirs!  I love these words from the bible  “…but God …” because HE is always the real reason we keep moving on. He is so patient, and many times I’ve clung tightly to the words in Matthew 12:20, that say this about Jesus:“He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally He will cause justice to be victorious.”

I started to understand just how broken everyone else is. We all need healing, and the people I was interacting with didn’t know Him at all. That meant if I wanted to see real change then someone was going to have to co-operate with Him! He gave me this strategy: “What if you choose to see those people as human beings – not as someone who owes you something?” That meant viewing them as lost, broken, damaged human beings, just like me..

You know in all those years in the wilderness wandering around desperately looking for someone who could heal my broken heart, it never occurred to me that I had the power for change already …but I wasn’t using it. I could choose to forget the past and simply love the people I was avoiding or I disliked. He gave all of us that power at Calvary. He chose, and now I can too. So I did. I chose to believe Him and not how I felt. I let go of any expectations that the other people would EVER change and grabbed hold of His hand – because HE will never change. Now He’s teaching me to love the unlovely, the people who persecuted me, and those who were supposed to love me but they didn’t or couldn’t.

When I made that choice, it opened my eyes. I already knew lots of scriptures about forgiveness. The reality was I read them, and I prayed and I meant it. However, I got disappointed over and over again because forgiveness didn’t seem to help me with how I felt – and the other person did not change. It was then that  I saw that my forgiveness was conditional, it relied upon the other person changing.

Praise God my feelings eventually caught up with His reality. The way we see others, makes all the difference.  God  is gently teaching me His Way to love, how to look and see others the Way He sees them. If I don’t expect things from others then I won’t be disappointed if they lack the ability to love. I have to see everyone through His eyes and leave my expectations with Him. This life is about learning to love, even those people who don’t love us. When we live that way – we are truly free.

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” 1 Corinthians 13:11.👋