Ruins

P 3468 Check out of lukewarm!

/ DVH

“No soldier when in service gets entangled in the enterprises of [civilian] life; his aim is to satisfy and please the One who enlisted him.” 2 Timothy 2:4. 

“Sow seeds of righteousness for yourselves, and you will reap a harvest of God’s unending love. Break up the hard, fallow ground of your heart. For it is time to seek YAHWEH’s favour until He comes to pour out righteousness on you like falling rain.” Hosea 10:12 TPT.

We remain in His teaching when we live the way Jesus would. The bible tells us there is no room for lukewarmness, yet that very state is almost normal today. We have excuses for the way we live that are like the Tower of Babel … they reach up to the sky. But the only thing that is meant to reach that high is our praises! It seems we’ve chosen to forget that we died the day we came to Christ. Dead people have no reasonable excuses, they can’t defend themselves, or criticise others. They can’t do anything!

We can’t afford to wait for this kind of passion to overtake us – our new life in Christ relies upon us choosing to mature and taking every bit of what He said seriously. Nobody else can make us do that – we must do it voluntarily. The thing is, let’s be aware that we can maintain a perfectly even, cheerful outside attitude, while inside we are seething with anger and keeping count of other people’s supposed trespasses against us! Actors count on their ability to deceive their audience with their performance, but we are not actors.

It is up to us as individuals to find and break up the hard fallow ground inside us. Those things are — ‘areas that have become cold, unyielding, and closed off due to old habits, pride, emotional walls, or unresolved pain.’ (Google.) The Holy Spirit loves to help us identify areas where our hearts lack true Godly compassion and mercy. Let’s choose to remember that if the eye suffers, the whole body does. 1 Corinthians 12:26. We no longer have any claim to any kind of judgment, dead people don’t.

Here is a quick test to see if you have anyone in your life that you really can’t stand, and you want to avoid them like the plague. Check out your state of generosity and love levels toward that person. Generosity takes our ‘temperature,’ and we can often ignore it. We are told to ‘do good to those who despitefully use us …’ sadly, most of the time we can settle for appearances, or avoidance, or living our lives removed from others with token, spoken care. Many people have moved from one church to another because they felt lonely in the crowd. Husbands and wives end up treating each other like opposing forces, yet they appear fine on the outside.  

Because of what the bible says, I know that Jesus has redeemed the old me, and the new me would not dream of flinging bad stuff at you! A mature person knows that any differences  are present because that other person is unique … so they don’t withhold love, or doing good to whoever crosses their path. They don’t live with a level of deception that pretends all is well when it is not, and they don’t blame others for their own shortcomings. Instead they find places of agreement, and ‘lose’ the bad memories under the blood of Jesus, and deliberately choose to remember instances where love prevailed.

Breaking up hard ground starts with acknowledgement, repentance, plus reparation … We are even prepared to take the whole blame when it is obvious to you that you have done nothing. Humility thrives. These people care more about winning their brother than winning some squabble! They don’t justify their own behaviour, and blame someone else for what they have chosen to say or do. Humility hates separation and will do everything in its power to repair things. Here’s a great incentive – Jesus lives in each one of us, when we are unkind to each other we are being unkind to Him. Let’s not care about who did or said what to whom, and choose to care about unity instead.

“Your people (that’s God’s own people) will rebuild what has long been in ruins, building again on the old foundations. You will be known as the people who rebuilt the walls, who restored the ruined houses.” Isaiah 58:12. Did you get that? Rebuilding ruins … those things that have been broken for years. But then you, together with the Holy Spirit, choose to rebuild on the foundation of what Christ said and did. We’ve made the mistake of thinking that we must agree with others for relationships to be restored. Instead we agree that other people, whoever they are, are worth the effort because Jesus died for them too. 

We are now “in the service of our King.” That doesn’t ‘turn off’ when we are tired, fed up, or even ill. Let’s not forget what Jesus did for us, and GAVE to us. Otherwise we might forget the reason the Holy Spirit is here with us. He gives us the power to overcome in spite of our difficulties. He isn’t just with us so we can feel good, blessed or comfortable – His sole task is to make us, with our co-operation … like Christ. His goal is transformation, not petting us and patting us so we feel happy, vindicated and okay. 

Like soldiers who obey orders, now we live our lives in obedience to the Lord’s will, His way. There is no room for lukewarm when we daily choose to live like that. Bye. 👋. 

P 3434 A quality decision.  

/ DVH

“Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honour, and authority! Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm. Your crucifixion with Christ has severed the tie to this life, and now your true life is hidden away in God in Christ.” Colossians 3:1-3 TPT.

There is a way we all need to go … Proverbs 22:6, I think a description of that way appears in Colossians 3:1-3. That way means we don’t just die to self – we live this life resurrected, striding into a brand new life, where Jesus rules – right here, right now. This happened to each one of us when we gave our lives to Christ. He has kept His part of this covenant, and now it is up to us to keep our part.  Our part is an assignment. We choose to take Him with us wherever we go. 

His part will stand forever, whether people acknowledge it or not. Ours depends upon us believing what He said and acting accordingly – using our faith. Everything we read in the bible points to this brand new life that is ours for the taking – Jesus gave it to us when He died in our place. Why live in the defeated ruins of an old life, when the new life He died to give us is ours for the taking?

Our daily need for His help, and His freely-given input, turns into a yearning that encourages and motivates our faith to keep on pressing on, and in. We want Him. Not rules, not religion, but Him. Anything else pales into insignificance. There can be times we feel listless, plagued by an unwillingness to yield to Him, and we sometimes give into it. That stuff isn’t just disobedience — it comes from a lack of real focus about what is actually going on... God Himself is wooing us! This is the next part of our chosen adventure with Christ. He stands at the window, oil dripping from His nail-scarred hands, waiting to be asked into each and every moment.

We cannot afford to ignore the things Jesus said, they are our life-blood. Our spiritual life and health depends entirely on what He did for us, and our choice to believe the things written in His book are true. Otherwise we will pick and choose what we want to believe, and be led about by all sorts of distractions that will tickle our ears, and continually lead us nowhere. We might even become faddish, and look ridiculous to the world around us. 

Whenever God is truly present, conviction has to follow because His holiness challenges our humanity. Conviction is not about yelling at people for being sinful, and threatening them with a ghastly final destination – it also not just about going the wrong way — conviction means we are wrong! We can’t be right without His input. Deep down most people already know that their way of life is broken – they either don’t care, or don’t want to change, or they don’t know how to change. 

The reality of the Presence of God Himself, and His holiness, will convict many people of sin. As Christians, we simply have to do our bit, and release His love everywhere we go. Without the Holy Spirit’s leading, and His comforting Presence and help, God’s people can easily slide toward defining  themselves by their ability to keep rules … or not. Only very honest souls will own their inability to reach the Christ-like goal. The reality of the Presence of God Himself, and His holiness, will convict many people of sin.

As Christians, we simply have to do our bit, and release His love everywhere we go. Without the Holy Spirit’s leading, and His comforting Presence and help, God’s people can easily slide toward defining  themselves by their ability to keep rules … or not. Only very honest souls will own their inability to reach this Christ-like goal.

The Holy Spirit revives our faith as He leads us. Our faith was not design to drag along behind – always waiting for a sign, or proof, or some sort of approval. What matters in this process is the room we give Him in our lives. Some people can spend 60 minutes quality time with the Lord day by day, and it is enough to fuel their ministry. Others progressively fall in Love with A PERSON and they refuse to let Him out of their sight! The Holy Spirit longs to draw us into the same sort of depth we see in the Apostles in Acts.

We are all in the same battle. We daily fight to let Christ be everything to us, instead of simply our back-up in times of trouble. Freely loving Him is our reward – we don’t care what this world offers us, or what we think we might gain in the next. Jesus wants to reside/live/inhabit our lives, today. Imagine the honour! The King of glory quietly calls us to walk with Him. His Presence is not a merit badge tribute to our spirituality, He is our beloved Lord and Saviour – Who is closer to us than our heartbeat.

But we must deal with our own pride, our need for autonomy and self-importance. And make a quality decision to live in His resurrection life, listening to Him and loving others. Bye 👋.