Safe

P 3475 Pause, remember … and reset.

/ DVH

“God, You’re such a safe and powerful place to find refuge! You’re a proven help in time of trouble— more than enough and always available whenever I need You. So we will never fear even if every structure of support were to crumble away. We will not fear even when the earth quakes and shakes, moving mountains and casting them into the sea. For the raging roar of stormy winds and crashing waves cannot erode our faith in You. Pause in His Presence” Psalms 46:1-3 TPT.

When I read this today I realised that the last 4 words are the key to the first 79 ones! “Pause in His Presence.” What does that mean to you? To me it means when ‘the stuff’ is flying about so rapidly I can hardly breathe, my very best first response is to stop … and stand in His Presence. Why? Because those first 79 words remind me of Who He is and how much He loves and cares about us all – every single minute of every single day!  Those last four words show us how blessed we are. We can be in His Presence anywhere. Doing this will remind our spirits to defer to His ways.

Wherever you are reading this blog today, now is a good time to stop … and just stand or sit, in His Presence. Remember, it says pause, it doesn’t say ‘you must spend three hours.’  Anyone of us can pause for a few minutes, just long enough to slow your breathing and look into Jesus’ dear face. This is one of the best habits we can cultivate. We will momentarily block out the immediate, and focus on the eternal.

Our world may be groaning and griping all around us, but Jesus is not fazed by it. He knows what comes next. “He knows the plans He has for us – the ones that give us a hope and a future.” What we focus on gets bigger. When we focus on Him, He gets bigger than the problems, especially when we take a moment to renew our trust in Him.

Everything seems to be spinning around so fast sometimes, it is hard to keep up with what is going on. However, when we go and stand with Jesus and look up at Him, the noise, the fear, the challenges and the heartache come into perspective. These things come, and they go … Jesus always stays the same. His loving face toward us will not change.

The Lord Jesus’ love does not change, that’s why we can trust it. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases …” Our ineptitude in spiritual matters will not change His response. His love continually comes toward us. You are taking a moment to be with SomeOne Who truly understands humanity. And as you pause, please remember, despite what is going on around you, He’s the same Jesus Who loved you so much He died for you. Just let that soak in … then go back to your day. 

He is praying for you right now, right where you are. He prays perfect prayers. Pause and remember… ‘His goodness in the land of the living.’ ‘He is with us to give us His abundant life.” Those promises are not only about earthly things, they are about forever things. Like love, joy, peace. We can have peace with God because Jesus came here and made peace for us in His own Body, with His own blood. He will not take it back … “He demonstrated His love while we were still sinners….”

Troubles come and go, but our God’s Word remains the same. Your version of the bible may be a little different than mine, but it is still His Word to you today, right where you are. Pause, remember how much you are loved. He loves us when we first wake up and we haven’t even done anything yet! This love is not the kind of love that keeps score, because Jesus is not interested in Himself, He came here for mankind. We are His joy. The Lord looked through the pain He suffered and saw US. It is His greatest joy to facilitate our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Let go of all those bad, unhappy feelings, because they will cause you to stumble. Just cling to His truth and remember … the God Who made the Universe loves you. As we take a moment to pause in His Presence, we will begin to realise that these afflictions we are going through are momentary. They simply seem endless while we are in the middle of them. Remember, disappointment and despair do not come from our Heavenly Father, God. That’s the other guy. Resist him and bring all those busy thoughts captive, and just take the time to breathe. 

These moments belong to you and the Lord, whether you are on the train, in your car, on a bus. Wherever YOU are HE is there. You and I both know that the Lord has asked us to keep no record of wrongs, because Jesus Himself doesn’t remember our wrongs! In your pausing, remember to let go of any hurtful or bad things — just like you would let go of a balloon and watch it float away. Those things can’t hurt anybody when we let them go! Jesus understands … let that be enough.

We pause, remember, and reset, even if it is just for a few moments on our way to somewhere else. Stand in His Presence and watch the worries, cares, and seismic shifts jostling you, simply melt away. God’s got you, your family, and this world. Like Jesus said to the wind and the waves: “Peace, be still.” So let’s take any opportunity to quiet our hearts in the middle of life’s bustle and strife… and pause in His Presence, remember and reset. Bye. 👋. Thank you Jesus!

“So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23 TPT. 

P 3466 Our new life is an adventure.

/ DVH

Spending time with the Lord can quite easily become just a habit. It is a good habit … BUT… the reality is, I don’t choose to spend time with my husband out of habit. I love him, and I enjoy his company, plus I also totally appreciate the way he looks at this life. We need to see our Heavenly Father and think of Him that way too, because Jesus Himself instructed us to call Him “our Father” in Matthew 6:9-13, and Luke 11:2-4. You can’t do better than that! He dearly loves each one of us. What more can we ask for?

In Genesis it accentuates that ‘God Himself is our shield and great reward.’ So let’s think about a shield and what it does. First of all it means the Lord is between us and trouble. Nobody should hold a shield at arm’s length, away from their body, and expect it to protect them! A shield is meant to cover your whole body, all the vital parts, Father God wants and needs to be that close to us. Over in Ephesians 6:16 it explains what the shield it is for. “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” We put out all kinds of fires in our lives as we choose to hold up our faith-shield of His love for us.

Our faith in His Word and His goodness will always be our shield. We can’t manage this new life of ours without it, so trying  to live any other way is folly. I’m a literalist … When God tells me I am safe behind the shield He gave me … I believe Him. What He says, in His book, is my point of faith. That is based on the fact that I know our God does not lie. The things that are sent by the enemy to maim or kill us, need to crash into this shield, before they ever get near to us.

Behind us and around us stand our brothers and sisters. When we are together we are a tightly knit army. We all have a God-given shield, along with other defensive and protective things, also listed in Ephesians 6, these things are designed to keep us safe and active. I’m not big on this thing means that … blah blah blah. I like to take the Lord God at His Word. I believe the bible was written for dumb people – and I know I ARE one.

“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Genesis 15:1 NKJV. “My God is my protection and with Him I am safe.” Psalm 18:2. It seems to me that we have a quorum – here are a whole lot of verses which say that Father God’s desire is to protect me, the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus agree with Him, and I join in with “YES!” Done deal.

“Lord, in my place of weakness and need, I ask again: Will You come and help me? I know I’m always in Your thoughts. You are my true Saviour and hero, so don’t delay to deliver me now, for You are my God.” Psalms 40:17 TPT. Amen. Often our basest desire is to protect ourselves from other people’s barbs, and perhaps that kind of response has been cultivated from our own personal experiences. You know, other people don’t always mean to poke you in the ribs with a dagger, maybe you stumbled and fell on it by mistake, and you have misunderstood their motivation. Good place to stop and think.

Let’s err on the side of caution, and give our brothers and sisters in Christ the benefit of the doubt. If we don’t learn to do that, or practise forgiving even the deliberate jabs we can snidely aim at each other — then we will become an army of ONE. Father God will still be my protection –  but when we act like cranky numpties and get mad at the brethren – we lose the protection on each side of us, in the front and at the rear. An arrow can kill you just as dead from the side or behind. Ya might want to think on that too for a bit. It could be a good time to mend some bridges.

Just like knowing my husband has been a huge reward in my life, so knowing Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, climbs way off the charts. Knowing our Heavenly Father gives me access to all kinds of things I can never ever know on my own, but now I have His book, revealing Who He is to me. This book features a different perspective that changes depending on my viewing angle and circumstances.

The bible is like a prism, one way we see red, another blue, the colours are inexhaustible and so are the possibilities. He is our precious Helper, He knows exactly what I need to see when I am reading it. And He will teach us and help us translate what we read into comfort, instructions, deeper meanings and application for ME – just because I asked Him to help me. I read my bible believing He wants to speak to me!

Father God Himself will always be our greatest reward, so now we have daily access to an abundant love that does not depend on our actions. SomeBody Else freely and gladly paid for us to have this freedom, plus our ongoing knowledge of His kind of love, depends on our willingness to interact with Him. Because my sin before Him is forgiven and forgotten, I can relate freely, honestly without fear of rejection – in His eyes that is a done deal. Father God is my shield, shelter, my great reward, my ability to see further than I can with my own eyes. 

He is the supplier of everything I will ever need. This life is an adventure with Almighty God, you never ever know what He will do next. Take the time to read the Old Testament, if you happen to need proof. Bye.👋.

P 3285 Practical stuff.

/ DVH

I want to be practical today because I have spent a number of days talking about living in the new life that Christ died to give us. So today I want to talk about how I am learning to live that way. First of all, I refuse to allow things I’ve done, or things other people have done, to remain hidden and unacknowledged. I treasure my relationship with the precious Holy Spirit above everything, so whatever He wants, I do. Pretence shoots honesty in the foot.

Theories cannot change our lives unless we actively decide to participate in them. Most people want to practice the things we are taught, so they nod and smile and go home … and try harder to meet the impossible standard Jesus set for all of us. Over the years I’ve learnt I am not capable of anything but the appearance of good. However, Christianity is not just practical, it is possible. Here’s the good news. Jesus died to give us His power to overcome our enemy, our own faults, as well as this world! And here is the bad …truth, humility and honesty are the highways we need to travel on.

We cannot expect to serve Jesus and maintain the life we already have. The whole point is for US to be changed. This point is the place where so many Christians part company with the Holy Spirit’s Ways. However, we simply cannot live with a foot in each camp, eventually we will slide back into the camp that looks after “me, mine, myself and I!’ “Mankind heads for sin and misery as predictably as flames shoot upwards from a fire.” Job 5:7.

Over to an illustration … I have been at odds with someone in my immediate family, all of my life. We both just saw things differently – we simply didn’t get each other. I tried to avoid dealing with this person by staying in their presence for the shortest time possible. Then the Lord began to challenge me about how I was treating them. The truth was, I treated them like a bad smell! I was polite … and distant. The Holy Spirit can lead us into distancing ourselves from someone for a purpose and a time, but in this case, I just plain disliked everything that person said and did, so I stayed away. I didn’t like being around them – they uncovered who I really was! 

Then He began to challenge me and I saw that underneath my hurt and pain, was resentment, hatred and bitterness. I wanted THEM to change who they were to make ME more comfortable! Anyhoo, they weren’t changing, and as time went on, things got worse. OH, how I hate the land of worse!! So I gathered up my courage and asked Him how HE wanted me to treat them, and His perfect answer sent me into self-pity, tears, and petulance. After all, everybody I knew agreed that I was much safer far away from this person. But HE didn’t. I just need to say, that if you have a problem like this one, then you need to ask the Holy Spirit what He wants YOU to do, and do it – but be guided by what the Bible says!

At that time, Jesus told me to treat that person like I would treat HIM. Sigh. I would have rather swum through shark-infested giant seas to South America, than do that. It seemed to me like I was giving them permission to continue to treat me badly. Then the Lord said this from Psalm 91:15&16 “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. …I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress…” So I crawled up into that Psalm, and clung on to it like a Rhesus monkey and prayed ‘help help!’ At the same time, I banged on my hat of salvation, picked up my breast-plate of righteousness and the sword of truth, and off I went. FYI the sword of the Spirit is not for slicing and dicing the other person – the Holy Spirit guides and teaches us how to use this sword His way.

I recommend tackling this kind of relationship difficulty, with at least 3 Holy Spirit inspired scriptures, that you’ve prayed over – as well as asking Him for His wisdom. After a while of loving on this person the way I love Him, I noticed that they hadn’t changed at all … … but I had! That sore place inside me had become inaccessible because I had stepped into FAITH. Then I realised that so much of what happened when I was with them, I had taken personally – but those things were the result of this person’s mal-formed personality. What I thought was personal viciousness, was their way of getting what they thought they needed. Their humanity was on display, and they didn’t know Jesus so it was the only course of action they had.

As I stuck with the Holy Spirit’s plan, I gradually saw a brand new person I had never met before. I still didn’t much like the way that they did things, but that stuff is not actually my business. I found we could laugh together, and genuinely express love for each other. At this point I want to stress that only someone very close to you can hurt you so badly.  Other people can come along and poke you in the scars you bear from your previous injuries. Don’t maltreat them for jumping on your hurt places.

We call it protecting ourselves, and God says “He is our protection and with Him we will be safe!” I found practicing loving my enemy – in this case a family member – worked best, when I started with the person who hurt me the most! That person could be a spouse, or a parent or a sibling, but the transformation that we personally experience, gives us the impetus to continue living this way. We get to see His power at work in our lives.

Here is a final question: “Have you ever noticed when you are with someone who hurts you, it never occurs to you that you might be hurting them at the same time, because you are way too busy firing arrows at them?” Yeah, I know… bring that up! We can become so entrenched in our own attitudes we can’t see anything, or anyone else. Let’s remember that God’s word is practical, you can stand on it.  Fixing relationships is essential! Bye. 👋

P 3277 The Lord cannot let you down.

/ DVH

“The Lord is my light and my salvation;  I will fear no one. The Lord protects me from all danger; I will never be afraid.

When evil people attack me and try to kill me, they stumble and fall. Even if a whole army surrounds me, I will not be afraid; even if enemies attack me, I will still trust God. I have asked the Lord for one thing one thing only do I want: to live in the Lord’s house all my life, to marvel there at His goodness, and to ask for His guidance. In times of trouble He will shelter me; He will keep me safe in His Temple and make me secure on a high rock. So I will triumph over my enemies around me. 

With shouts of joy I will offer sacrifices in His Temple; I will sing, I will praise the Lord. Hear me, Lord, when I call to You! Be merciful and answer me! When You said, “Come worship Me,” I answered, “I will come, Lord.”Don’t hide Yourself from me! Don’t be angry with me; don’t turn Your servant away. You have been my help; don’t leave me, don’t abandon me, O God, my Saviour. My father and mother may abandon me, but the Lord will take care of me. Teach me, Lord, what You want me to do, and lead me along a safe path, because I have many enemies. Don’t abandon me to my enemies, who attack me with lies and threats. I know that I will live to see the Lord’s goodness in this present life. Trust in the Lord. Have faith, do not despair. Trust in the Lord.”  Psalm 27 GNB. 

In order to maintain our faith and sanity, we need to regularly and deliberately stop and take the time to remind ourselves of Who He is, and how very much He loves us. Meanwhile, who are we to fellowship with SomeOne like Almighty God, and dare to call Him “Father?” Thank you Jesus!  How constantly and consistently He seeks to protect us and comfort us. He is not a God Who stands afar off. (Psalm 10:1) The Lover of our soul, Jesus, is our dearest Friend Who sticks closer than a brother.(Proverbs 18:24) We are so incredibly blessed!

Sometimes the things we need to do and the places we need to go to, can be overwhelming. Plus the people  who often crowd in on us, and don’t always contribute anything positive! And so we forget God is our ever-present help in time of need. These are the times to press in to Him. God sits on His throne and laughs at the threats and posturing of His enemies. So we have nothing to be afraid about, because the Lord has us in His care. We are the apple of His eye, His people, His sheep. He is the good Shepherd Who protects and guards His sheep against all attacks and threats. In difficult times, we need to tuck ourselves under His Wings, where there is shelter. If you feel besieged and under threat, run to the Lord, and hide yourself in His goodness. 

I like to take the time to reaffirm my faith and trust in His goodness. Please understand this action is not an immediate EXIT strategy. Instead I am making a decision to deliberately enter into His rest. Focussing on His goodness helps the process of watering and fertilising the seeds of my faith, even at a time when I am raw and unsettled. That’s what faith looks like. It isn’t always pretty, or powerful.  However, our Mighty powerful Lion of Judah will come to our aid as we fix our eyes on Him and not what is going on around us. The point is, our faith is in WHO He is, not just in changed circumstances or how we feel or react to them.  

Our Heavenly Father cannot let us down because He has chosen to be bound by His own promises. He wrote them down! This means we cannot forget them and we can be encouraged in the dark night of our soul to trust Him when it seems impossible. It is His integrity that is at stake here. That’s why the great patriarchs and mighty men of the past, held Him to His Word. The Lord delights in the kind of faith that holds Him to His Word! This faith is not based on feelings, but it can be influenced by HISTORY … our shared history with Him.

The bible clearly tells us that Father God does not keep score of our blunders and sinfulness, because our debt has already been paid by Jesus. That glorious, terrible event is part of our shared history with God.  He chooses to focus on the freedom His Love bought us. All He sees when He looks at us, now, is His dear Son’s blood. That blood is as fresh in our lives today, as it was when it was willingly shed back then, at Calvary. That’s why we need to choose to voluntarily repent quickly, and repair things. Our desire is to stay under the blood of Jesus.We rely upon the Lord’s costly provision and His truthfulness. 

We have no reason to deliberately nourish sin in our lives anymore. It has no power or authority over us! Jesus took the devil’s power away from him – all he can do now is deceive us. But because we love our Father’s Word and joyfully obey Him, we can live a brand new life filled with His love and purposes. We’ve chosen to be dead to what we want, and alive to what He wants. And now we embrace the power of the cross in our lives from day to day. That power delivers us from evil as we embrace His life in us! 

Like the Psalmist says: stuff still happens. Our enemy has not given up on trying to deceive us, but we are so blessed! We have the truth to set us free, and uncover the lies we are being fed. No wonder the Psalmist is joyful and can’t wait to worship God! His knowledge of the Lord’s goodness and His ways are His greatest comfort in times of trouble. We have God’s Word written down, signed in the blood of Jesus. He will do what He said He will do, and more. He cannot let us down – His faithfulness is legendary.Bye. 👋

P 3268 Yesterday I learnt a lot.

/ DVH

I was in and out of tech land for the whole day yesterday, and I rapidly came to the conclusion that what was happening inside me, was even more important as anything else going on around me. I was not a happy camper! I can see the irony in the fact that the last picture I struggled so hard to post said:… ‘Sorry!’  … 🤣

My take-away-lesson from the Lord was, no matter how much control we think we have, the reality is, we have none … “unless the Lord builds the house, we labour in vain.” Psalm 127:1. My technical problems yesterday  showed me that I must learn to let things go. Now there is something I’ve written about here for a long time now! But it was extremely difficult to do. You have my sincere apology for oversimplifying stuff that is hard. Please forgive me. 

Meanwhile, I learnt that PRIDE can hide itself in the sneakiest places!  I just found some … I found it in the last place I thought it would be – writing this blog! Because I haven’t missed a day in over 8 years and I didn’t want to break my own record, I had built some sort of significance for myself through doing it. So I had a melt-down. The tech guys were doing their best to fix the problem, and at the same time, I also had to interact with AI.  I have to say, I don’t like AI very much! It can’t be reasoned with, my brain and its logic don’t mind-meld! What a frustrating thing that was! 

The realisation finally dawned on me that the Lord needs to be my only significance – not what I do, or don’t accomplish in a day. I have found He is always so kind and patient with me, He waited for me to wake up to myself and repent, and it took a while too! You know, many daily things can be taken for granted and when they misfire, it seems like you were standing on something that looked secure – and then suddenly it slides out from under you – because you aren’t standing on the Lord’s Grace anymore! 

With that in mind, I figured pride and learning curves are good things to talk about today. When stuff becomes clear, and you realise that you have fallen into pride, it is far too easy to try to drag yourself back up again … without learning anything. I think we can do that on the premise that everything worked OK before the drama, so why not now? But that thought means we will miss out on what the Lord wants to reveal to us and teach us, and I personally don’t recommend it!

That’s when I finally realised that I need to stay more open to change. Often the Lord has to literally peel back layer after layer that we have cleverly wrapped around our hearts to feel safe, wanted, stable and useful. BUT …“GOD  (Himself) is my refuge and my strength, my ever present help in times of need.” Psalm 46:1. The reality is I will always need His help! My self-effort, no matter how good the cause seems to be, doesn’t cut it. The Lord has always helped me write this blog, so I need to trust Him to look after it … whether I can post it or not! Meanwhile, I don’t want to miss the lesson of yielding to the circumstances, and putting Him in charge.

In my recently revised opinion… like yesterday… how’s that for current? Ev-er-y-th-ing is an opportunity for growth. And if it is frustrating, then it is going to end up being a really great opportunity to see what’s actually going on inside. Because of my own situation, suddenly I could see how easily someone can get caught up in book sales, favourable opinions and conferences, as well as numbers. That stuff is a lot more easy to buy into when you have invested your heart and your time. The point is not – are we being successful? It’s actually – are we pleasing Him? And that is not always the same thing!! “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:9.(Hebrews 11:6)

At the same time, I had stopped using my faith, and instead I was doing it so I wouldn’t let other people down. And I took up the heavy burden to make the blog work. Plus it had become so important for me to keep building the numbers than I ever realised. The reality is, I am not solely responsible for the outcome – a tech team in Denmark is also silently contributing by keeping the site running smoothly. When that didn’t happen the way I thought it should, I got so angry and what came out was: ‘I will lose my readers.’  Not my finest moment. Sigh.

I have now come to the decision that we can hide ourselves from ourselves in order to make us feel better about ourselves. And yes, I know I have overused the word ourselves! Teehee. I also know that one of the things that has stabbed Christians in the foot in the past, is that many people with influence aren’t always honest. And after a while, the normal pile of junk that leaders feel they must maintain, piles up to the roof and it becomes insurmountable …no wonder so many leaders in the body of Christ do dumb things!  When we begin to evaluate what the Lord is doing through us — we’ve missed the entire point! 

Nobody means to be dishonest, because we all love Jesus. However, we can get caught up trying to protect our reputation under the guise of protecting His reputation … like He needs our help! I learnt a lot yesterday! Please pray for me that I can successfully avoid pride and stop fussing over numbers!  Bye. 👋

P 3188 His will His way.

/ DVH

Let’s imagine, or even try to stretch our imaginations a bit, and think about being fourteen or fifteen years old, unmarried and pregnant. You just happen to live in a society that at the very least, would shun you … but at its worst …it just might want to stone you to death! You know you are pure and innocent, but other people won’t see it that way. And you have to tell your fiancee that God Himself made you pregnant!  That would have been some conversation with him and her parents!

Now that Christmas is coming toward us at warp speed, I thought today was a good day to think about these two young people and what they had to face to carry out Almighty God’s calling over their lives. While we whinge and whine when the Lord asks us to mow our neighbours lawn! Or maybe He has asked us to be nice to our in-laws? We make lists about these presents and that food, but there are some among us that can’t wait for all the hoo-haa to be over! 

It seems to me that back then in Bethlehem it was a different, far-less-indulgent time. People often faced the consequences of their actions on the spot! God Himself chose this inexperienced young couple, for an honour the likes of which this world has never seen before — or since! Praise Him they both had integrity, character and a shared devotion to His will. They chose to obey HIM despite the hardship it involved. Imagine managing a faith test like Mary and Joseph had to face …in a very religious society to boot. 

The Roman occupying forces demanded that everyone, including Mary, who was pregnant out to here (!) ← → had to return to their place of their ancestor’s origins. Meanwhile, our census turns up in the post and people moan about that! Joseph himself was from David’s genealogy, so this young couple had to go all the way to Jerusalem. Which, BTW, was hardly a leisurely stroll to the local shops!  All this happened so the citizens could be counted and to make sure that the appropriate taxes would be paid to the Roman Government. And we think our lives are hard!! 

That donkey we see in all the so-called Christmas pictures, was probably something tradition made up, just to make a pretty picture out of a long and difficult journey. Mary and Joseph weren’t rich people, and while this young couple may have travelled within a caravan of people, simply because there was a possibility of bandits along the way — in that 129-145 kilometre week-long journey, it is more likely that they walked.… All that happened just so they could pay more tax to an occupying army! 

Let’s think about Mary for a moment… the last month of a pregnancy is not the greatest time to go on a bush walking tour! It must have been incredibly taxing for her, as well as disappointing to be in labour, and have no safe shelter at the other end. Plus she had no family on hand to help either of them with the process. I’m writing about this today because we have a tendency to mentally glamourise our picture of the birth of Jesus, without taking into account the reality of the situation. 

When we do that, we can minimise the pure faith of this young couple who were simply being law-abiding citizens doing what was asked of them!  But their obedience meant that they were walking straight into unknown hardship. And at the same time — they were also walking straight into God’s will for them. Funny how that happens sometimes, isn’t it?

When I think of giving birth the way Mary gave birth I shudder. I gave birth to three kids in a hospital. In one of them we couldn’t find a nurse. In another, women were giving birth in the corridor! But I had medical attention close to hand. All Mary had was Joseph. This young man was a carpenter – what did he know about giving birth? Mary was all alone, in pain, and her husband knew bupkis. There she is giving birth to God’s precious Son, her own Saviour – in a cave or animal shed. All because prophetically, they are clearly demonstrating that this world did not even want a Saviour. God’s will can put us into difficult situations through no fault of our own.

So much happened to them in the process of bringing Jesus into this world. I think their response is so beautiful – unrelenting devotion. After all that, this life was not finished with throwing hardships at them. They finally got settled as a family, only to have to escape from a jealous despot who wanted to kill all the Jewish baby boys so he could be the only king on the premises. So, off the little family goes again. This time they are running from persecution and the fear of death — simply trying to find somewhere safe to raise their little son. No wonder Joseph baulked at returning to their hometown, when it was finally safe again – their lives had been in chaos for months.

Jesus Christ was born under all these difficult conditions simply to fulfil prophecy. His life, birth and death identified Him with everyone. Including the poor, weak, homeless, unwanted, rejected, persecuted, marginalised people of this world – not in theory, but in practice. Jesus and His parents had to live minute by minute with stress and strain and hardship.. Nobody asked either Mary or Joseph if they thought they could handle all the persecution and fear that lay ahead, it simply happened to them. 

Let’s pray that we can grab hold of all the courage and clarity that has been made available to us because of what Jesus did. I wanted to talk about the things this couple faced, simply because we too can face awful, difficult situations regularly and we feel oppressed by them.Things can seem insurmountable. We can easily baulk at all those things we face, and wonder why God would let such hard and bad things happen to us. He didn’t spare His precious Son!  

In the bright joyous light of Christmas, we also need to deliberately remember the things which can turn us away from our devotion to Him. We won’t always understand why some things happen, any more than that young couple did. But we need to choose to look for the good in the middle of trouble and strife. Right now, we are training our spiritual senses to be aware of the very real spiritual war going on all around us.Let’s remind ourselves that some people are hoping for a decent meal in their Santa sack, plus somewhere safe to sleep – instead of being rudely awakened by vicious godless men with machetes.

What does it matter if our little Franco or Zelda does not get some you-beaut fancy electronic gizmo for Christmas? That temporary pleasure is something that will be probably pronounced boring and discarded in a week! The most precious gift ever, has already arrived, and He completed His heaven-sent assignment to the letter. Jesus Himself, is our proof that our God is out-of-this-world generous in His gift-giving. And instead of complaints, moaning and groaning, rebellion and disobedience — let’s also remember that two very ordinary people were brave enough to follow His will, His way. Bye. 👋

P 3101 Life happens!

/ DVH

Just recently we had someone try to pinch all our financial details. So, we grudgingly packed a cut lunch and then hubby picked up the phone and settled in for the long haul, which means we had to connect to someone in the bank so we can inform them what happened. THAT is a whole day job! We entered the long and dreary world of guess the right extension bingo! Actually we went round and round for a bit, but eventually we found someone who didn’t just want to transfer us somewhere else. I think some people want you to hang up because you are too hard for them, but they are too nice to tell you that. 

An-y-wa-y … finally we gave a real live person our sad little story and the nice person on the other end was prepared to take responsibility to help us fix the ending. It appears someone cloned hubby’s voice. As this never-ending saga gobbled up most of that day, I started to think of clever ideas to stop your voice getting cloned to prevent the whole thing from reoccurring. At the same time we also prayed for the people who thought stealing is a legitimate job! I wonder if they do tax returns? So today I came up with daffy ideas to cheer both of us up.

I wondered if buying a voice-changing device would be a good idea? Good old Amazon has loads of those. You can sound like Darth Vader, or Daffy Duck, or a lady might sound like a man … stuff like that. It could be a bit expensive, we are pensioners after all! But then came bright idea number 2. Buy a helium balloon and breathe in some gas. Um … I’m not quite sure of the long term results of breathing in helium, I’ve been assured it isn’t deadly, but that did seem a bit extreme. I mean, how many people have helium balloons on tap, waiting for a thief to phone up so they can use them? 

So now we’ve hit upon a capital idea. Hubby says his first name and then he waits – the rest is up to the other guy on the other end of the phone. Some people do think they can out-wait you …but they could be wrong! … And so far they have been. Thank God some semblance of order has been restored to our financial situation. We could of course, take our savings and stuff them under the mattress — but then we just might run into another kind of crook, who breaks into your house and wants to make your stuff – THEIR STUFF. 

In the past – long before Jesus and I discussed Who really owns everything we have, when I went on holidays, I hid all my dearly loved items in peculiar places. Not in the freezer! …cos I have it on good authority that thieves look in there! But in totally idiotic hidey holes around the house. There was only one teeny tiny problem with that. By the time I got home again, I had forgotten wherever my precious treasures were hidden and it took me AGES to locate them again. So the Lord kindly reminded me I was hiding my treasures in the wrong place. “Store them up in heaven,” the Holy Spirit said. ‘That’s a great idea.” says I, “where do I find a l-o-n-g ladder?”   

It seems to me that Father God has a great sense of humour and He always has a much better slant on any situation we find ourselves in. I think that’s why Paul said … “all things work together for good.”  He did add,“according to His (the Lord’s) purposes “.. but most people skip that bit because they aren’t quite sure what it means. They just like the beginning of the verse — the ending not-so-much. I decided to think on the phrase according to His purposes more thoroughly. 

This is what I came up with – God’s purpose and our purpose may not always be the same. He wants to save thieves, and we want them to GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL and not pass Go! Like I said, we did pray for them  because they may not have anyone else to do it! Then we asked for the Lord to invade their lives, the way He has invaded ours. After all Jesus had a thief for a disciple, so He knows about stuff like that. Then we blessed them because the bible says to bless people when they persecute you, and despitefully use you. And at the same time we also prayed for our money to come back to us, and, praise God, it did! But that didn’t seem to be the entire point of that phrase… then I found this version of Romans 8:26-28.

“Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” MSG.

I think this means a couple of things:  we don’t have to pray right, to get the Lord’s attention. We already have it because we belong to Him. After all, Judas didn’t have to jump up and down for Jesus to speak to him, yet the Lord knew he was a wrong-un. The Holy Spirit is always with us, helping us, whether we know what to pray or not! Isn’t He wonderful? He also keeps us present before God.

The Lord’s purpose for this world is clearly stated in John 3:17: “For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.” His purpose is to save people, even thieves!  And because He is God and He is always good – HE gets to define good!  Bye.👋

P 3072 Make yours a life well lived.

/ DVH

“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16 MSG.

The person we need to be is the one Almighty God planned for us to be when He created us. Did you know there’s a big difference between the person you’ve become – because life’s bashed you up a bit – and the person God intended when He created you? That difference is our learning curve. I’m older, I’ve bumped into a lot of learning curves. 

You know, old age is not always the drag everybody thinks it is. Old people are way less threatening to young ones when their hair gets white and they kind of hobble about. Old people don’t constitute a threat. If you are really fortunate and your family is kind, now you can tell the same stories over and over again, and not realise you are doing it. While they all listen politely. Now there’s a perk! Meanwhile you might look a bit addlepated. Oh well. 

However! The bible has a whole other idea about who we ALL are! You and I, we are the light. When we walk into a room, that whole room is flooded with His light, because He goes with us. This means that we can tell the difference between this life’s fake stuff and the real. God’s light bulb inside us, is so bright, all the hollow useless stuff shows up instantly. We can waste the time He gave us striving to look cool, or clever, or wise … or we can enjoy Him. You can’t do both. What a great pity it is when God’s people stumble around in the dark when we were made to shine, and give Him glory by doing it.

That verse above tells us the very best and only way to keep our faith alive. We must use it. I can guarantee using it will be extremely inconvenient, and pride will probably fall on its head as we learn to do what the Lord wants. For so many years, I tried hard to be kind and caring – but – people would annoy me and then I’d have to avoid them. In that process I picked up awful attitudes toward other people! Trying is out – doing it anyway is in. 

Hubby and I have been doing peculiar things for years, as the Lord guides us – we don’t think of them as outrageous, we think of them adventures with the Holy Spirit and Jesus. The bible tells us in 1 Peter 2:9 that we have been chosen to be ‘a peculiar people.’  We try to live up to that. So we’ve done things that people said would never work, and sometimes they did and sometimes they didn’t – but every single time we had to use our faith. I keep telling you, eleven good Godly men sat in that boat watching Peter walk on the water. They were safe, but they didn’t stretch their faith!

I walked around for 2 years, about 45 years ago, claiming God had healed my eyesight. I was taught that I could have whatever I wanted, and I wanted to see without glasses. A-n-d … He didn’t heal my eyes. Instead I became stuck down the hole of my own proclamation of healing when I was actually as blind as a bat. Sadly I was far stupider than bats are – they have radar! I crossed busy roads, went on trains, did all the usual stuff, claiming I was healed. Would you like to know the miracle in all that dumb? I was never in danger for a second, not one. Isn’t He amazing??!! My Heavenly Father took care of me in all my stupidity. I repented and went and got glasses again, but I learnt you can huff and puff, but you cannot twist God’s arm.

However, I did learn something else that is very important – God is wa-ay bigger than our mistakes.The smart thing is to jump into His river and let Him steer your little boat. My life, thus far, has not been boring — and neither is the Lord! Bringing out ‘the God-colours’ in this world involves innovation and creativity and a positive attitude. We are the most blessed people on earth – we can’t DIE. When we leave here, we go to heaven. Win, win! Many times we are clinging to the things that cannot last, and ignoring the things that DO. Desperately trying to distract ourselves from who we’ve become in the meantime.

We say stupid things like: “IF God heals me, I will serve Him. Or if God fixes my kid, my marriage, my relationships, my job, then I will serve Him.” Who said we have that option? We serve Him because He is Almighty God! The bible is not an either/or book. Have you read the Old Testament lately? God is incredibly good, but it’s HIS way or the highway. The people who are alive in these times need hope. HOPE is Jesus’ middle Name! Well, it’s one of them, the Lord has a lot of middle Names. (Prince of peace, Mighty God…) !!

“Sing God a brand-new song! Earth and everyone in it, sing! Sing to God—worship God! Shout the news of His victory from sea to sea, Take the news of His glory to the lost, News of His wonders to one and all!” Psalm 96:3 MSG. The God of all the Universe made you to shine. Make a decision to make your life a life that is well-lived, and not just a safe one! Bye. 👋 

P 3066 Position yourself to catch the Wind.

/ DVH

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If you truly want to follow Me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share My cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to My ways.” Matthew 16:24 TPT. I believe the secret to this verse is in the words: ”if you TRULY want to follow Me.” 

This thought is repeated in Luke 9:23-24 TPT: “Jesus said to all of His followers, “If you TRULY desire to be My disciple, you must disown your life completely, embrace My ‘cross’ as your own, and surrender to My ways. For if you choose self-sacrifice, giving up your lives for My glory, you will discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will lose what you try to keep.”

We often look at our actions, we don’t often look at our aims, desires or wants. So we can quickly feel broken-hearted when we know we’ve failed the Lord. Especially if we revise the things that miss the mark. Those self-accusations won’t help us to follow Him. If you and I think we have messed up too much, we will start to AVOID Him, not follow Him! 

Meanwhile, that is not what He is saying here. Our wants and desires matter to Him. But it is LOVE that is meant to lead us into the place of obedience. Forcing ourselves, creates resistance. I think this means we need to change our primary focus – don’t look to other people for that kind of love, look to Jesus. Then BE the person you need others to be to you!  Read His book like a love letter. Go to the Lord and tell Him that you want to be close to Him, that you long to make Him your heart’s primary desire, but your flesh is weak. Tell Him you need His help. Then let the Holy Spirit be your Personal Coach and follow His instructions – they are in the book.

There are things that make us feel guilty – whether the guilt is real or not. But until they are confessed and dealt with and put aside …we can easily rationalise away the real issues and start fighting the Wind…literally! A kite doesn’t try to fly – it simply positions itself to catch the wind! The Holy Spirit is the wind beneath our wings.  I may not need what you need right now. I may need His loving discipline, but you could need a hug! Christianity is not ‘one size fits all!’ 

We have a Saviour Who personalised everything He did and said as He ministered to individuals. He didn’t go digging around in the coal cellar of people’s hearts, He accurately touched the sore spot in there, and then put His love and truth in its place. When a dumb thing came out of someone’s mouth – He addressed it. The secret to living a day-by-day Godly life, is check out internally what we are aiming at. If I choose to follow Jesus, then I will put down anything else that stands in my way.

Jesus is telling us here, that we cannot follow Him and still live a selfish, greedy, angry life. Those things do not work together. Walking in Love is the Answer. He lived His life showing us the way to follow Him. But the Lord will not beat anyone up because we are not dead to ourselves. And if we analyse our every thought and move that will just take up our precious time. Instead we need to be thanking Him, for all He has done and Who He is. It’s about our focus and our focus must be His love FOR US.

He has done all of the work, all the heavy lifting. In these scriptures He is saying… to achieve what we want, death to self is the only way. He’s pointing to the direction we simply must take. We can’t step into what He has given us through guilt, reprisal or condemnation. He loved us, walking right into death and then He went through that into a new life. That action has given us unfettered access to His heart. The Holy Spirit will lead us, and help us for free, we simply need to let Him have His Way. It takes faith. Jesus has told us what the results will be if we choose to live this life not following Him. 

Because of what the Lord did, we cannot afford to let condemnation strangle us anymore. Kick it off. Tell those thoughts you want to follow the Lord — that filthy snake can’t lead you anywhere but down the drain! Love is our Leader now. Jesus knows we are weak. OH!… but He is so strong! He can get us through anything, including our own weaknesses. He’s with us, as one of us. He is our Friend that is closer than a brother. And He has sent us His most cherished Helper – the Holy Spirit. He created each one of us. He knows what needs to be changed and when it needs changing. 

Whenever love prevails, our responses will be different. When we feel empowered, and safe;  His acceptance and Love gives us room to grow, without pressure. The decision to follow Him is difficult because it means we don’t call the shots anymore. But we are giving that power over to SomeOne Who put up His hand and said: “I see those sins My brother or sister committed, It’s all real. It hurt and destroyed other people. But kill Me instead of them. LET THEM LIVE!!” 

The Holy Spirit wants to guide us through any potholes, pits, and mudslides of this life, into a new way to live. Catch the precious Wind of Love and start your adventure with God Himself. Bye.👋

P 2999 God, You are more than enough!

/ DVH

“God, You’re such a safe and powerful place to find refuge! You’re a proven help in time of trouble— more than enough and always available whenever I need You.”Psalms 46:1 TPT.

‘Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another Person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, He got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one Man said yes to God and put many in the right.

All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.” Romans 5:18-20.

We have a wonderful Heavenly Father, and the Perfect Saviour, Jesus Christ, and the glorious ever-present Holy Spirit to help us. Just let that sink in for a few minutes. We are not alone. The God Who made the world is more than enough for you and me! God’s Grace changed everything for everyone, and now we need to change our point of view to line up with Who He is.

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The Lord is not just talking to us about memorising scriptures when He tells us in Psalm 119:11.“I have stored up Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” OR Matthew 4:4 which states: “But He (Jesus) answered and said, ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'”

Jesus is also talking about a heart attitude, not just a memory one. He is teaching us that we must value what He says above what we think, or feel, or have already experienced. When we measure God by human standards – things like results, or our ability to remember (!) – we are reducing all that He is to our ideas and opinions. However, the Lord Jesus came here to save us, and show us what a human being led by God looks like — He has deliberately empowered us to live that way with the Holy Spirit’s help. Just like He did!

We dare not even measure our God’s performance by our answered or unanswered prayers, because that is putting Him to the test! Jesus Himself said this in Matthew 4:7.“Jesus countered with another citation from Deuteronomy: “Don’t you dare test the Lord your God.” He was talking to the enemy at the time, but this is an incredibly important scripture. God reveals Who He is to us, through what Jesus said here. 

We must not question His goodness – His goodness hung on a cross until all of mankind was totally reconciled back to Him! He does not have to prove Himself to us … we have a book full of His history with mankind! When we come up against something that puts His goodness into question, our belief in His goodness needs to prevail. I firmly believe some of our prayers may not be answered until after we’ve gone home but that does not mean God has thrown them away. Men and women DIED holding onto God’s promise of His Messiah – I call that enduring faith.

God is holy, and He cannot lie, He is Who He says He is. It is fatal to our faith to question His goodness. Plus His unfailing love is unquestionable – He demonstrated it through everything Christ did. His ability to save us, transform us, and make us even bigger so we can receive even more of Him – is legendary! Don’t ever be satisfied with what you have, always go after more.

We need to learn to respond like that widow-woman, in 2 Kings, whose husband had run up a debt. She had two sons, who were going to be sold into slavery. She ran to Elisha the prophet for help, and as he instructed her, she grabbed anything that was in her house that might hold oil. These verses are not just an illustration or a great story about something God did long long ago …it’s for here, it’s for now … it’s for YOU! … and me! Give Him any areas that remain untouched by His Grace, His Spirit, His OIL in your life … and let Him fill them.(2 Kings 4:3) “We have not because we ask not.”(James 4:2)

The history of God and mankind related in the Old Testament are the true stories about the Love, Goodness and Grace of our Heavenly Father toward His own ungrateful chosen people. They rejected Him over and over again. Instead the Israelites just wanted to be like everyone else around them. Boy! That’s a big fat danger sign if ever there was one! If we want to fit in, more than we want what He wants, we are tottering on the edge of a ditch. God will get us out again, but then we will most likely have to battle shame and guilt afterward because the enemy will rub our noses in our failure. It is so much better to just do what He says!

Our enemy sneaks about watching for opportunities to pull us under, because when we are under pressure of drowning in our situations and sorrows, it is easier to doubt God. The thing is: with God on our side, any one of us, from the littlest child, to the oldest person is ENOUGH. We can’t afford to rate God by His Answers to our prayers, that attitude will make Him too small in our eyes. It limits our prayers. Just hold on to your faith and keep telling yourself God is good – He’s not done yet!  WAIT FOR HIS ANSWER – it will blow your mind!

The Lord values things that human beings don’t. The Old Testament proves that!!  It teaches us that HE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH.“Pressed down and running over …” and you and I had better believe it! Bye 👋