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P 2457 There is no system.

/ DVH

“But give reverent honour in your hearts to the Anointed One and treat Him as the holy Master of your lives. And if anyone asks about the hope living within you, always be ready to explain your faith.” 1 Peter 3:15 TPT

The truth is, it is your faith, and no-one else can explain it. One of the marvellous things about living for Jesus is that your own personal story has worth. It doesn’t matter if your life was changed when were sitting about at your house, glancing through the bible and some verse or other struck you as truth … or you were pole-axed by God in the middle of a service. Whatever you have to say about how you came to know Christ is what someone else needs to hear.

That is the marvellous thing about following Jesus, your story, is your shared story … with Him! And no-one else can negate it. After all our God is so incredibly complexly big that He can hand-pick the people who need to hear that story from you – at any time He wants it to happen. Meanwhile, we cannot afford to make the Gospel anything else but personal. It’s very personal. It changed our lives.

In our churches there have been many systems, that may have started with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but they’ve wandered off into the land of ‘this is what we think and what suits us.’ Maybe the Lord isn’t kissing that sort of outreach the way He kissed it in the beginning. That, BTW, does not mean the systems are bad, they are just not what He is saying and doing today. This can also mean that our testimonies etc. are forced, or memorised, instead of being natural and relaxed. 

Talking about Jesus to a stranger, or even a family member, should not be a tremendous strain, or even a bit terrifying. They.Will.Notice.That! … And then there is a distinct possibility whatever you say can be dismissed as doctrine or brain-washing, instead of the new life you have inside your heart.

In Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 13 there is this scripture: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” I think that this scripture holds just as true today, as it did back in the time of Jeremiah. We have made systems (cisterns) to hold the water of the Holy Spirit and because the systems are not good containers … they are after all, man-made …they’ve become broken and less effective. When we talk to others it needs to be natural, not choreographed.

The bible says: “…open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” Psalm 81:10. My point is this, as we relax and simply share what He has done in our lives — we will get to know the Holy Spirit so much better, and we will become familiar with His ways. Especially as we lean our faith on Him to help us talk to others. The best prayer ever if we are stuck, is: “Help!” Then you simply start to tell that other person what you’ve seen and known of Jesus personally in your own life. Whether you talk about healing, or how much the bible has meant to you, or how your life has been changed.

Just be yourself. Lean on the fact that He loves you with an immeasurable, unchanging eternal love and simply talk about Him. Whatever you say is up to you, it can be long or short. It doesn’t matter. However, if the person’s eyes glaze over then it’s time to bail out… quickly! 😂 Like I said, be yourself. Talk about Jesus like He lives at your house and you know Him – because He does live at your house and you do know Him! Nobody can argue with the man with a personal experience. They might think you are nuts, but worse things have happened. Move on …

We honour Jesus when we talk about Him and what He is doing, or has done, in our lives. Even using His lovely Name with reverence is exalting Him. Some people ignorantly use His Name as a swear word, imagine how blessed He is to hear His Name on our lips praising His goodness! 

Be like the blind man in John 9:25“He answered and said, Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” That’s a testimony! We‘overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.” This man had a simple testimony and he gave it when he was asked a question.

We all have a testimony, and our testimonies cannot be refuted. The thing is, these testimonies have power in them. The Grace of God has kissed our lives, and when we talk about it to someone else, that Grace is released all over again to touch them. They may punch us on the nose, or walk away muttering, OR throw up their hands and say: “I want that!” Meh! The results are always up to Him. There is no system. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2190 Ya can’t take it with you.

/ DVH

“Someone in the crowd said to Him, (Jesus) “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then He said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And He told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:13-21.

I got my knickers in a twist about an inheritance, a while ago. A relative was being appreciated and praised much more than I was. Jealousy is the strangest thing! Song of Solomon says: “… jealousy is as cruel as the grave.” I get that. That stuff kills off any desire for reconciliation, and focusses on me and what I think I have, or, what I think I don’t. I didn’t know I could be jealous … until I was. These things sneak up on you, but I think that resentment and gossip can easily let them in. Yes, I’ve repented!

This parable is one of many that Jesus taught that probably doesn’t get preached on all that often in the Western world. We all like our things where I live, and if our pastors know what’s good for them, they won’t preach about this particular parable in Luke! Actually, we’ve got a whole lot of things in the Western world. Boats, caravans, trips overseas, big houses – to mention a few. The kind of stuff others in poorer countries cannot imagine. Yeah yeah, I know people gotta live somewhere. but we are rich in so many material things. BTW, God is not against people having things, He just doesn’t want our things to own us! That’s called a conflict of interest.

This parable the Lord told, pretty much sums up our current society today. We’re the more more generations. We like excess, like the person in the parable. This man worked very hard for what he had, and so do we. It never occurred to the guy in this story to give away some of that surplus grain. Nope. It was all his. He earnt it and it was up to him to enjoy it. He had no thought about the fact that God Himself had given him that excess, his lack of recognition of the Lord’s generosity tripped him up. The thing was, at that moment, he was undervaluing something that was far more important – the state of his soul before God. 

Personally, I think that this particular person expected the Lord to side with them on the matter of that inheritance. They thought Jesus would agree with them, that their brother was trying to cheat them. Sadly I understand that, sometimes human beings love to take polls. When we are unsure, we ask 20 people what they think about something or other, and get 11 for and 9 against. This individual wanted Jesus to come out on their side. Fat chance. They were saying: “It’s not fair!” But Jesus went right around the complaint to the heart of the matter. GREED. 

There may be many poorer people in this world who feel that this world’s wealth distribution is not fair on them. That’s true! OR … alternatively, they could be too busy trying to find food and water for today to even care! It is up to those who have to care for those who don’t! Just because the Lord Jesus once said that we would always have the poor with us, that doesn’t mean we should ignore them. (Matthew 26:11) Some of them probably live in our neighbourhood. Our Heavenly Father loves generosity – He’s a generous God and He wants His kids to look and act like Him.

Despite our man-made boundaries, great and grand cities, and fabulous houses, Jesus is telling us that those material things don’t actually matter – it is how we TREAT each other that counts – plus remembering Who gave us what we have in the first place! Jesus went straight to the heart of things, but we all get so tied up in this thing and that situation we forget that we are gone in a heartbeat. The Lord is telling us to keep an overall view of this life, not a reactionary, situational one. He is explaining that we need to value sharing in this life we’ve been given – far more than the things we earn, or have.

All we really have is who we are, not land, or houses, or money or position etc.  Jesus was saying in the Aussie vernacular: “Ya can’t take it with you!” Bye. 👋🏻

P 2105 Merry Christmas – and yeah, I know it’s early!

/ DVH

In the past, I have spoken with some highly intelligent people, who told me that I came from a kind of an amoebic bird-fish that crawled out of some sort of primordial mud. Meanwhile, if you think about it, the scientists who think they have proved their point, actually agree with God Himself! The bible says we came from mud they have just missed seeing God Himself in the process.

Here’s an FYI, Genesis says that man was made from mud, but then God breathed HIS LIFE into that pile of dirt!  (Genesis 2:7) And Adam became a living breathing being – filled with the same life that IS in God Himself! It took 930 years for Adam to die, he had so much eternal life in Him, even though he gave it up when he disobeyed. Some other clever people have devoted their lives trying to create Artificial Intelligence, but the truth is that God put more intelligence and potential inside a little baby’s brain than we can ever duplicate!  Even I can sculpt a passable frog out of clay but I cannot make it LIVE. Jesus Christ has life in HIM – He came to give that life that we threw away, back to us.Here’s a fun thing – Jesus once gave a blind guy a brand new eyeball by spitting into the dirty and He made it from… wait for it … MUD! (John 9:6) Ya might want to read that and think on it! 🤔

Our God came here to earth, in Person – this is what Christmas is about. It is about heaven touching earth in such an incredible way that every single thing changed. And for some people, all around the world, this the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus Christ is our living hope. He came to earth for all of us, but we really do need to remember, that we all inhabit the same planet. However, we can’t possibly share the good news in the way it was written, when we are so utterly determined to keep our lives separate from the other people world-wide who are suffering! Christ identified with us deliberately. Why do you think God chose a cowshed as a shelter to bring His precious Son into this world? He wants everyone to know that they matter to Him. Poverty, sin, and sickness are not some sort of punishment from the Lord, instead this stuff is an opportunity for those who have plenty – to share.

People matter so much to our Heavenly Father – not our own comfort, or even our expensive Christmas gifts. We’ve become so obsessed with our OWN personal happiness, we’ve forgotten Who we are here for! Jesus included everyone – refugees, poor people, smart people, people who didn’t believe in Him  …plus … the people who knew they were sinful and … the ones who didn’t like Him at all. Christ didn’t see any human barriers, because they only exist because we’ve let them be there.Sadly we’ve even managed to take something God did that was so incredible, so profound, and we made it ALL ABOUT US. Yeah. Merry Christmas! 

I can’t help wondering about what the Lord would like for HIS birthday? Any thoughts?? Like maybe we can eat less and use the money to share with those who have NONE? Ask yourself, who did the Lord spend the most time with? If these people are His priority then they should be ours as well. When we tell people that Jesus loves them so much, they may or may not hear us –  but that bit is not our responsibility. Our bit is to demonstrate His word in our actions, prompted by His love, and His power. God is looking for empty vessels to fill. Vessels that will overflow with concern and compassion for those to whom Christmas is just another dreadful day spent looking for food, shelter, and warmth – for them and for their families. There are times when I think the Western world is so FULL we’ve become utterly side-tracked. Riches and comfort are like an opiate, they lull us off to sleep. 

Jesus said: ’GO! And tell them I love them – help them…” Merry Christmas… early.