Sheep

P 2547 We are here for His pleasure.

/ DVH

““You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory, honour, and power, for You created all things, and for Your pleasure they were created and exist.”” Revelation 4:11 TPT.

When I look at that scripture above, from Revelation 4:11 it gives me perspective. It reminds me Almighty God is always worthy of my praise, no matter what is going on in my life right now. Plus the fact that I am not here for me. I am not here for you. I am not even here for my family or friends or country. I am not even here for what I do, or don’t do … I was made for God’s pleasure a-n-d … praise God, so were YOU. Ya might want to pause and think about that! 🤔 So today, I am delighted to be able to say; “I serve at the pleasure of my King, Jesus Christ.”  

And that small sentence changes everything. It adds purpose and meaning to life because God Himself did that for US! Other people may not always understand why we are here, which can lead to conflict and estrangement. But we are His people, the sheep of His pasture! Yay!!  At the same time we can have difficult days and when it comes to loving other people, our Heavenly Father knew we would all need help! 

So we have been given a precious gift, the Holy Spirit. He is our greatly Beloved, Personal, Ever-present Friend. Jesus had to leave us, and so He sent the Person Who helped Him, back to help us! The Spirit of God has been given to us freely and His Presence in our lives is our most valuable asset in this world. He reminds us we are greatly loved.

Here is some dead easy Math — if we add what Jesus did for us to our sin, irregardless of how nasty a person we can all be sometimes, we end up with the completed, perfect solution to SIN. You can call it whatever you like …Salvation. Redemption. You and I were given the plus and the Answer in that little sum!! It means we got out of jail free. That’s a big plus!! The only sensible response to this gift is gratitude. Unlike the game of Monopoly – this “get out of jail free card” may not be sold or exchanged.  It is as personal as the moment you and I were conceived. 

“For you formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalm 139:16. 

There are over 100 bible verses in His book about how the Lord knew us before anyone else ever did. Plus how He created us in secret, and it gave Him great pleasure to do it. He planned each one of us and brought us into being. Personally, I’ve found that thought incredibly reassuring. SomeOne wanted me to be here, right here, right now. I’m not sure either of my parents had a child in mind when they started out, because they only knew each other for four weeks before they married — and I turned up about nine months later! Given that my mother quickly realised her mistake in marrying a virtual stranger, it totally blesses my heart to know that I am here for the King’s pleasure!

I hope these thoughts are comforting for anyone who feels like an orphan, or even misplaced persons … None of us are an accident — Father God always had each one of us in His heart.  Our He has good plans for us too. Life hands us lemons all the time, and the bitterness that stuff brings, needs to be sweetened by the Presence of SomeOne Who knows all the Answers and the way through our troubles. Right at this moment, our presence on this planet gives God enormous pleasure and our troubles are momentary things. Remind yourself of that whenever you feel like a big fat failure, or someone else has not-so-kindly pointed out your failings … God bless ‘em. 

The Holy Spirit helps us negotiate the twists and turns and sudden land-slides of this life. And, praise Him, we have a whole bible full of the things He wrote. We have a book filled with instructions about how to relate to Him and others! Plus we don’t have to run around hoping against hope that we might manage to do something right. Our Heavenly Father was pleased with the idea of us before we got here, and He gave us SomeOne to guide us through this maze.

You are here for the pleasure of your King, for such good works He prepared for you before you ever got here. Those things He set aside that only you can do. They won’t get done if you don’t do them. I believe this means that you have something unique to contribute to this life. Bye. 👋

““…but I run with passion into His abundance so that I may reach the purpose for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me to make me His own.” Philippians 3:12a,13.

P 2491 We are being trained.

/ DVH

When life is on top of us and we are struggling to take the next step, we must always remember He will never leave us, instead, we need to remember that we are a people in training. People who are in training work hard for a purpose. Our God is preparing us for those greater works Jesus talked about. We gave away our right to live this life the way we want to, now, we are learning obedience. Sometimes through suffering. I find looking at things in the natural world, helps me to understand spiritual ones. Jesus did this a lot in the Gospels.

Because I gave my life away — my reference point can no longer be what I want, feel or know! Actually I can’t do what you want either, I left pleasing you behind, when I left pleasing myself behind! Now, my reference point has to be what does Jesus want? I believe He wants us to continually learn to love other people – it is a life-long lesson. Our current society thinks it is successful if we keep all the unhappy people around us happy. 

Happiness is fleeting, and many people are kind of whimsical, so what suits them one day doesn’t the next! Aiming at keeping others happy is just a different kind of self-centredness, because if you are happy with me, then of course I’m going to feel better – the atmosphere around me will probably change if you are happier.  However, I am still inadvertently looking after me when I try to keep you happy!  My focus is wrong. I need my eyes to be on what He wants.

When we live His way, we need to actively learn to be humble in all things, because next time it could be our turn to be a pain! However, I won’t be concerned about who did what and why … when I am following Him, I am simply focussed on following the Leader’s instructions. Jesus spoke to twelve very different men and said: “Come and follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19. And the church has been stuck squabbling over fishing methods and rights ever since! Instead of gathering all His people into His delegated green pastures, and letting Him sort out the sheep from the goats – we fight for our own little bit of paddock.

That reminds me, in all our travels we have seen many paddocks and properties that run cattle and sheep, and these properties often use dogs to control their herds and flocks. Although on really vast properties they also use helicopters and quad bikes! Today I want to talk about this kind of dog –  they are called cattle or sheep dogs. These smallish bundles of totally focussed energy, have one task in their little brains. “Do what the boss tells you to do.”  This dog adores its master and his master is always the boss. 

In our new life, the Holy Spirit is our Boss, but He does not enforce the rules, He wants us to willingly obey Him, using the bible, and He personally leads us. And just like the cattle dog does, He wants us to obey Him because we love our Saviour Jesus. I’ve watched these incredible dogs, they are a great example. They pant their little heads off, sitting quietly beside their master, looking at the boss to see what he wants next. This dog would no more run about chasing butterflies, or a ball, than I can fly to the moon.  It has been trained. That training produces incredible obedience. Sometimes the master just gives a whistle and a look, and off goes the dog, because he knows the man so well.

Our God is teaching and training each one of us, with His wonderful Eye upon us, what will be good, right, and profitable for our own lives. He knows what we need to know so we can get through whatever comes next. Many times in my Christian faith I have felt like my foot was nailed to the floor and I was going round and round. I couldn’t seem to get anywhere. I asked the Lord …why is this happening? He said: “I’m teaching and disciplining you, but you are not listening to Me. You cannot go onto the next stage of your life without the lessons I want you to learn right here and now. It is My kindness to you to keep you where you are, if you do not learn, you will not make it through what comes next.”

That is why I called this blog – first floor messages – because I think the church at large has been stuck on the ground floor, spiritually speaking, for many years. Most churches are all still stuck on which one is more right than the other one! It is not good to compare churches. It is like comparing kiwi fruit with bananas, they are both fruit but they are still very different. We can all belong to Jesus and still be, and look, different! He’s simply that BIG – big enough to love us all! I believe that, right now, the Lord is looking for us to rise up to look like Him. Our God is much more interested in us spreading His message of love and reconciliation, then He ever has been in our theologies, ministries, comfort and so-called happiness.

To get there, we will need to stop looking after our own interests and be like that sheep/cattle dog, obediently waiting for what He wants US to do next. He is our reference point … not the circumstances or whatever is happening all around us. We are in training. What does He say in His book? Are we doing it? If not why not? We must stop “straightening each other out so other people will think like I do,” and simply get on with the job of learning to love others. Bye 👋🏻

P 2469 “I was sitting around … minding my own business …”

/ DVH

This morning I was thinking about those shepherds who were sitting in a the field, long ago, simply watching over their sheep. You know who I mean … Jo and Mo (Joseph and Moses) and …  Fred and Barney … These men were sitting about keeping an eye on their sheep, and watching out for sneaky Pete the wolf and his pack, plus the odd lion or bear. I can’t imagine what they were actually talking about the minute before the sky exploded… maybe the low price of sheep at the market?  Or where’s the best pasture to go next??

Then BOOM! The sky lit up, an angel appeared and the world exploded with sound. It’s just as well the angels told them to “be not afraid!” You know if they hadn’t said that word straight from the throne of God — Jo, Mo, Fred and Barney would have had a heart attack … on the spot. “Mighty dread will do that to ya!”

Mo-oving on … back to these ordinary men, who were doing an ordinary job, day after day, after day. The same thing their fathers did and their fathers before them —- and their fathers before them. And nothing ever happened … until it did! Their whole world changed in a heartbeat when these heavenly beings appeared out of nowhere!!

Look at the faith of these men, once they got over being stunned, amazed and blessed … all at the same time! … Then they left their sheep mooching about, and hurried off looking for a baby in a manger. You and I might say: “What’s a manger?” But these shepherds knew what that was, and where to find one. They entered into the greatest miracle of all time, on a seemingly ordinary night … with the only fanfare provided by heavenly beings.

Father God chose a dirty stable as the site for His most precious Son’s birth. Jesus Christ was not elevated in any way! And those ordinary shepherds found out about His arrival first… Are we feeling the Vibe yet? Like where would the greatest SHEPHERD ever born … BE born? ….Among shepherds.

Isn’t it just like Jesus, to reveal Himself to people like you and I? That’s why the Good News IS the good news, it’s for everyone and anyone. You know the current King at that time, (Herod), heard about this extraordinary baby second-hand from travelling wisemen. So right from the beginning, Christ was destined to be revealed to this world through the poorest of the poor, ordinary workers… first.  And that set the scene for the rest of Jesus’ short life. He would always reach out to the people who were not rich, those who had no hope, and needed Him the most.

Maybe there were animals restlessly moving about in that tiny shelter, all around this new little family – we don’t really know. Let’s hope all that animal breathing kept them a little warmer in the cold clear night air! Meanwhile, there was no air freshener … no sterile hospital… no antibiotics!!  And no family helpers to assist Mary … just some straw, the floor, her inexperienced husband, and the inevitability of this baby coming … right now. 

What a totally scary place to give birth! There was no indoor plumbing either!! Ya might want to think about that. Christ was not born into a house … right from the beginning He had no home. Maybe Mary hoped He would be born where she had come from, with helpers all around her – but she and Joseph obeyed the law of the land and trotted off to a place far away to take part in a census. They took their chances … and then Almighty God said: “It’s time.”

Joseph himself had an enormous amount of trust.  I often talk about faith on this blog, and boy was his faith alive! He married Mary because of a dream. Sadly he could not give her and their new baby, the King of all Kings … a better place to stay! Such a huge responsibility for such a humble man. He was destined to protect this infant and remain obedient to what God had told him. How devoted to God’s purposes he was. This honourable young man, whose wife is going to give birth … to SomeOne else’s baby! He’s almost a footnote in this amazing story. Yet he was chosen to father God’s Son, when Jesus was a child.

The world was silent that night, and the only players in this little play were overwhelmed with awe and wonder. How could that be Almighty God Himself lying in a food trough? What could it possibly all mean? At that moment, He was just another newborn infant  … they are born every day.  Only those heavenly announcements made Him special. God made Himself known in an ordinary place, to ordinary people who were sitting around minding their own business. But when He speaks, this world gets turned right-side up!  Bless you! 👋🏻

P 2271 Our God does not say ‘WHOOPS.’

/ DVH

He doesn’t even think it. Let’s look in the book shall we? “He offers a resting place for me in His luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace near the quiet brook of bliss. That’s where He restores and revives my life. He opens before me the right path and leads me along in His footsteps of righteousness so that I can bring honour to His name. 

Even when Your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for You already have! Your authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of Your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for You are near. You become my delicious feast even when my enemies dare to fight.

You anoint me with the fragrance of Your Holy Spirit; You give me all I can drink of You until my cup overflows. So why would I fear the future? Only goodness and tender love pursue me all the days of my life. Then afterward, when my life is through, I’ll return to Your glorious Presence to be forever with You!” Psalms 23:2-6 TPT 

I suggest that we put aside whether the Passion Translation is a proper translation or not… and just jump into these words, and sit in them like it’s a nice hot bath tub full of bubbles. 🛁 We dare not look at the Bible just for instructions or correction – there are times when we need to soak in the meaning of His words.  So here’s what I think, jump on in today and enjoy. 

Our Heavenly Father’s words toward mankind are thoughts and plans to give us hope and a future. The most important thing we can do is to remember, God has a purpose in everything. However every time we see a negative purpose in what the Lord is doing, we are taking a club and battering our faith all around the edges. Our Heavenly Father is where all goodness comes from, He doesn’t do bad. Right now, this particular plump chicken is in a meadow of His choosing, sitting down. He led me here via my recent staircase accident. Sometimes I get so busy trying to make my life have meaning, I forgot my life already has meaning … I AM HIS! 

It is important that some facts about our Heavenly Father’s personage and character are clearly established in our minds. God is good and He is for us. There is no ‘but’ in that sentence! Jesus Christ came and died to give us a place in His Father’s heart, His love is toward mankind – there is no race, colour, creed, or age, or state of health that will exempt us from the blessing of enjoying His love – only our own choices nullify that.            

“He offers a resting place for me in His luxurious love…. That’s where He restores and revives my life…” When we forget how kind the Lord, we end up doing the next thing, one foot after the other, and we can easily lose our focus on His everlasting goodness. If our enemy cannot get us to sin, and focus on that, creating distance from God – then he will do his best to distract us with circumstances. The thing to do is to hold fast to His goodness – it is almost like a central pole in a giant marquee that holds everything up.

The Lord does not ever say, “Whoops”, because unlike you or I, He doesn’t make mistakes. People are God’s crowning achievement … you are not a mistake. Every single aspect of our lives is under His gaze. If we sin, He knows the way out. If we get lost we just have to yell ‘help’ and He will come and find us. Remember that story about the lost sheep? He only means us good. So we can say with confidence, no matter how it ‘looks’ – His love, His patience and all those other wonderful things described in 1 Corinthians 13 are always coming toward us like waves on a seashore. 

Sometimes the very best thing we can do is to rest in those words. Nothing in our lives is meaningless. If we continually keep ourselves too busy, then we will miss out on the little wells of silence and comfort that are given to us so we can face the next barrage that comes at us. He does not say ‘Whoops’ because everything about us is under His jurisdiction, protection and gaze. Bye 👋🏻.

P 2219 Hope is a wonderful thing!

/ DVH

To continue with what I wrote yesterday, I wanted to mention the importance of hope today. “There once was a shepherd with a hundred lambs, but one of his lambs wandered away and was lost. So the shepherd left the ninety-nine lambs out in the open field and searched in the wilderness for that one lost lamb. He didn’t stop until he finally found it. With exuberant joy, he raised it up, placed it on his shoulders, and carried it back with cheerful delight!” Luke 15:4-5. TPT.

In my immediate family, we have “lost sheep” – people who no longer follow Christ. Some ran away grumpy, on purpose. They got cheesed off because the Christian life did not turn out the way they thought it should.  And some just kind of meandered off not looking where they were going. Sheep are dumb – they don’t know what is good for them, they can be so busy eating and meeting their own needs, that they forget about the Shepherd and how much He loves them … until they get into trouble.

As you already know, I rarely include someone else’s thoughts in my blog, but I read this prophetic exhortation, and I thought it was worth including today. Many of us have one or more individuals in our families that have gone away from their faith in Christ. This excerpt was such an encouragement to me, I hope it encourages you too. 

I Hear His Whisper … THE PRODIGALS WILL RETURN. “I am calling home the sons and daughters who have forgotten Me. You will see a waterfall of love and mercy bring My children from afar. I have walled them in. They haven’t roamed as far as you expected. They are never outside of the boundaries of My love, and I have never left their sides. I know how to woo the hearts I created. They cannot find what they need outside of Me. In My mercy, they will be restored with fresh passion to seek Me and to know Me.

Dry your eyes, and with a hope-filled heart, look with eyes of faith. The lost ones are coming home. Your delight must be in finding them and loving them back into wholeness and dignity. You will remove loneliness from their hearts. You will see them restored. Even within your family, there will be healing and grace as I recapture hearts and ignite their longings for Me. Love well. Forgive completely. You will see the restoration you’ve prayed for. My will shall be done in their lives.” by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez.

I loved this prophetic word, because it is all about what God is going to do for us, but it includes an exhortation for US to prepare our hurt, disappointed hearts, to receive the ones who broke our hearts back again. Those who have been lost to us have been lost for many reasons. Right now is the time to deal with our side of everything that happened. “Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.”(Ephesians 4:31) 

It has taken me a long time to absorb the fact that I can add to my own struggle with others, by what I say.  If I choose to continually rehearse someone else’s sin over and over again, it may seem like a form of self-protection. Plus it seems like you are reminding yourself of what happened so you don’t fall for the same guff again! But the reality is, my self-talk can also cement someone else back into a place that no longer exists for them. That attitude, that action, only exists in my own memory. Personally, I am not who I was even last week – or last month – or last year! God is changing me, daily and boy do I need it! Let’s not colour in tomorrow’s miracles with yesterday’s half-dead felt-tipped markers. He’s doing something new. Hold on, it’s coming…

The Lord is going to do what He has planned to do so quickly, that we will be astonished. So we need to prepare take the time to search our own hearts and minds now, with His help. Let’s start thanking Him for what comes next, and remember – you and I could have easily been the sheep that wandered off. None of us are exempt from the seduction of the spirit of stupid, in this funny old world of ours. Cultivating hope is a wonderful thing. 👋🏻