Ship

P 3178 Our thoughts.

/ DVH

Most despairing attitudes start in our thought-life. However when we take the time to pay attention to what we are thinking, we can exchange those thoughts for Who He is and how much He loves us! His love is the only constant thing this world has! It is a matter of choice, not a matter of proof. Do we believe what He says or how we feel. The more we know what the truth is — the bigger our opportunity is to be blessed, because we have come to know personally, intimately, a greater reality. 

These two seemingly opposite things, like hardship and blessings can co-exist. Pain, heartache, and sorrow, can be present at the same time as our knowledge of Who He is and how much we are loved by Him. Open the bible and find a scripture that helps, and then hold fast to it.  His love is always greater than the circumstances. When these things fall upon us, we need to learn to insist, purely for our own good. The Lord Jesus outweighs the things that come against us to try to drown us in our problems. He is bigger than anything we might face. Yelling ‘help,’ helps me! And no, I don’t always do that out loud!!

When we are under any sort of duress, we need to deliberately read the bible to remind ourselves of His kind of love. At the moment when you feel you can’t – you must! His love is so good, so faithful, so steadfast, that as we read, we will come to a place where we feel the darkness recede … don’t stop there, keep going. The enemy is pushing you, push back! If we fall into something testing or tormenting we know that He will help us. He says so! The Holy Spirit, the One Who comes alongside us, will kiss us back to life again. This is when our faith in God’s goodness has an opportunity to grow. Jesus died to give us that choice!

Faith needs to be tested otherwise it will not have depth. There is a stronger kind of faith that has been tried and tested and come through all kinds of difficulties with even more gratitude and worship. I know people who have this kind of faith. All kinds of hardship are actually fertile ground, fertilised by our surrender and our active faith that He is bigger than anything else. Being tested, and pushing on, can only deepen what we already know about Him! We cannot trust the Lord completely until what we believe has had our beliefs tested and shaken, so that all the unbelief falls off. Then we’ll discover that He is more than able to keep us.

If we choose to continue to follow and submit to Him even when we feel we cannot find our way—we will get through whatever is shaking our world, and come out of the other side – whether the situation changes or not.. Let’s make the immediate choice to look up and see that dear face of His so close to us. He knows all about pain and suffering and sorrow – personally. He understands it is hard – personally! At the same time the Holy Spirit will comfort us, and teach us that we can rely upon the very real fact that He will never leave us or forsake us. 

The Lord is closest to us whenever we feel devastated and alone. We have His promises. The question is, do we believe what He says, over and above what we can see with our own eyes or hear with our own ears? Hebrews 13:5b,6. “Never will I leave you;  never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my Helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Did you see what that verse says? ‘So we SAY with confidence …’  At this point I start speaking to my soul, like the Psalmist told us: I tell my soul to ”… hope in God!” (Psalm 42:11.)

Now let’s look at James 1:2-4 – “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colours. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James says that the thing we often desperately want to wriggle out of, is a GIFT. Because under pressure we are forced to face what we lack! When you know what you don’t have, you can target it with repentance and scriptures. Start by identifying what you are feeling: ‘I’m angry;  I’m afraid;  I’m jealous;  I am in despair.’  We no longer need to be afraid to diagnose the places in our hearts that lack — Jesus died for that lack. All we are doing is working with the One Who was sent to help us through!

Finally, we begin to realise that there is even something greater at stake than our immediate sense of comfort or peace of mind. That is God’s Kingdom blooming and blossoming in us. Hebrews 10:35-36 “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.”  Don’t choke in the hard bits – press through – grab hold of Jesus and hang on!

His kingdom will begin to be revealed through your life, simply because it is our destiny to bring the kingdom with us. The gospels are not some sort of fairy story with a happily ever-after ending. They end in the death of the HERO. But – His resurrection ushered us into a whole new kind of world. His world has love in its centre and it is filled with hope and faith. OUR world has things in it that can be stolen or broken, but His kingdom is an incredible storage unit, we can deposit our precious families etc. with the Lord, where this world can’t get at them.

Our thoughts are so important, they can turn the ship of our lives into the wind, to be moved by our beloved Holy Spirit – HE knows where we are going and what we will need to get there!  Bye. 👋

P 3109 Is failure fatal?

/ DVH

Our Heavenly Father will make the wrong way, or even a some kind of upside-down way—into the right way– when our only desire is to please and obey Him! Just remember to turn around whenever, and wherever, necessary and own your own sinful attitudes and repent. That means doing more than saying sorry. OK? Reparation, there’s a word. Back to the point: we can get so scared by the thought that we will get whatever He asks us to do wrong, that we are paralysed into doing nothing.This attitude makes Almighty God too small. Our faith needs to be firmly fixed on what Christ did for us, as well as His goodness, not on our own ability. 

Lately I have been rereading Acts again and I have been so impacted by the way Paul behaved as he went from place to place.There was no sign of the kind of paralysis that comes with fear in Paul. Not only that, but in one of the many shipwrecks he endured, his behaviour and faith in God influenced the unsaved sailors and soldiers around him. Paul wasn’t preaching BTW, he was just living out his life before the Lord, and the other people on that sinking ship! He simply shared with his fellow travellers what God told Him. 

Acts 27. 33-38, 44: “Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. Altogether there were 276 of us on board. When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea… … But the centurion wanted to spare Paul’s life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land.The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely.”

Did you get that? I had to read it twice. Paul suggested they stop to eat as the boat was breaking up and sinking!  Does that make sense to you? Hey! I thought long and hard about this, and I think I would have thrown the grain overboard first, to lighten the load. Right?? Or maybe grabbed the nearest plank and hung on to it! Everyone had prayed for land, in the midst of a terrible storm, and they found land and then …the entire ship stops to EAT?Why? Because God said so, that’s why. And He knows what we need more than we do. He told Paul through an angel that nobody would be lost if they just followed His instructions.

Now let’s do a quick recap of the oddball things I remember from the bible. I know I rabbit on regularly about Gideon, but honestly … !! That outcome could never have been predicted. God Himself threw confusion into the multitude of Midianites’ camp and they killed each other? Weird right? I mean who’d’ve thunk it? Almighty God did, that’s Who. Who would think you could find honey inside a lion’s carcass? Our Wonderful God — He’s the boss of bees. What about Paul, who heard,“Go to the Gentiles!” Boy was that not politically correct!

Let’s take Peter who was innocently praying by himself, when God interrupted his prayers with a vision. Peter’s thought bubble: “Hey that’s not kosher, I’m not allowed to eat a camel sandwich!”  Then this man of God took note of what God said and acted on it. Popular is not a kingdom word … influence is.

Here’s another one. Imagine this – a local prophet is told to sleep for one year on one side and then the next year on the other side. Why? Jeremiah was an illustration of what was to come. That’s just one of the many many highly unusual things God asked this man to do. What about Hosea? Go marry a prostitute?? That guy would have rushed off to have had his ears cleaned out. How about Noah? Build an ARK? What’s an ark??There were no BIG boats. yet this man built that ark with seven other people helping him. It took 120 years and he did a whole lot of waiting on God, while he was being obedient. Weird can be normal in His kingdom! We can be so afraid of getting it wrong, we don’t do anything.

We think we can’t possibly go and see Mrs Kerfoops next door who is dying from cancer. Hey – here’s a good thought to bear in mind — when the ride is over most people look for the exit!! Our God is so wonderful, He does not care if people are saved for 5 seconds or 50 years! He loves them all and He wants them to be with Him. So, just pull up your grown-up pants, go to see Mrs Kerfoops and tell her Jesus loves her. If she tells you that she doesn’t believe in all that stuff, blah blah blah, and you feel like a goose for all that effort and angst …remember, even if you get it wrong – when our motivation is to please Him and be obedient, He can use that faith for His glory.

Failure is not fatal – Jesus is a Redeemer by nature. However! failure is not fun, or a great story you can tell everyone afterward. Just remember … doing something beats doing nothing.The results are always up to Him. Maybe Mrs Kerfoops’ last thoughts are about what you said to her, or … maybe not. Step into the Favour of God – not for personal gain, but for service. Somewhere, somehow, the church has lost a lot of boldness. WE WANT IT BACK, please Lord. Amen. Bye. 👋