Sick

P 3300 We rely upon Him.

/ DVH

Lately I have been thinking about the kind of things that that can keep us from walking in everything Jesus died to give us. Unfortunately, discouragement can send God’s kids into despair. Some of us are physically, mentally, or spiritually ill. I want to point out that the lack of an overcoming, miraculous testimony, is not a sin. 

I know some brave, persevering souls who soldier on in the faith, even when everything is not quite so hunky-dory at their house! Sometimes we relegate those people who don’t have an amazing testimony of a miraculous cure, or life-turn around – onto the back burner. Do that at your own peril. These people have been smacked about by circumstances, yet they have learnt to cling to Christ like a limpet. In a storm, they know how to stand on their faith.

It is sad to assume that because these people are physically, or mentally impaired, obviously they have nothing they can contribute. Or perhaps we think we shouldn’t bother them because they are already burdened. In my heart of hearts, I have such a passion for these brave souls, who turn up Sunday by Sunday, simply because they love Him, they love His Presence, and they love the joy of fellowship. When it comes to testimony time, their simple contributions breathe out trust and faith in His goodness.

Maybe they’ve persevered for another day, week, or month, in a marriage that clearly is not working for them. God loves it when we do things in obedience, despite our feelings to the contrary. We might think that a real testimony is about a joyful reconciliation and restoration, but a true soldier of the Lord continues to fight and love the other person even when wounded and under fire. Maybe some other person has their precious child missing, and they don’t know if that son or daughter is alive or dead. So they stand at their door daily, not just actively waiting for the return of their child, but steadfast in their belief of God’s goodness.

We are encouraged in the bible, to weep with those who weep! Our God is a Father, He longs to comfort His children. The thing that becomes incredibly important when you are sidelined by illness, or adverse circumstances is looking after our faith. Faith takes a battering when we don’t get well immediately … or the problems continue over a long period of time. Pray for, and with these people, they need your support.

The Lord was incredibly compassionate toward those who were suffering, no matter what the cause was, even if it was the person’s own sin. Jesus is always truly kind and gentle with the sick. Compassion is a sorely needed heart-action toward those who are living their Christian lives suffering. These dear people live holding their breath, wondering when that next attack, or relapse might happen. But they go on to rebuke those thoughts, and focus on Jesus instead. They already know that focussing on the suffering makes it bigger. 

These people are not second-class Christians! The perfectly well, the happily married, the parents with kids who are model children, can never be the criteria. Jesus is! And He loves mankind. He paid for every bit of sickness, disease, unfaithfulness, sinfulness, and suffering in the whole world, and so that love for this world must become the motivation for everything we do toward others. 

In John 8:11 He says something so beautiful when He asks where a woman’s accusers have gone. “She answered, No one, Lord! And Jesus said, I do not condemn you either. Go on your way and from now on sin no more.” And John 9:3 says this about a blind man: “Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed and illustrated in him.” The Lord’s answer could easily jump all over a lot of people’s theology, yet at the same time it highlights our God’s sovereignty and utter faithfulness. God is not interested in our formulaic approach to faith, He treats each person individually, so we dare not treat any one of them as a member of a herd. 

When we make healing into some sort of proof that we are saved and going on with Jesus – we are in error. Our efforts to simplify our faith, can result in over-simplifying it, by attributing blame when there is no blame. And even if we can see blame, who are we to judge? Most of the time these things are just part of this sinful world.. However, we can’t ever afford to stop praying and believing for miracles, healing and we need to do so with compassion. That’s why Christ came here in the first place. 

Jesus never tolerated illness or the demonic, so that’s the position we need to occupy too.  But at the same time,  let’s actively support the person who is suffering. We are oversimplifying the Lord’s work when we claim that nobody should ever be sick, and there must be some hidden sin in the life of the sick person.

Sometimes, because that person is so desperate for their blooming awful lives to change, we can actually harm them with our unbounded enthusiasm for the wonderful things God does. I’ve seen this scenario happen many times. Someone prays, announces that the person is healed, and walks away leaving the sick person feeling condemned. The person prayed for now feels that they are letting God down if they aren’t healed. People lose their faith in these circumstances. People should feel loved after any kind of prayer.

Always pray as the Lord leads you to pray, but please … don’t leave the person in need, worse off than they were before! That is devastating. Let’s remember we rely upon Almighty God, Who is always good!  Bye. 👋

P 3291 Here’s a part of the blueprint.

/ DVH

“Here’s how we can be sure that we’ve truly come to know God:  if we keep His commands. If someone claims, “I have come to know God by experience,” yet doesn’t keep God’s commands, he is a phoney and the truth finds no place in him. But the love of God will be perfected within the one who obeys God’s Word. We can be sure that we’ve truly come to live in intimacy with God, not just by saying, “I am intimate with God,” but by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.”  1 John 2:3-6.

A blueprint is a plan that reflects an intention to build something. God gave us His Word as a clear guideline of what He intends to build in us. As well as what He has built in many, many other people, who have gone before us. When I read what the Passion Translation says, I find my self wishing I had contributed to it. The clarity and personal application in that version is amazing. It contains the nuances that I have embraced over the last 50 years, and also the things I consistently pray for, and about. I hear the Holy Spirit’s voice very clearly showing me how to walk with Jesus. I also like two other versions:  the Good News bible, and the Amplified.

I love switching bible translations around because my desire is to understand, so I can put what I read into action. I want to know what the Holy Spirit is saying TO ME. When I’m puzzled, I often say to Him: “Lord, I just don’t get that!” This typically happens after I have read, and reread it, and then I access it in a couple of other versions. Then I wait. I’m waiting for the ‘aha’ moment when the Holy Spirit shows me what I am missing by tossing the words about in my mind. I don’t believe the individual Words are set in stone, I refuse to see the book as static. 

I believe the Holy Spirit is so brilliant He can give the same verse to billions of people, and they will each hear what He is saying to them for their lives. That’s the moment when the bible stops being black writing on a page, and it becomes real, living and transformative. Then I press in, because if I don’t “do” I know I will immediately forget what I saw… what I look like!’ (Thanks James.) Now I need to know from the Holy Spirit how to activate what I’ve just read. He tells me how to put it into action in my life. 

Over the years I have come to the conclusion that the thing the Lord loves the most … is time spent. I also know He loves acts of service and worship, we see those in the Gospels and Epistles. Like 1 Timothy 2:8 says: “Therefore I want men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and disputing or quarrelling or about (in their mind.) ” And I know He loves gift-giving. Proverbs 19:17. “He who is gracious and lends a hand to the poor lends to the Lord. ” The bible supports and delights in our personal, every day interactions with Him. But I suspect the Lord values time spent with Him, not just in a ‘quiet time’  but during the day in the moment by moment remembrances of Who He is. He loves to be included. 

Let’s look at our relationships with others: “Beloved children, our love can’t be an abstract theory we only talk about, but a way of life demonstrated through our loving deeds. We know that the truth lives within us because we demonstrate love in action, which will reassure our hearts in His Presence.”1 John 3:18-19 TPT. In other words John is describing HOW we do it. “…not just by saying, I am intimate with God,” but by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.”  We can’t walk like He did and still live our lives the way everyone else around us lives their life. What sets us apart is WHO we are following!

I laughed when I typed that, so many people ask nowadays – “Who do you follow? Facebook? Instagram? Tik Tok?” I just love that question because… you guess it… I say: “I follow Jesus! He’s got a book and everything.”  They smile, sometimes not all that sincerely, and move the subject away from my answer very quickly! But a few are curious about what I mean. 

Jesus Christ is the Pioneer of social media! People have been following Him for 2,000+ years. He started out with 12 followers, lost one, quickly went to 120, and then … wham! 3,000 followers in a heartbeat in Acts. This year, early 2026, there are 2.38 – 2.64 BILLION followers! These people don’t have to stare at their phones all day, they have a direct inner hook-up installed by the Holy Spirit. And you get born into that app!  We don’t have to stock-pile foodstuffs or petrol, God Himself supplies all our needs.

So if you want to know if you have truly come to know Almighty God, then this is what it looks like: We love God and each other. Jesus summed up the 10 commandments in 6 words. That works for me. I don’tcollect followers  … I ARE ONE.  I spend my time practising the love of God on everyone I meet. (I need the practice BTW.) We are never alone, and we don’t have to wander about aimlessly either. Because we’ve chosen to follow in the footsteps of our Master, Lord, Saviour and friend, Jesus! 

This means we have chosen to pray for the sick, speak deliverance to those who are held captive, as well as pray for blind and deaf people. We have chosen to love the unlovely the same way we love our friends and family. If we sin, we know exactly what to do about it. Repent, confess, repair. Like John said in 1 John 1:7-9 , “…knowing that the blood of Jesus will cleanse me from all unrighteousness…” It’s all in the blueprint. Bye. 👋

P 3258 Unless the Lord …?

/ DVH

Here is a quick quiz to help you to identify the gifts the Lord has given YOU. Ask yourself, how do I? “… show that… (I am)… … a letter from Christ, … … written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”  2 Corinthians 3:3. 

Part 1: What stirs your heart and sets it on fire? Is it, talking about Jesus to others, or helping them spiritually by praying for them, or do you like to do practical things? Do you find yourself secretly praying for strangers? Is it really important to you that people understand the bible, as well as read it?  Do you look at others and suddenly understand what is holding them back? Are you in love with Godly wisdom? Ready? … Here’s more!

When something bad happens does your faith rise up and say – “God can fix that!”  Are you the kind of person who looks at difficulty and you can see a way through? Do you love to help others to regain their hope in Him? Do you love to write music, or sing along praising God for no other reason than He is worthy — whether anybody else is there or not? Do you suddenly find creative answers to sticky problems? Does purity mean everything to you? Do you like to help others grow?  Here’s some more…

Can you stick with difficult situations and remain determined to see God at work? Have you got a deep unfathomable, reverential respect for the Lord and His ways? Do you see gifts in other people’s lives and they don’t know about them? Have you got a burning desire to raise up many churches for God’s glory? Do you see and want to help sick or broken people, and no matter where you are, you want to pray for them? Does the devil and his rubbish make you mad and you want to go after him because you know Jesus died to see people set free? Can you see through satan’s lies,to the truth? Nearly there…

Have you found that extraordinary things happen all around you? Do you speak out words you don’t understand, but somehow the Holy Spirit helps you to understand them? Here are some scriptures that are worthy of your prayerful attention.1 Corinthians 12; Romans12; Ephesians 4. This little quiz was FYI. If you look at your answers they may help you find a gift in these scriptures. Personally I’m not fussed about labels, because I think they can limit what we think God can do.The Holy Spirit has very kindly given us His three expositions about gifts, and they are worthy of our attention.

A spiritual gift is God’s power at work through us to build up, change, transform, and help others. It may be one person or it could be ten thousand. These gifts are given to use for other people, they are not of this world! We don’t earn these things, nor do we deserve them—they have been chosen for us by the Holy Spirit specifically. He gives His gifts to as He wants, to use in situations of His choosing.

Part 2, How to know what gift you don’t have! Years ago, there were all kinds of meetings we needed to attend at our church. You were supposed to bring food, often delegated by someone else. I can bake a cake … any idiot can! I used to make all sorts of cakes for my kid’s lunches etc. But as soon as someone asked me to bring a cake to a meeting, it would collapse, burn, or get stuck in the pan.

When I made it at home for us, it was fine. But when I made it for a meeting … it transformed into an ugly mess the minute I walked through the church door. So they asked me to make sandwiches instead. That was worse! You know those little pointy bits are meant to stand up like soldiers in a neat row? Mine instantly fell apart – and turned into two soggy separate bits that laid flat and looked appalling. The thing was, nobody ate them, they’d always end up in the bin. 

Over the years, I became aware that I definitely do not have the gift of hospitality – it is torture for me to have to entertain! However, I know people who have this gift and they are delighted to have strangers turn up at their door so they can pull together a meal for them … out of two bits of old bread and some stale sausage!!Everybody has a fabulous time, including the hosts. When guests leave our house, I need a cuppa tea, an aspirin and a good lie down – my fear of doing it wrong exhausts me!  

I’m also not good at arranging flowers. I just shove ‘em into a vase and hope for the best! Yet the church I went to years ago, kept putting me on the flower roster. In the end I plucked up the courage to tell them they didn’t deserve what I would come up with!! Another time we had a fete. My job was to put fringes on these fabulous shawls the minister’s wife made. I cut the first piece and then I used the first piece to cut the second and so on, all around the shawl. The fringe kind of looked like it was swimming up hill, getting smaller as it went. His wife looked at me, shook her head — then she went and did it herself. Hers was perfect. Of course!

My last point is this – don’t be pushed into doing something that isn’t on the Holy Spirit’s agenda for you. This is why we need to know Him and His ways! Otherwise you will waste your time, energy and probably stretch relationships – all at the same time. But whatever the Lord asks you to do, you can do it, even if you do feel scared.“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. ” Psalm 127:1. PS: I’m a lousy bricklayer too! Bye. 👋

P 3257 It’s time to get the band back together.

/ DVH

Years and years ago, when I was a much younger Christian, I loved reading instructional Christian books, plus I listened to tapes, music, and videos, everything I could. I was trying to grow my faith. I desperately needed to belong, to feel like a part of the Body of Christ. You know, there’s a whole lotta of odd people out there who really really need Jesus – we all might want to think about that. Back to it … eventually, I realised I was reading the bible and understanding it through someone else’s filter!

The Holy Spirit truly is the very best Teacher, He explains things first-hand – personally! There’s nothing like getting your own revelation from His book. Back then, whenever I read 1 Corinthians 13, I read it through other people’s interpretations to help me understand it. My thoughts were ‘boy do I fail at that!’ No wonder I felt a failure, at that time I had no idea how complete the Lord’s redemption was on my behalf. Like Paul said in Galatians 3:3 MSG bible: 

“Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!”

I believed my sins were bigger than what Jesus did. So when I messed up … and I did, a lot … I was shattered. Yeah, I know, that makes no sense at all. The Lord has a whole new kingdom reality for all of us. Sadly, at that time, I just had too much luggage that I dragged along behind me! To top it all off I erroneously believed this kind of stuff was true Christianity, and I was just really really bad at it. 

You see, people in my family or the church still irritated me, and when they were unkind, I wanted to run away, or thump them. Eventually, I became ill. So getting healed became my new focus. I figured I had become sick because I was failing the Lord all the time. I just want to strongly insert the fact that Jesus is not like that! 

But at that time, I jumped into every single healing line I could find, simply because I badly wanted to be well! Instead I just got sicker, and that added a further burden. It seemed to me that I must be a terrible Christian because I was ill in a generation that thought if you were sick it was your own fault! For years I wandered around thinking God had given up on me. And getting divorced did not help that perception. 

I know there are verses that clearly talk about divorce, and yes, I accept them! God definitely says don’t do it! However, He’s also merciful – He explains WHY. Participating in a divorce makes our hearts hard. Even though I repented up one hill and down the other, I had hardened my heart against any sort of redemption by Him. Unbelief is still sin! Works will do that to you. They will cut you off from true redemption and also real gratitude. It’s hard to be grateful when living for Jesus is a whole lot of hard work, and you can’t do it.

I guess I saw Almighty God as SomeOne Who held a grudge, like most people I had met. And I thought I deserved to be rejected. In that process I lost the One Person Who dearly, eternally loved me. At that time, I had no comprehension of unconditional love. If you happen to feel like that, I would like to testify to you that the Lord Jesus is not keeping a score of our sins against us. He can’t, His blood wiped them out!! At the same time, I hadn’t properly personally digested 2 Corinthians 5:19: “…that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them [but canceling them]. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation [that is, restoration to favour with God].”

It’s pretty hard to go out and tell others about the reconciliation that exists in Christ, when we aren’t living in it! Eventually, through the patience of a dear old minster, I came to see that the Lord Jesus is the One Who knelt beside a woman who was taken in adultery. and He also dealt with the people who wanted to stone her. Once He sat by a well and talked with a woman who had had five husbands … He didn’t give either of these women permission to live like that! However, the Lord altered the course of  both of their lives just by being Himself! The love and power of God is like that – it sets people free. 

I believe the church world-wide needs to go after the Lord’s lost sheep. The bible clearly tells us the Shepherd always does! Those broken, beaten sheep who have wandered away – or maybe they were even shoved out because the church didn’t want to be contaminated by their sin. Let’s ask the Lord to help us to win back our brothers and sisters – mothers, fathers, friends, rabbits and relations. The Body cannot function without ALL its parts. We need to be like Paul and participate in their reconciliation and restoration. So let’s love them OUT of their isolation. Maybe they are ready to repent and come back! 2 Corinthians 2:5-11.

How about we stop shooting the wounded, or leaving our broken-hearted members behind? And ask the Lord if we can be used by Him to restore them instead. Let’s get the band back together. Who knows what God will  do when we embrace others who have gotten lost along the way? Bye. 👋

P 3225 Please don’t settle for postponing your only life.

/ DVH

The bible says that hope deferred, (postponed) can make our hearts sick!  Being ill or having a permanent infirmity can lock us into going round and round, searching for answers. We can easily forget to live the life we have. Sadly we are often bombarded by things on TV about what is wrong with us health wise – it seems we are obsessed with trying to live forever, here and now. Let me tell you that if this lot down here is the best we’ve got to live for, then we are all sunk! We definitely need higher aims!!

Some precious people in this world live their whole lives in abject poverty. What is appalling about that, is the fact that many of those who have more than enough, won’t share. Our world currently produces enough food to feed everyone in it. Back to the point: every single day the TV is full of diseases that might, or probably WILL kill you, and how we can and should avoid them. Cheery stuff! Turn off the TV I say, and put on something calming and relaxing. Something that lifts your heart. Counting symptoms doesn’t do that, it creates fear.

There are times when I see smiley-faced young and fit people doing repetitive and ridiculous exercises, or they are selling some gizmo or other and they happily tell me that ‘I can look like them if I just buy one of these.’ I laugh my head off. These people think they are telling me how to get and keep health … like somehow we have control over it! What a joke!! My genes have nothing whatsoever to do with me. The Lord knows what I need and He will always give it to me – in the meantime I want to concentrate on finding and keeping GRACE! 

Let’s do whatever we can to help ourselves, and then move our thoughts on to better things – like loving Him and loving others. Father God is not going to ask us if we used our faith to get good health. He will ask us if we took the time to help others to get to know Him. Meanwhile who wants to be the best looking old person with a great body …in a casket? Not me! Personally, I want people to remember me as that mad old lady who wouldn’t stop talking about Jesus! Let’s just aim at being His witnesses, and tell others He’s alive and He lives in us – so when we keep consistently loving others, eventually they will stumble across His reality too! 

Meanwhile good luck with keeping well enough to get out of this world alive, only one guy ever did that. All I can say is – Enoch knew how to choose a brilliant walking Companion. It never fails to astonish me that the easiest road to living forever seems to be the one people avoid the most! They’d rather do thousands of push ups! I’m not sure that being supremely fit is the best aim we can have, I don’t remember Jesus running in any other marathon but the one He called LIFE.  Moo-ving on …

Because of God’s incredible generosity, you and I have eternity to look forward too … neither of us will be sick or infirm there!  Healing is always God’s gracious generosity generated toward the sick person. It doesn’t matter whether the doctors say they can help you or not, just pray over it and give your health to Him and keep walking. 

Go after having enough Grace to manage whatever is going on. Remember we are all growing the fruit of patient forbearance in our lives. However, even when you are sick, don’t stop believing He can heal you. I urge you to keep your expectation in His goodness toward you alive by reflecting on how good He is.

Jesus didn’t only heal people – He also delivered them, taught them, fed them, physically and spiritually. Making one thing more important than another often leads to heartache for many. Especially those who struggle to believe He is good in the face of pain and suffering. Let’s just go after Him and see where that leads us. 

Even battered and bruised hope can make the best of whatever situation it is placed in, as we point that hope toward the One Who holds the future and loves us all more than life itself. Our faith rests in Him! I lean on Him and ask for mercy – a lot! I also hope today will be a better day than yesterday, and I will look more like Him today than I did last week.

Our hope needs to be well-placed and the best place for it is in Him. In His character, and love for us. When our hope is in Him, and not in our circumstances, we will not be swayed from our God-given course. It is the same one that was laid out in front of Jesus. “For your heart will always pursue what you esteem as your treasure.” Matthew 6:21 TPT. “He is no fool who gives away what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”(J. Elliot) 

Don’t settle for postponing living your life when bad health grabs you, because hope deferred can make our hearts even sicker. But focusing on Jesus first, becomes a tree of life. Bye 👋

P 3171 Love Himself is the conqueror!

/ DVH

Have you ever noticed that Jesus was an immediate Advocate for people who could not speak for themselves? His defence of the wounded, scarred and sinful people is such an example to us. In the Gospels we see Him heal, teach and deliver people, but He also countered the criticism that battered them. There are many instances of the Lord intervening on behalf of someone who quite literally didn’t have a leg to stand on! 

Meanwhile, Jesus didn’t pay attention to their sin – He simply poured out God’s loving acceptance onto those people the world rejected, and He presented them with the truth. The truth itself can change lives. Jesus spoke to the sick, lepers, prostitutes, thieves, and law-breakers, people with multiple marriages etc. … all those people that His society rejected.

We don’t seem to have any real answer for people who sin today. Now it seems our society has legislated the world to be quiet and call sin normal, instead. However, the Lord Jesus didn’t pay any attention to behaviour – except the behaviour of the so-called religious. He always went to the person who was trapped in sin or sickness, and He went round their baggage and touched their hearts. The reality of His love saved them. 

I just want to briefly mention that Jesus interacted and loved on Judas right up until the moment when that man betrayed Him. Now, let’s look at what He said at a dinner party at Matthew’s house – 9:10-13. “While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Him and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”He sought out the sinners!

I think He saw both sin and sickness the same way— as the things that spoil God’s wonderful creation … US! He still wants to touch everyone around us – through us. Unfortunately, we are the ones, the people in church, who are preoccupied with sin. We gossip about it, fuss over it, and lecture it, and think about ways to get rid of the people who do it. Our answer seems to be – if you can’t be like ME then you can’t belong here! Jesus is the Answer, and the Answer is always bigger than any question!

When someone goes fishing, they don’t expect the fish to jump into the boat and be already gutted, scaled and cleaned! That happens after the fish are caught. We have put so many rules in place any people who, for one reason or another, live with sin, find it intimidating to come to us. Especially as 83% of couples cohabit before getting married, and one in three people have an unhealthy attachment to alcohol and one in twenty Aussies have a substance abuse problem! One in three Australians have also cheated or considered it, with 20% admitting to having cheated on a current or former partner. One third of all marriages statistically, will end in divorce.

When the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet start being drawn into our churches, we will know for certain that they are looking for very real answers – because they have very real problems! Jesus died for everyone’s sins, but in our churches, we can often turn our noses up at other people’s lifestyles – because we don’t do that kind of stuff. How realistic is that? He cares for and upholds the lives of all men and women – it’s their sin that needs dealing with not the people. Sin was taken care of at Calvary – our job is to give them that good news! Maybe through adverse appetites and previous experiences (without Him!) they have been trapped by their own desires and lifestyles. Now we tell people – ‘you don’t have to live like that anymore, let me introduce you to the Answer.’

I have another question to consider today: are we taking His exhortation to show mercy as a suggestion, or embracing it as heaven’s way to live? Holiness comes from our chosen proximity to Him, not from following rules. Rules point to sin, and sin is the thing that Jesus dealt with! God’s been panel-beating me for 50+ years and I still keep finding snarky nasty thoughts and attitudes that don’t belong in His kingdom! Here’s an idea: why don’t we drop the whole “them and us” attitude and instead let’s all just be human beings who need His Grace! I’ll give it to you, you give it to me and we will all get along together. Maybe we could have a dinner party like Matthew did, and invite those people-who-don’t-know- Him-yet. Now where have I heard that before?

At the end of the parable of the wedding feast, these words occur… “The lord said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” Luke 14:23. When we find people being drawn into and coming into our churches and gatherings because they feel compelled to come, we are standing on the threshold of something incredible. But, every single day our job is to give people a taste of His unconditional love – even those who are unloveable, unwilling to change. Or maybe even sometimes they are impossible to know! We all need it. Let’s stop telling the ‘Wind’ where He needs to blow and stand ready to be blown over by Him ourselves!!

Bonus buy: Loving difficult people changes us! That’s why it is good to bless those who despitefully use you or persecute you. Those people often reveal ourselves to us, and we don’t deserve His love anymore than they do. Jesus, and His love, will always be everybody’s conquering hero! Bye. 👋

P 3166 Judgment kills faith …

/ DVH

… Even when our judgment includes whether Christians can or can’t eat MEAT! Sometimes human beings seem to love to make up rules, especially where there are no rules. These man-made rules tie themselves and others up in knots. But Father God is far more concerned about our attitudes toward each other, than He is in splitting hairs over whether we order a vegetable or meat lover’s pizza! Order both and share. Here are some verses to think on, in Romans 12:1-4&23b. 

“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge SomeOne Else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.”… …“and everything that does not come from faith is sin.”

I cannot stress enough how highly dangerous judgment is to our spiritual lives. We won’t always understand the people close to us, or even the ones that live around us, the way He does. This means we will have no idea how this person, or that person arrived at the way they think, because only the Lord knows their hearts. Drawing conclusions about someone else, is a waste of our God-given time and energy. Yet it is incredibly easy to do!! We simply must learn to celebrate each other’s strengths rather than point out any failures.

Let’s choose to remember what the above scripture in Romans says: not all of us have great faith! Some of us have faith in some areas, and zero to none in others. At the same time, life daily deals every one of us crushing blows, so putting weights on someone else’s feet when they are tired, or sick, or overwhelmed, and still trying to run, is cruel and unfeeling. It seems to me sheer honesty about your own flaws is far more useful! I think we do things like this to justify our own position, or give us an excuse to keep on doing the very thing we should not be doing. This attitude is not worthy of Jesus’ disciples. He was compassion personified when He walked among us – if anybody was right – He was! But He didn’t use what He already knew to make someone else feel small – His compassion set them free instead. 

I enjoy meditating on this next scripture. It is meaningful to me, because I mess up a lot — and I know I need wa-ay more patience toward other people. I really get tested when someone else hurts the people close to me, and then they want authentication for their own aggressive stinky attitudes. That’s like asking me to put a bow on a pile of manure. Not.Gunna.Happen! Isaiah 42:3 says this: “A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not quench; He will bring forth justice in truth.” If the God of all the Universe is so particular and watchful over each one of us, let’s do our best, with His help, to remember that our careless words affect others. I don’t care what they said – my real problem is this – how did I reply?

Verse 3 illustrates what walking with the Holy Spirit looks like, He sees the broken, and the broken hearted. He is so gentle, and easily grieved. Nastiness and judgment immediately takes us away from His influence. BTW my theory is this – at the same time that we choose to get uglier about someone else, we can longer see what He sees, and we also get deafer and deafer to Him. But, hallelujah! Heartfelt repentance opens the door to restoration of fellowship with Him and others. Words are like bridges, they can join people together, or break us apart. So let’s ask for understanding to go hand in hand with wisdom. Like Romans says above, we must learn to accept each other in our weaknesses. We need to come alongside others and help, not undermine.

Here’s more from Isaiah, 35:3-5, and it’s a great exhortation for all of us today:  “Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way, say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, He will come with vengeance; with divine retribution. He will come to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.” Miracles can be side-lined when we sail off into judgment! I believe that our faith in God’s power through us, very much depends on allowing His Word to minister to us first. Then humility stretches out its hand to someone else and says: “May I help you up?” 

Personally, I think it is deadly to faith to look down on one another. Instead, we need to practice, corporately, every time we are together, looking up at Him. We need the practice! Judgment, even when it is unspoken, hinders the flow of the Spirit between us. His freedom IN me, means I’m not scared to deal WITH me first. So when we get alone with Him, let’s ask Him how to fix things in us, first. Remember – our log has to come out so we can clearly see to help someone else with their speck.

Lastly, I cannot recommend highly enough reading the bible purely for your own benefit unless you want to get a word of blessing for someone else. Using God’s word as a club to beat people into submission to your pet theory is ungodly. We are exhorted by Paul to come alongside one another and bear each other’s burdens. Judgment kills faith – but the Spirit always brings life. Bye. 👋

P 3142 It’s the Lord’s nature.

/ DVH

“The Lord is close to all whose hearts are crushed by pain, and He is always ready to restore the repentant one.” Psalms 34:18 TPT.  I love the word always in this Psalm. When human beings say always, we often mean – most of the time. But when God says always that’s exactly what He means! He is not into hyperbole or exaggeration. What He says, He means. Whatever He says, you can stand on. Doubt has nothing to give us, but angst. Holding fast is hard, but when we do it, we will reap a great reward.

Oh I pray that everyone grasps this truth and holds on to it tightly. It will comfort you in times when the roof has fallen in. The Holy Spirit will take His Words and unfold them before your eyes, and suddenly the thing you can’t understand, is clear. Let Him expound God’s word to you. There is nothing like God Himself, explaining what He means when you study His scriptures!

It is His truth. Almighty God put His full stop on His truth when He sent us the Living Word, Jesus, so we could see His Word in action. Ask yourself, how did Jesus treat sinners? — With grace, mercy and revelation that leads to repentance. How did He interact with the sick? With compassion, kindness, and healing. How did He minister to the spiritually hungry? With fresh bread directly from heaven. When God says He is close, He means He is close!  PAIN should not be our reference point – He is! 

Choose to believe Him, and remember to thank Him. You can thank Him for being with you, and not leaving, you even if the difficult circumstances haven’t instantly resolved. Focus on how close He says He is. When bad stuff happens, He won’t ever leave us. He takes His Word seriously and He keeps it. When we gave our lives to Jesus we stepped away from the feeling/thought-based world attitude, into His light and that light won’t lie to us. It can’t! Goodness, mercy, love, kindness, gentleness and truthfulness are part of God’s very nature. He does not lie. 

Years ago, I read books about countries on the other side of the world. I heard about them on the radio, and then I saw blurry pictures of them in black and white on the TV! And then one day I got on a plane and went and stood in those places. That one action took many countries out of the realm of my imagination, and brought them into reality for me. 

If you mention places like Germany, or Greece or France, I have memories of golden sun on my face – and some pretty yummy food too! If you say Singapore, I remember the brilliant architecture, sounds and smells. The thing that transports what we know into our personal experience — is FAITH! I ran about like a headless chicken and got a pass-port, and visas, packed my bags, then I got on a plane, and those countries came out of my imagination into reality.. I acted on what I saw! Faith acts on what it has read in the bible.

Our Spirit-prompted, Word-based belief in whatever He says, can take His Word and bring it to life. For those who are interested, I am not talking about believing for a Lear jet or a house with a bowling alley in the basement! I’m talking about God’s true riches. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness etc. But if we choose to treat His book like an information source, we will miss out on tasting the substance of His love, which transforms human beings. Ask for His help, and deliberately practice being loving – leave your feelings out of it.

Faith comes first. That’s when we decide to take a risk regarding Jesus’ truthfulness and Personhood and you and I will begin to have our own personal history with God Himself. The bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing comes from exposing ourselves to His Word— when we feel like it and when we don’t. And if you are sick, sad, or lonely then you probably won’t feel like it. I listen to the bible read if I can’t read it. We need to daily let His Word wash over us and cleanse us from the unbelief and heartache of this world.

Personally, I have yet to say: “oh goodie” when a testing time comes upon me. Nevertheless, I am learning that in those faith-testing times it means that God is taking me deeper still. The deeper the foundation, the greater the stability of the building. Our gracious Father is making sure we won’t ‘shake’ and ‘quake’ like we used to … because what we are standing on now, is firm and secure, and we know it.It’s like David said to Goliath: ‘First I killed a lion, then a bear, so YOU are going down!” Each faith-prompted action and subsequent experience led David into a deeper understanding of God Himself, and more confidence in Him.

Some things have now gone from my head to my heart. That’s because He has written it there! Our hearts are the safest place for that knowledge to be. When things are dark and horrible, that’s when we need to exercise our faith in His never-ending goodness the most. I tell the Lord: “You said You are here, so You are here! You are truthful, and I believe You. Thank You for being here close to me.” Amen.

When we stop trying to use the Lord for our own ends, and we decide that all we want is HIM – then we can tell Him we want to stay close to Him no matter what. That’s when we will see Him in ways we cannot imagine. Sometimes we need to do what David did and remind ourselves of the times when His goodness has upheld us and He helped us push through to victory. No matter how things look — and for many many people today, I know things look terrible, but I exhort you to hold fast.

God has not left you, and HE WILL NOT! Jesus our Shepherd will walk with you in that deep dark valley and use His staff to protect you from everything that wants to harm you. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. If help doesn’t come immediately He’s telling you He knows you can do it! Remember that His loving kindness is the Lord’s nature — and this too, shall pass… 😢 Bye.

P 3038 Let’s stretch what we understand.

/ DVH

“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.]’ Matthew 6:9-13.

I decided to spend some time this morning, looking at something so familiar it becomes easy to just rattle it off without thinking about it. For the purists – yes, I know that that prayer does not necessarily stop there. In some versions it adds – “for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”  I really don’t care WHAT kind of other manuscript that phrase came from – any opportunity to Praise God for Who He is should be taken. It’s actually good for US! Just FYI – this prayer shows us the Lord Jesus’ focus – God first!

In Western countries, most of the time, only the poor amongst us have to pray for ‘their daily bread.’ However, in other places in this world that’s the only kind of prayer they pray. They need food, as well as some sort of roof over their head, plus clean water!  Oh, and the poor often pray with great passion for their sick and starving children. They may be forced to throw in a desperate prayer for others to stop dropping bombs on them! That stuff doesn’t apply to most of us. We just go to the supermarket and pick up a loaf of bread without thinking.

Ever since the Lord told me to watch out for the little words, I can’t seem to see anything else – those little words pop out at me like mushrooms in a field. The word for today is “AS!” That’s a little word, big on meaning. Here is  a question…do you think that the Lord has trouble getting His will done in heaven?? No?? Me neither. But it’s pretty obvious to everyone that God’s will is going down the plug-hole in this world. If His will was done, the afore-mentioned starving, homeless, bombed out, physically assaulted poor people would be fed and housed, and safe – automatically!

On we go: my next point is  … And forgive us our debts, AS we also have forgiven our debtors.” That kind of kicks the whole idea that God forgives everyone all the time, in the bucket doesn’t it? One little word, two little letters and it changes the whole ball-game. I checked that out in a whole lot of versions, and guess what … AS is actually the word used everywhere!  ‘As’ explains that the first thing can’t happen without the second.

Yeah, that’s a sobering thought that sent me straight to the knees of my heart to make sure I wasn’t holding anything against somebody else! Being loved is a given but – our forgiveness is conditional. It’s not an optional extra – even if somebody else did something so dastardly we feel can never ever forgive them. We quite simply …  must..

Sin has no power to hold us captive, now we live out our lives under Love’s jurisdiction. Sin can only have power over us when we LET or ALLOW it. It’s a choice. Christians simply must learn the difference between ‘how I feel’ and ‘what God said.” The only power in how I feel, is the power we choose to give it – and yes I am a dud at that too! 

However, we live in another kingdom now, that’s why we pray “Your kingdom come!” WE get to bring it with us! We can choose to stand around in satan’s backyard wondering why we are getting clobbered, OR we can take back the higher ground that already belongs to us. The power, the choice, is now in our hands.

Lastly: ‘deliver us from evil ’ means so very much more than the vague hope that God will stop me from doing bad things! As if the Lord would need to do that – He already thoroughly did it, 2000+ years ago! Now, we have our free-will and His power to help us overcome. We quite simply need to stop ourselves. Sin can no longer hold us captive. Sadly, we will never progress in the Christian life while we choose to give our enemy power over us that he no longer has.

“Deliver us from evil” can also mean: “please Jesus keep me away from those things that are sent into my life to destroy me. Please make me aware of them – keep me alert to the enemy’s tricks. Show me the holes in my life that give him permission to torment me.” Amen.

Let’s learn to stretch what we already think we understand. You and I have probably heard hundreds of expositions on what the Lord’s prayer means, but that does not mean we have exhausted what it can say to us. Press the refresh button in your daily reading – a new fresh revelation awaits us all. Bless you! 👋