Sincere

P 3346 Persistence.

/ DVH

Hubby is my full-time carer, but recently he has been battling daily with arthritis in his hands, feet and back. Do we pray about it? Of course we do! We’ve been praying for ill-health in our lives for years, and we will continue to do so. However, we refuse to let those things stop us, because this life is not all there is — around 3 billion people haven’t heard about Jesus, even once.

Which brings me to today’s theme from Luke 18:1-8. V1:“Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up…” I’ll let you read the rest of these verses for yourself. Suffice to say, this lady was a real pest. She drove the resident judge crazy — yet Jesus chose this illustration as an example of how important it is to keep on persisting. It is His desire to bring justice for ALL. The fact that we are coming up against unfeeling, sometimes hardened people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet shouldn’t stop us. All of us need to put down the bat, and use our words, based on 1 Corinthians 13. Perseverance pushes through because it wants LOVE to win. 

We are assured that we’ll be heard when we cry out to God — and we can have faith He will make a way. This lady didn’t just sit home and sulk, or badmouth the judge, she banged on his door until he answered, and he answered because she wouldn’t go away. Jesus called that faith. I’d probably call her a pest – but Jesus did not! I am not suggesting we bail up people physically, or harass them – but  I am suggesting that we must engage with our problems. First of all, we speak to the Person who is ultimately in charge – God! Then we speak to the authorities or the people who can help us.

Many times in my life I have met real injustice. Each time I stood up and said ‘that’s wrong.’ Because I did so, rules were changed in favour of someone less fortunate than me. I’m not a lobbyist, or a politician – I’m a blogger, a mother, and a grandmother. I left school at 14… was married at 20. But because of the scriptures, when I met injustice, I knew God was with me, so I stuck with it. I prayed and kept banging on the door demanding for truth to prevail. Sometimes we need to prayerfully, politely, and firmly demand to be heard.

Second thought in Luke 11:5-13. Let’s look at verse 8. “I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.” Again we have the Lord using the same word – persistence. For the second time He is saying:“Pray like this!” He follows on from this parable about stretching friendship, into two verses that are often quoted …Luke 11:9-10. “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” 

Persistence is invaluable with faith. We can’t afford to pray, give up and walk away. We need to put our feet into our prayers, like the pesky lady who went to the judge, and the friend with a visitor who went to his mate’s house at midnight. We don’t have to be violent to be heard. That’s why we pray first. We pray until we are filled with Holy love, then we engage our feet. Over the years we’ve allowed Christianity to become  passive not active. So when you want to care for the poor find something to do. If you think a thing is unjust, speak up. Have a prayer meeting, get the Lord’s heart on it, and then go.

Let’s not just assume the Lord is on our side, instead, let’s remember that we are on HIS SIDE and find out what that is! When hubby and I go out to share the gospel and give away bibles etc., we meet all kinds of people, with all kinds of faith. We don’t talk at them – we demonstrate the love of God toward them. If we are not sure what that looks like then we listen and then act on James 3:17:“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

We don’t give up, instead we go after wisdom. We all need to show other people God’s love on purpose. Make a plan to demonstrate His love in action. When you can, pray for people in person. Keep your life clean, make sure you actively forgive those who despitefully use you. And find a way to feed the poor, heal the sick, raise the dead. If our faith is inactive it can easily seem like our faith isn’t big enough for this kind of stuff. We have to persist. It’s great to pray and give, but going grows your faith.

Bang on the Lord’s door, Jesus our Friend, He’ll open the door because He loves us. He sticks closer than a brother. We are always going to need fresh bread from the bible, for everyone we are going to meet today. Chew on the Word, for a bit and then go and live out what it says.“But how are people to call upon Him Whom they have not believed [in Whom they have no faith, on Whom they have no reliance]? And how are they to believe in Him [adhere to, trust in, and rely upon Him] of Whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?” Romans 10:14. 

You and I are the Lord’s hands and feet, so wherever we are we need to:  “preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words.” His Love will fill us as we physically reach out to others, because we are doing what Jesus loves to do. Bye 🙏.

Our daily bible readings are our fresh bread.

P 3342 HOW?

/ DVH

Philippians 1:9-11: “So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.”

I have come to understand that Paul’s prayers are not just in the Epistles for the churches he started and pastored – those prayers are for us too. It is good to read these things aloud and say Amen … I personalise the scriptures and pray them for myself. I’ve been praying for years that “the eyes of my heart would be enlightened” so I can see what He wants me to see. PS I also ask for wisdom. I don’t stop praying for that, because I don’t want to put a ceiling on what He wants to give me. And I thump the daylights out of Psalm 91, mainly because I need to remember every single day I’m only a spectator – participation is optional!!

Yesterday what I wrote was pretty intense. When I read things like yesterday’s blog, my first response is always: “That’s terrific, and I am all revved up and ready to go… but how?” … The secret is in the HOW …  BTW today’s blog is not comprehensive, however I have learnt it is good to make some sort of a beginning – and remember to be kind to yourself while you are learning – God is! Stay filled with the Spirit – if you mess up, repent, and refill. If you give out to others refresh yourself in His love for you.

The Apostle Paul tells us what love looks like over and over again in the scriptures. Part of HOW is this: Love looks like something. It looks like patience when you ran out an hour ago and you and the Holy Spirit are wading through the ghastly stuff of life and He’s holding you up!  I think any mother can tell you what patience looks like.

I think it looks like a two year old who wants to get dressed “all by myself” … and then go to church in any old jumper, especially if it is inside out, together with odd socks and shoes – I let the kid wear them BTW!  Kindness looks like your elderly parent who tells the same stories over and over again and you already know them word for word. Kindness understands they are really saying: “I’m still here, I had a life, things happened to me too.”

Love looks like not giving someone else – who often clearly deserves it – a piece of your mind. Instead, you tell that person how much you appreciate them and why! ‘But, but, but – that’s so-oo bad — aren’t you lying?’ OK. Let’s unpack this — are you saying that telling them what you really think about them isn’t bad? BTW, for your info, I’m not talking about lying – I’m talking about asking the Holy Spirit what HE sees in that person to love. The Holy Spirit knows everything and He will share those things with you. This means I’ve received, for free, a whole heap of insight into the person who is bugging the daylights out of me. 

One of the Holy Spirit’s Names is HELPER – why not allow Him to help you! We have a Resident Helper Who knows you, as well as that other person. As I was typing He reminded me about a person who is in my ‘difficult to relate to file.’ I prayed and asked for His help, and I saw them just yesterday – we got along so well. I think it was because I relinquished my own efforts and gave our future conversations to Him.

This is the biggest part of the secret of HOW. I urge you to pray over things, repent of your own bad attitudes – and don’t forget to let Him decide what a bad attitude is! … Then give it all to Him and leave it alone. He’s GOD, He can do anything! Sometimes we think we can see what that the other person needs, and we don’t even ask the Lord what He wants! Bad plan. Take the time to consult the Master Planner first. He knows it all. He’ll tell you what to do, He will give us useful stuff to help us love others .

Plan to live a life of love. That’s my next bit of advice. You have to plan it, and own it, day by day. A life of love cares about others. It is not absorbed in promoting itself, and it doesn’t emphasise ME being understood, instead it concentrates on love. The last suggestion about how to do it – is this: There are things we often say, and we say them because we are down, or someone has hurt us. But, if we are honest, they really don’t need to be said – I would like to suggest that it is better if they are not said.  

I don’t think we need to be paranoid about these things, because then they can become a task that needs to be done, instead of a way of thinking about others. Let’s revise our thinking prayerfully, repent wherever necessary, but be careful not to end up religious about it. Religion prospers, because it becomes a cultivated habit … it’s easier! But it doesn’t bring LIFE. Listening to the Holy Spirit means we’ve given up our agendas and we want to walk in His. So that’s the how, to yesterdays’ theme – “there is a bigger reality.” Bye. 👋 

P 3233 Here’s hubby!!

/ DVH

1 Corinthians 14:12: “So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.” Today I want to introduce a very special guest speaker. My husband made these remarks to me a couple of days ago, when we were sitting talking together. What he said was so good, I simply had to share them with you guys. So I asked him to write it all down. My dear husband loves to see people like you and I stepping up and using their gifts to help others. Today I’ve  made it his turn to help you. I pray you will be blessed by the wisdom and clarity of what he said to me. 

“There is a gulf of real difference between 2 paradigms — the world’s way and God’s way.  One is about procurement of information to ‘better’ the self — and the other is about God’s kingdom activated and working through our lives. 

If you are working person, you will already know that workers can get Professional development days. They are paid to do courses to improve their professional status and expertise. Or perhaps someone might buy self help books etc.  Alternatively someone else has been encouraged to gather more information, to gain a greater advantage, or knowledge of a subject – as a person or a professional. So the self gets ‘better’, more improved, stronger, to gain an advantage in this world. This system glorifies man himself.

However, God’s way is to die to self, to serve, to prefer others to yourself, and constantly rely on Him. That aim is to glorify God alone. If we take the methods of the world’s paradigm into Christianity, we too will begin to gather information, and be deceived into thinking that we are progressing in the faith life and equipping ourselves to be a ‘better’ Christian. But in reality, we are piling in more knowledge – without the power of God working in us, and through us to others. We will have more reliance on self, instead of on the Holy Spirit. More insight from human knowledge, instead of revelation from heaven. 

Christians have learnt to gauge their ‘growth’ on how much we know, instead of allowing Jesus to teach us “through the kind of active obedience that can only be learnt through suffering.” This means yielding and allowing the Holy Spirit to divide our soulish attitudes and actions by deliberately choosing to use the scalpel of God’s Living Word, in and on our lives. At the same time, we also make quality choices to love others … even those who are not with us.”

…I’m not going to play ‘top this thought’  today— quite simply because I know I can’t. Hubby is saying a whole lot of stuff that I know I have said in various ways for the past 8+ years – except He took ONE page … and I have taken 3,232 of them! Is my face red? Ho-hum! I think this is what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 14:12, when he exhorted us to excel in gifts that build up others. This means we will know it’s a spiritual gift when it benefits other people! That, BTW, is our Godly criteria. 

Let’s choose to be a people who don’t care about all kinds of spiritual hoop-la, the kind of enthusiastic stuff that turns up in our churches to try to attract the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet. We want Jesus to come and be with us, to do what He wants to do. He loves to set people free. We want true, genuine joy and wisdom from God Himself because He always changes lives. Those things can only come from the Holy Spirit, not from our own clever self-improvement think tanks!  Plus we want all of us to thrive in the Holy Spirit’s Presence, and go out and do whatever God has set for each one of us to do, for His glory.

I won’t say anything else today, I will leave you to think on what hubby said. Man I love clarity and he’s got bags of it. Such a blessing! Bye and bless you! 👋

“I pray for you that the faith we share may effectively deepen your understanding of every good thing that belongs to you in Christ.” Philemon 1:6 TPT. “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” James 3:17

P 3020 The heartbeat of faith is love.

/ DVH

You could say that another way – if your faith is alive, it will have a pulse. The bible talks about this subject in an interesting fashion in James 2:14-17, (which you can read for yourself) but I particularly like verse 18: “But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith BY my works.” Faith makes itself visible by the way it reacts and the things it does. Love never has a bad day.

Galatians 5:6 states: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love,…”So what we gather from this verse is this:  no expression = no love. Boy, that seems to me to really hit at the heart of what is wrong with our society today! We have become superficial, and we are teaching our kids to be content with superficial things. It is no wonder they are lost! Faith’s heartbeat does not paste on a smile and pretend that something terrible is OK. That’s called deception.

In my country we have a saying: …’some people are all talk and no action.’ And here’s another one…“show us what you’ve got.” If you are rude … and, sadly, Aussies can often seem rude, as well as blunt… the clearest version of that expression is: “put up or shut up.” Sadly, none of the previous statements are all that positive! They mean the person who is speaking to you is looking for substance not just lots of hot, nicely-phrased AIR. Instead of getting insulted, or hurt – start thanking the Lord for exposing places where you are weak. Weak places are a set-up for God’s strength to be perfected.

We Aussies like the sort of people who are the real deal … we can smell a set-up, or hypocrisy a mile off. The thing we’ve learnt after 20+ years on the road is that Australians know Jesus when they see Him, and most of them love Him at first sight. And therein lies the problem with what we call Christianity. We want to be sincere – we mean to be sincere – we try oh so hard to be sincere! But we are trotting about spouting things that make no sense to people who live in the real world. Half the time, I strongly suspect they do not make sense to us either! We nod, and smile at church, and go home as puzzled as we came. A lot of Christian people are so scared of the world around them, that they’ve “pulled their heads in!”  

Many of the saints of God in Australia are in hiding, keeping company with other people who are like them – people who understand the churchified language.They hide in bible studies, prayer meetings, conferences and weekly church. They have a permanent disguise out in the actual world around us. I dunno what the heck we think we are disguised AS … but, in my opinion, all that pretending means we are one step away from not having a pulse at all!  And that is definitely not good.

This next bit sounds like a digression but it isn’t. I’m older, so every now and then we locate the blood pressure machine, and check my blood pressure to make sure it is OK. Meanwhile, because I’m me, then if I’m still talking you can be sure I’m still alive! 

But my point is this: as His Body we need to regularly take note of our spiritual pulse and blood pressure, and check up how long it has been since the last time we shared what we know about Jesus with someone else! Or the last time we  deliberately loved someone – a difficult person, someone we don’t like – using our faith, and spreading His loving kindness all over them? Praying for people is great! Do it. But don’t forget to pray for you!  Ask the Lord what He wants you to do, to show them love – the answer may amaze you!  

Our faith must have a pulse — a heartbeat. No pulse means dead… or nearly dead. The bible clearly teaches us that our faith needs to be continually expressing itself, either through our actions or our words — but most of the time, through both. We don’t have to shove the 12 point plan of salvation at people, all we need to do to keep our faith active, is to stop censoring ourselves, get real – practise repentance — and treat loving the Lord Jesus as part of our everyday life. He’s God! He is not an afterthought! And if you start to think bad thoughts about others – stop! Repent. Ask for His help and keep reminding Him you need it. Be prepared to enter battle over it.

Like I said, it is not just about being all talk, and no action… faith and works go together. So faith goes to help somebody in need, and, at the same time, it tells them that you came because God loves them. Jesus needs to be so much a part of our lives when we are squeezed by bad or scary stuff, only LOVE comes out. We don’t have to have any enemies. Right here, right now – we have the power to genuinely love everyone. Jesus did it! He loved the guy who betrayed Him, and the people who nailed Him to the cross. He didn’t help them do what they did … but He accepted that God was in what was happening and it had a bigger purpose!

Our enemies are our blessing. They show us the holes in our faith and they clearly show us where we lack love. The bible says: “…a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.” Matthew 10:36. Now isn’t that a fun thought? The people we love have the most power to hurt us. This is why the love we receive from Him and give away to others has to be supernatural. The heartbeat of our faith is love. No love means our hearts need to be truthfully examined by His word. The Holy Spirit will always help us! Bye, 👋

P 2935 This is where the Power went!

/ DVH

“So you must remain in life-union with Me, for I remain in life-union with you. For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to Mine. “I am the sprouting vine and you’re My branches. *AS you live in union with Me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from Me you are powerless.” John 15:4-5 TPT.

Do you see that little asterisk in the scripture above? I put that there to make my point for today. I believe this is where the power of God has gone from our daily lives. We must not treat God’s love and passion carelessly!  We need far more respect, for Almighty God, our Saviour and the Holy Spirit. We’ve been saved to serve – we serve Them, They do not serve us. Perhaps the Body of Christ has become half-hearted, and lax in our faith. Please take note, I am speaking about the Body of Christ as a whole, not just one individual.

Unfortunately sometimes prayer and reading the bible is like trying to walk up a steep hill backwards with no idea about what is coming up behind you! I need back-up and I suspect you do too – so we pray for each other.

There are times our prayers seem unanswered, and they are sincere, tearful, heart-felt, passionate prayers. We fast, we pray, we plead, and yet lost loved ones remain lost, or they wander even further away!

People we prayed for died, instead of being healed. Or we are now further in debt than we were before. Why?? Because prayer is not an ordering system to get God to do something you want Him to do. Prayer is active communication and interaction between us and Him. Remember, if I don’t got it, after I asked Him – then I don’t need it!

The above scripture from John is an accurate diagnosis of my problem. John is trying to tell me something! Perhaps I have wandered away from active abiding into drifting. Maybe my faith is taking a back seat to my feelings …again. Because of this, I am no longer quietly enjoying my attachment to the vine. The solution, as I see it, is this — I need to use my faith and go back to resting in Him, and everything He did, even though learning to rest and abide can be difficult.

Unfortunately the church has been preaching activity and action for centuries! But all I need to do, is to continually live in my awareness and obedience toward Him, and He will continue to live in me. If sin has distracted me or dragged me away, then I need to repent and repair whatever has happened and then go back into trusting in everything He did.  WE FIGHT THE ENEMY, BUT WE REST IN GOD.

If I have had an argument with someone, then first of all I need to own I’ve left the Light behind. Because walking with Him means we have fellowship with one another, so if the fellowship is gone then ….??? !!! … I need to go to my brother, and ask them “have I offended you?” By the way, blame is a poor substitute for active learning. We need to learn to listen to the Lord … as well as our brothers and sisters.

We don’t need to defend ourselves because when we defend ourselves, we turn away from Jesus, Who is our Strong Defender. God will give us whatever we need! And that’s not just a happy verse – it’s the way we live. Jesus did not argue with His accusers – He yielded and trusted God to bring Him through those awful times. When it was satan tempting Him, the Lord thumped him with bible verses. 

The bible is truth. Over the years I have learnt to doubt myself, not the bible, because the bible is our measuring stick, our plumb line. It shows me what God wants from me. He won’t demand my response – He wants me to trust Him enough to believe Him and what He said. So if my faith ain’t working then it is because I am not practising what I am reading!

I may be misinformed, I may have wandered off into works, trying to please God. Meanwhile my nomad tendency is not your fault either, no matter how difficult you may have been! It simply means I have wandered off out of the ‘listening to the Lord’ meditating over His Word zone, and I’ve been distracted by this life. We get deaf when we stop using our faith, and believing that what He said, He meant!

Because the words ‘abide’ — or in this version above – ‘life-union,’— are not commonly used today I decided to look them up in the dictionary. Abide:‘Old English word signifying progressively to “await,” “remain,” “lodge,” “sojourn,” “dwell,” “continue,” “endure“; represented richly in Old Testament’. And the word ‘life-union’ means: “union with Christ.“ “Life-union” signifies a mystical, spiritual, and permanent connection between believers and Jesus Christ, where believers are united with Him in His death, resurrection, and life, leading to salvation and eternal life.” Thank you Google! Now there’s a bit to chew on.

Here’s something else … 1 John 1:6:“If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” Remember my little black rectangle at the top? Not walking in the light looks like that. We not only lose our hearing, we can’t ‘see’ either! God is not mad at us when we wander off – He is a good Shepherd. He goes after us and brings us safely back in His fold. But we need to revise whatever it is that we have been doing, under the guidance of the Word of God.

Why? BECAUSE JESUS IS THE LIVING WORD! That’s why! He becomes real as we practise what He told us to do. He makes this old, often hard-to-understand book, alive and pertinent to each of us, every single day. He inhabits it – just like God inhabits our praises.The Word of God washes us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness, when we pay attention to what it says, and stop making excuses for ourselves.

To be honest with you, I don’t much care how or where I pray either … on my figurative knees, or just walking around living with Him, mindful of Him. Prayer is essential, because prayer increases my awareness of Him. But it isn’t just talking! Now my life becomes a prayer, as I live this life around the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter what is going on, or what I am doing. I don’t leave Him out of anything. Instead of putting a big tick over what I am doing, and saying to myself:‘Well, I’m in the light, so that’s not my problem’ … ASK Him what He can see that needs to be attended to. 

We lack power because we are not treasuring His Presence in our ordinary, every day lives. His Presence is the light in the darkness around us, not how we feel, or don’t feel. Bye.👋

P 2814 Never EVER forget how much He loves you.

/ DVH

I have found out when life ambushes us, and hard things, or difficult situations – or even other people, add to our pain – it is easy to forget how truly loved we are. The presence of pain does not mean we are not loved! Almighty God dearly loves all His people. To fully comprehend how much, instead of reading the Old Testament as a collection of stories, look for how patient He is with Israel. I honestly believe Israel’s inability to remember that they were His chosen people and what that was meant to create for them… caused Father God untold pain! Look for the precious things He says to this nation – if you listen carefully you can hear His heart breaking because His love is lying at their feet — unappreciated. 

“For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel has said this, “In returning [to Me] and rest you shall be saved, In quietness and confident trust is your strength.”But you were not willing, …”Isaiah 30:15. “Thus says the Lord: “What wrong did your fathers find in Me that they went far from Me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?”Jeremiah 2:5. Humanity’s sin has broken God’s heart and we have that fact clearly illustrated even medically at Calvary – Jesus died of a broken heart. This verse is from the New Testament: “He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.” John 1:11. These people did not know their God even when they met Him!

It is no use to say to ourselves that we would not have done that. Sin is common to man. We have all had times when we have been so self-obsessed we would not have offered the Lord Himself a room or a bed. Remember what He said? ‘When do you these things for the least of these you are doing them for ME.’ He comes to each of us each day, just to remind us how much we are dearly loved by the Father, the Son, and by the Holy Spirit, our precious Messenger of Love.

The bible tells us our God loves everybody, all kinds of people, old, or young, or wise or foolish, grumpy ungrateful people. We merrily quote “God so loved the world that He gave…”but we forget to add to that thought that it COST HIM to do it. That’s what love looks like, and this is how God expresses His love – sacrifice. What Jesus did for us was free to us, but it cost Him His life to do it, and it cost our Heavenly Father to allow it to happen. He’s a FATHER … and He’s a good good Father! We are the apple of His eye and love is His primary motivation.

Meanwhile, don’t waste your time feeling guilty, or ashamed, or inadequate – instead stop thinking about yourself at all — and give the Lord your sincere, heartfelt appreciation! He did everything He did because He loves us. As human beings we often associate love with getting what we want when we want it, or when we think we need it.  Sometimes people just want the easiest and most fun answers! We link love with feelings of comfort and ease or feeling special – but God’s love is eternally linked to a cross and an empty tomb. 

In my opinion we need to get our heads around the fact that authentic love always wants the best for the other person! Guess what! God sees you and I as the best, so He gave us His best. We are so precious to Him, He is longing to marry us to His Son. And He is very satisfied with the bargain He made by giving His Son’s earthly life in exchange for our eternity with Him.  You and I might worry over Aunt Minnie or Uncle Fred because they are not ‘saved.’ Imagine how HE feels. The Lord Himself knows them intimately. He gave them that cheeky smile, and those sparkly eyes and He longs to talk to them. They are not strangers to Him – they are His beloved.

We have clear descriptions of what God’s love looks like in 1 Corinthians 13 and Colossians 3. That kind of love is the love Almighty God Himself chose to clothe Himself in when He came to earth. His precious Son, His chosen human personification, had no soft, stylish baby clothes — Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes. Strips of cloth – the baby clothes of the poor. That tiny little precious infant slept on straw, have you ever even sat on straw? It’s not something you’d want for a brand new infant! I encourage you to never ever forget how much He loves you – it is more than just nice scriptures – it is a fact!  Bye. 💕

“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one—for God Himself has given us right standing with Himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?

(As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.)” NO, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, Who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed,nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:31-39.