Sorrow

P 2913 Latest news anyone?

/ DVH

Isaiah 3:1-7 “The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, is emptying Jerusalem and Judah of all the basic necessities, plain bread and water to begin with. He’s withdrawing police and protection, judges and courts, pastors and teachers, captains and generals, doctors and nurses, and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all-trades.
He says, “I’ll put little kids in charge of the city. Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around. People will be at each other’s throats, stabbing one another in the back: Neighbour against neighbour, young against old, the no-account against the well-respected. One brother will grab another and say,‘You look like you’ve got a head on your shoulders.Do something! Get us out of this mess.’ And he’ll say, ‘Me? Not me! I don’t have a clue. Don’t put me in charge of anything.’”

Verses 8-12: “Jerusalem’s on its last legs. Judah is soon down for the count. Everything people say and do is at cross-purposes with God, a slap in My face. Brazen in their depravity, they flaunt their sins like degenerate Sodom. Doom to their eternal souls! They’ve made their bed; now they’ll sleep in it. “Reassure the righteous that their good living will pay off. But doom to the wicked! Disaster! Everything they did will be done to them.“Skinny kids terrorise My people. Silly girls bully them around. My dear people! Your leaders are taking you down a blind alley.They’re sending you off on a wild-goose chase.”

I read this passage today and I was astonished! It reads like the current news services – particularly the people who overemphasise the bad! My first thought was — so sin really IS common to mankind! (1 Corinthians 10:13)  The accuracy of what was written by Isaiah, 2,711 years ago. blew me away. Secondly I also realised that means that God is no stranger to the squirrelled-up lives we live, and the stupid decisions we make. I keep saying this stuff is in the book … and look at that – it really is in the book! Wow. If that doesn’t give us confidence that our God has already ‘bin there and dun that’ then what will?

As Christians we serve such a powerful Shepherd, He will fight every battle to protect us, as well as free us from fear. He wants to train our hands for war. However, in the west we have the luxury of thinking most of the poverty and war are ‘over there’  — as in, somewhere else! But many, many people get no relief from this kind of turmoil. Here’s another little eye-opener. This one is from Jeremiah 6:13&14 – 2,595 years ago: “For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.”

We misrepresent the power of God when we minimise the depth of the trouble and sorrow and suffering all around us. The power of God is always present to deliver, heal and usher people into His kingdom and it has no limitations! However, our fake cheery positive attitudes, the ones unsupported by the Spirit of God, are a knife into the heart of those who really live under all kinds of pain and persecution. We must never change Who Jesus Christ is to serve our theology. And we cannot change reality to elevate Him either. Other people will see straight through the lies and half-truths.

The church has developed an attitude like David’s brothers did when Goliath was challenging the army of Israel. I call it the: “If I can’t see it then it is not really there,’ attitude! Our job is to bring the kingdom of God with us wherever we go, not just hide from the bad stuff with over-emphasised prosperity and happiness doctrines. Our happiness is in Christ not in this world. We are strangers, simply passing through, plus we are His ambassadors while we are here. We cannot hide from reality by putting huge rocks of these badly formed theories between us, and the giants of this world. We need to do every bit of our hiding in His shadow!

“When you abide under the shadow of Shaddai, you are hidden in the strength of God Most High. He’s the hope that holds me and the stronghold to shelter me, the only God for me, and my great confidence.” Psalms 91:1-2 TPT

Always remember, Jesus was willing to pay the incredible  price to transform our lives so His Presence can go  with us wherever we go. We are not the whole ballgame – we are merely the ticket sellers and food vendors to the main event! JESUS IS ALWAYS THE MAIN EVENT!! Instead of making our own personal kingdoms comfortable and filled up with stuff, we are here now to make His Name famous. They will know we are Christians by our love, not our ten cars and fourteen overseas trips!

The daily news will probably continue to be bad, because Jesus Christ is not necessarily enthroned in the hearts of the press or most of the people around us, either. The press just want a good story and $$$$$!  But we have the real steadfast, eternal good news, inside US. We are carriers of His kingdom, filled with the love of God and the good news about forgiveness of sins, no matter what other people have done.← That’s a full stop right there. Bye. 👋

P 2906 Humility is essential.

/ DVH

Luke 19:3-10:“He wanted to see Who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see Him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”So he came down at once and welcomed Him gladly. 

All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Zacchaeus gave up his former life at warp speed, no questions asked! Here’s a little thought about this man. He had invested his energy in being able to see Jesus properly when he ran and climbed that tree. I’ve heard people debate what the tree means … I could care less. What I see is a man who wanted to see Jesus. We pray for those kind of people when we go on the road, that we would find the ones searching for Him. Something was happening in that man’s heart that prompted him to get a better view. 

First he climbed the tree, then Zacchaeus came down when Jesus called him. Immediately afterward, his validity to have Jesus come to his house for dinner, was questioned. So he started cleaning up his sins on the spot. After all, his sins were calling Jesus’ wisdom into account. Then he went one step further than simply fixing his sins, he became outrageously generous.

After that this man repaid four times over what he had cheated out of others. You can see his faith progressing as Zacchaeus began to understand the honour he had been given. Jesus was honouring this man with His Presence, owning him, in front of everyone. And this guy shows what true repentance looks like! Repentance requires turning around not just sorrow – Judas was sorrowful.

OH! That we would understand the honour we have been given when Jesus chose to save us! It is not something to be pushed aside and treated lightly. It needs to be the focus of everything we do. Pharisees etc. expected to be treated well, have the best seats, and have their thoughts and lifestyles admired by everyone. But we must remember, we serve a God Who SEES. He sees through our uppity attitudes, into whatever is in our hearts and half the time even we don’t know what has crept into it!!

Some times we feel bad because what we did was bad – that’s called conviction. I’ve learnt to pray this prayer from Psalm 51:10-13 often, because I want the best attitude. I need to spring-clean myself from sin, selfishness, ambition, and the need for recognition. I don’t have to do anything else but confess my sin, repair things with other people, and then I rely upon His faithfulness!

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your Presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.“

The thing is, we cannot even have a clean heart without His help! This Psalmist’s reverence for God comes through his words, and so does his heart. He has a desperate need for God to help him achieve what his heart desires. And He values God’s Presence more than anything else, and wants to always remember, that he has been saved from who he was and God has restored him. There is no value we can put on being able to respond with such humility. And we see this in Zacchaeus and a woman who washed Jesus’ feet. She is perfect example of repentance and humility in action.

You know we can have this opinion and that thought, but the way God thinks about people often escapes us. Jesus was incredibly loving and supportive to this woman. She washed His feet with her tears and dried it with her hair and she did it to honour Him.  She broke the most valuable thing she owned and poured it over Him. Right in the middle of a dinner party where she stuck out like a sore thumb! She did not care, she was testifying to His Sovereignty, His God-honoured total right to be glorified. And she had gone there to be forgiven and worship Him – then she humbled herself because He was worth it. That’s called having an open heart!

Spiritual eyes and ears are incredibly valuable. Any one of us, at any time can be in His Presence, at home, in church, in the car — and yet we can’t hear His voice, because our hearts have hardened — maybe we think we’ve heard it all before — the thing is — we aren’t listening. Maybe we are too busy critiquing the message!! Big mistake. It’s one I have made more times than I care to remember. The Lord is looking for humble hearts, a people who will put His needs above everything else. These people won’t care if whatever they do is ever seen by anyone by Him. Here’s a big thought: … if HE is the only One Who can see it, then it is true worship.

Humility is essential, otherwise we wander along, never changing, and blaming others. Instead we lay ourselves at His feet and wait to hear what He will say. Bye. 👋

P 2902 Give yourself a break OK?

/ DVH

The Lord knows we all need a break sometimes, so God has been incredibly generous to mankind, He has given us gifts to help us. When you read His book you might easily notice that Almighty God often picks the oddest people to represent Him, I think it is because His goodness shines very brightly in needy people. 1 Peter 4:10-11 says:  “God has given each of you a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God Himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to Him forever and ever! Amen.”

We can sometimes overestimate and esteem human beings, because they have been anointed by God to deliver His Grace to His people. Then we face disappointment and a further battle for our peace. However, it is God Himself Who deserves the glory and honour. Those people who represent Him are a gift from Him. With things like teaching, writing, sermons etc. we need to remember as we listen, that the person communicating is His Grace in action. If it touches our heart, that’s our Father, kissing us, hugging us — those things that bless us have been inspired by God for our benefit. 

I believe we desperately need to pray for our leaders – not occasionally, but all the time! Leadership is not only a gift of spiritual stamina, it is a gift of His Grace. These people are out in front of us, right in the firing line of our common enemy. They need our prayers. And we need to consistently elevate and thank the Lord because He gave us those who lead, they are His gifts to the church. Yes His gifts are precious, but that’s because they came from Him! So the glory belongs to Him. Everything He does is worthy of our praise – we simply need to wake up enough to notice what He is doing, all the time, every day.

If any one of us fail, or give up temporarily, or get discouraged or even lose heart — let’s remember that we have SomeOne praying for us, 24/7. Jesus and the Holy Spirit take our walk with our Heavenly Father, personally! Father God could care less if we are successful – He is looking for us to be His own submitted obedient kids, following His Son’s example. Jesus Christ was not successful by today’s standards – yet everything He achieved will one day be revealed in heaven. For now, WE HAVE HIS BOOK! 

I believe we are to be a people who press forward toward the goal, and live every single day, with the knowledge of an  astonishing revelation — we know that our God is always for us! Nothing else can prevail against us because He is on our side. He’s with us when we get it right, He’s with us when we get it wrong. Now here’s 2 Peter 1:3:“Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.”

The ones Jesus loves (Zach Williams):

It may be that this life has become so difficult we have begun to give up on ourselves, because our situation seems so dire we cannot see any answer. In hard times it is so easy to forget Jesus is the answer… to anything. One of the most passionate, desperate prayers was prayed by a little lady who crawled through the dirt unseen to get to Him. Luke 8:43-48. God knows when we get stuck and He runs to the aid of one of His little ones. If He seems to be absent, don’t be afraid – He is confident you will get through this. Incredibly, even at the same time as our troubles, we actually need more than a resolution of our pain and hard situations, even though those things are merciless — we need to be reminded that Jesus is filled with mercy. Pressed down and running over. He won’t leave us or forsake us.

These are the times that I need to remind myself how very much God loves me. How much He understands my pain and loss and sorrow, personally. Jesus didn’t pick out an easy escape route when His life got hard for Him. He totally understands what severe testing is like! He came to this earth, by His own choice, to live this life the way we do. Praise God the Lord Jesus has personal experience, He understands where we are. He will hold us up, relieve our suffering and sorrow and set us free to live in His love despite our circumstances. He has promised to walk with us through our deepest valleys.

Last scripture here! Matthew 11:28-30.“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to ME. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Give yourself a break and remember that it is not the end of the world to be human. God honoured mankind by sending His only Son to become one of us. What a wonder that is! And oh how very much He loves us! May He shower you with His peace and love, and help you to see those things today, Amen. Bless you, bye. 👋.

P 2876 Why do we suffer?

/ DVH

“These (sufferings) have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”1 Peter 1:7. Suffering, first of all, exposes and helps purify our faith. It reveals to us where we are. There is nothing like multiple events of hardship and sorrow to uncover what’s actually going on inside. Now we can see in God’s Ways, suffering can usher in revelation about our own inner attitudes. Our faith is incredibly precious to God, it glorifies Jesus.

He’s the One Who ‘gave us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise (hallelujah!) for the spirit of heaviness…’ It gets easier to begin to stretch our faith as we start to glimpse how Jesus takes our hardships, failures and lack of belief, and makes something so marvellous it goes right around our brain.  Even though we don’t always get answers, or even solutions … I think we will always need eyes to see Him at work.

The more we choose to walk with Him, His Way, the more our own stinky attitudes begin to fade into the background and we will become filled with delight and we begin to understand Who He is and what He has actually done!  I just love watching Jesus work in my life. As we choose to live God’s way, it transforms our view of anything that will distract us from walking with Him. We become willing participants in this new life and we gladly leave behind the stuff that drags us about in the wrong directions. The problem is, most of us have never fully comprehended what we have been GIVEN.  

These are the things that need to become part of our conscious reality, because that’s when we will understand that He has actually saved us from ourselves. That’s when our wonder in Who He is grows. Even in the face of sometimes insurmountable odds. And yes, I am still talking about suffering! That ghastly stuff that happens to every one of us all the time! This is why we need to learn to choose Him and His Ways, we get to see what real love, God’s love in action does in our own lives.. 

Jesus is transforming ugly things about me into beauty, in such an incredible, unexpected way – I’m always gobsmacked, over and over again. This is what living a life of faith produces in us. AWE!! God doesn’t renovate us – HE RECREATES us in His own image, using our choices, our obedience to His word and our hard-fought love toward each other. He is so patient, gentle and kind about teaching us. When we fail, He lifts us up. We can see this world differently because we know Him! I think suffering has a redemptive quality to it. 

Here’s an example from my life to illustrate my point. When I was a child, I used to get severe migraines. My teacher sent for a parental figure and told them I couldn’t see properly even though I was in the front row at school. The person in charge of me did not know that a child of my age could be so short-sighted, and in the end they took me to an optometrist and the optometrist prescribed glasses. 

The day I walked out of that man’s offices, it was like I had landed in a brand new world. My entire point of view of what I was looking at was changed. Grass had individual pieces, trees had leaves! I was overcome with joy. In the same way – a living trusting faith in Who Christ is and What He is doing in my life is just like that. Over and over again I notice that I can only see in part of the picture … but when He opens my eyes … boy, can I see so much more. I have seen and experienced, personally, how HIS Love always finds a way, as we let Him lead us.

His kingdom is meant to flourish in our hearts. Eventually we realise that we need to stop relying upon ourselves and start jumping into the river of His Grace. We must learn to let Him be God, even in our sufferings. In the past I felt angry with that other person who was caring for me, because I had had years of suffering, but you can’t solve a situation like that with anger, or even by making excuses for someone else’s behaviour. You solve those things with choice. He chose to love me and I choose to love others. I do it to honour the choice He has already made. I don’t have to go it alone either, He helps me.

Because of these choices, you and I become spectators, observers of whatever He does. And the more we notice what He is doing, the more we will see!  I’m not perfected, so I can still react badly, and He has to gently remind me. I have another way to respond now. He has already empowered all of us to put aside the bad, so we can see the good. He did it on that cross!  Only Jesus Himself can and HAS already perfected the saints.“A person may have many ideas concerning God’s plan for his life, but only the designs of God’s purpose will succeed in the end.” Proverbs 19:21 TPT. God wants to BE OUR LIFE … not just facilitate it. Let Him into whatever is happening to you, right now.

Bad attitudes and responses hide themselves in sneaky ways, and a lack of love toward others can successfully hide under a plastic smile. Suffering takes away our pretences. However His love can enrich us in so many ways – especially when we are stuck in hardship. Christ is deeply acquainted with mankind’s sorrow and suffering. He understands persecution, false accusation, physical punishment, mental anguish etc., and He lived a life where nobody else understood Him. He did that with the Holy Spirit’s help and Grace.

To know God and His Ways means we will also suffer, and many times it will be unfair and almost unbearable. Why do we suffer? I think it shows us our fallibility clearly, and it introduces us to real compassion and genuine love. Bye. 👋

P 2867 Aim higher…!!

/ DVH

One of the biggest problems we have in Christianity today is that we are not living like we are His kids. We’ve fallen prey to the deception that raising the dead, healing the sick, walking on water, multiplying food, or producing miracles is the only way for us to look like His kids. And … at the same time … we all know that only really spiritual people can do that stuff! Wrong! Those things are a side benefit of knowing Him! Knowing Him means that we will see His Grace operating all around us in this natural world. Any miracles will occur as and when we need them – based on the Lord’s directives. 

Let’s look at the Lord Jesus, He operated in miracles whenever, and wherever they were needed — but His focus was always on the greater good — communicating His Heavenly Father’s Ways. It was far more important to Him to usher in God’s Kingdom in all its forms, than it was for Him to produce miracles to order. Listen He’s talking to the Pharisees:“Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” John 6:26. Miracles produce visible results, and they gain attention in the natural world – but a changed life becomes a permanent spiritual sign post. Sacrifice is even more powerful than miracles – a life laid down for His sake, and for the benefit of others, is the best gift we can give Him.

When we have problems, difficulties or burdens, we need to go to the foot of God’s mountain and give all our ‘stuff‘ to Jesus. Then we begin to climb that mountain, by reading His word, giving thanks and worshipping Him. As we climb, we start chewing over the things we’ve read, and/or the things we’ve been singing. Jesus walks with us, He will tell us where to put our feet. The thing is, when we no longer have to have those burdens tied about our necks, our hands are free to worship and climb. Christians are not betraying anyone by climbing up above our difficult situations with prayer, praise and His word. Instead, we are looking for a clearer view – HIS VIEW.

We must stop focussing on the mountains of fear, sin, unbelief, and sadness, the things that are in our way and instead we make a quality choice to focus on the Answer – Who Jesus is, what He already did for us. We need to refuse to be overwhelmed or become …“weary in the well doing.” Instead we are deliberately climbing with the Lord. Sometimes we can find, that there are things that have become so established within us, they seem like they ARE us! They can’t be! We’ve moved kingdoms!! Jesus told us what to do with mountains like those … speak to it. Name it. And fight the good fight against our own yet-to-be-redeemed-flesh. Those mountains are no longer substantial, because now we are a new Creation, made in His image. 

Every single thing Jesus ever said had a spiritual application. We need to continually uncover those hidden mysteries that have been waiting for those who want to press in and move on. So we turn our backs on the things of this world, with all its troubles and cares. It was on the Mount of Transfiguration Christ’s true identity was revealed. Christians are not meant to be static – we are in a process of ongoing transformation. It is not enough to fight for peace, we are His peace carriers. It is not enough to wrangle with our own spiritual hard times … because we’ve been commissioned to be His joy bringers.The way to find real joy is right in the middle of a hardship or sorrow.

Hubby and I’ve just been looking at some scenic views of Lake Louise in Canada, on Youtube. We once saw that place from the ground level. Here comes my point… the people who took the videos I saw today, were climbing the mountain. The view below always changes as we climb His mountain! To start with we can see more and   get a different perspective.“The further up and the further in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside”  (C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle.) … Aim higher and bless you! 👋

P 2833 It’s not mine, it’s for sharing.

/ DVH

1 John 3:17-18 (NIV) “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

The biggest difficulty with this scripture that I can see, is that many of our much poorer brothers and sisters live somewhere else in the world, out of our immediate sight. Or they live under a bridge. OR maybe they go to our church, but they are hiding what is really going on behind their happy Sunday-go-to-meeting  smiles, and we don’t know them well enough to know that what we see, is not real.

There is what I consider to be a huge trap in the Pentecostal church. The secret unspoken rule that says we must always be positive. I love speaking well of others, plus I love looking through the Lord’s eyes at what is good about even difficult situations… I do it all the time, as He leads me…  BUT … we simply must not do this to the point of actively hiding the truth.

Jesus is totally AWESOME. His Ways are incredible, and we need to live our lives, seeking out those ways, daily, some times minute by minute. He told His disciples the truth — all the time — whether it was palatable or not!  And covering up things that need to be in the light is not the same thing as having a positive perspective. How can we comfort one another if no-one knows the depth of our sorrow?

Privacy is definitely important, but please, let’s make the main thing the main thing. I think we need the Body of Christ supporting one another far more than we think we need personal privacy. Jesus spared nothing in His quest to save the world. In the end He hung naked on a cross with soldiers gambling for His tunic. That’s about exposed as anyone can get!

Hubby and I have lived by the thought that ‘if you need it and I have it, then it is yours.’ There is such a danger when we pay lip-service to the things that actually need our intentional devotion. Like I said yesterday, when we do things for His kids we are doing it to, and for, Him. It is up to us to decide to live with more honesty than we are experiencing currently.

Darkness is our enemy – light is our friend. We can easily settle for praying for someone from a distance sometimes, not that this is a bad thing! … But it is if we are doing it instead of actually engaging, helping, and sharing what we have. After all if we pray that the Lord will help them, we are actually asking the Lord to fix something that we can do ourselves.

For example: a brother or sister needs food. We can pray. We should pray! But I have to say apples and oranges rarely fall out of the sky.Although we once found a much needed pumpkin in the middle of a deserted country road!! If I have food and you don’t, then my giving reflects the depth of my spirituality! Back to my point …You or I may not be able to pay someone’s rent, but we can take them a bag of groceries. 

Today I want to suggest that while we are praying, we need to remember to ask Him – “What do YOU want me to do about this Lord?”  We are His hands and feet. BTW, I am not suggesting that He needs us to participate, because our God is the God of the miraculous… However, He will often allow us to be part of what He wants to do, and then we get to see what He does with our obedience, first-hand. It is not about how much we give either, remember, Jesus Himself commended the little lady who only gave two pennies!

In closing I need to be honest, not everyone has been super excited when we decided to help them. Years ago we had Christian friends and we honestly thought that they were struggling. So we did the bunch of groceries in a box drop on their doorstep and watched from a large distance away to make sure they got them: The whole ‘…don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,,,’ thing– from Matthew 6:3.

The people we hoped to care for found the whole thing hysterically funny for some reason or other, and we were finally able to ascertained that things were not as bad as they had been presented. That was an ACE lesson in humility! But this is the only case ever, in the many years we have been sharing what we have. I think we probably needed that jolt to remind ourselves that … ‘…without Him we can do nothing.’  We are learning to follow the Holy Spirit as He leads us. However, the chance of a misfire is not a good reason to ignore someone else’s needs!  

Whatever we have, we have been given, including the ability to make money – so sharing with others is not optional. We’ve found that as He leads us and we give, our Heavenly Father God gives back in ways beyond our comprehension. We have never given to be repaid, we give because we want to be like Jesus, and GOD GAVE US EVERYTHING HE HAD, FIRST. Bye 👋

P 2824 Hanging on by a thread …

/ DVH

I found this picture the other day and I my first thought was this – if I can identify with what it says… maybe someone else can too. Here’s a few lines in a song from a great movie – The Fighting Temptations, that sum up how hard life can be from day to day.

“I used to wake up some days And wish I’d stayed asleep ‘Cause I went to bed on top of the world Today the worlds on top of me. Now everybody’s got opinions  But they ain’t been in my position That it breaks my heart when I hear what they have to say about me, yeah Seems like I always fall short of being worthy ‘Cause I ain’t good enough – But He still loves me (but You still love me, Lord) I ain’t no superstar The spotlight ain’t shining’ on me ‘Cause I ain’t good enough (oh, no) But He still loves me…”

Not every day turns out to be a day when we will knock the proverbial ball right out of the park and end up on a high. There are days, that the stupid ball machine malfunctions and every ball lands on your head. I have those days and I have the bruises to prove it!  Meanwhile I’ve learned a thing or two along the way of desperation… It only seems like that kind of day/week/month/year is endless. Sorrow and suffering weigh us down, and they seem to slow down time. Plus emotional, mental or physical pain can render us inactive. 

People, in their efforts to help, may tell the suffering person to ‘cheer up, get over it, it will all be OK.’ But in those dark moments they may as well be speaking another language — because they sure don’t know how to speak the language of pain! I have found there are people who are decidedly unhelpful when it comes to difficult circumstances  — they would rather preach happiness AT you, than come and sit WITH you. Then the sufferer gets to forgive those cheery Charlies for their ineptitude, on top of feeling like they’ve been run over by a truck.

Pain is nobody’s friend, and nobody in their right mind stays deliberately in a bad frame of mind and heart – not when they know the Lord. Nobody gets depressed, temporarily or not, on purpose!  Some people have either forgotten their bad times, or they have a grand happy solution that simply will not fit into your situation. “Just do this and all will be well,” they say. Yeah, yeah, great. Hmmmm. “Please go away now, my ears have stopped working.”

It is a good thing to try to limit your exposure to these happy enforcers, especially if they annoy the living daylights out of you. They seem to have an endless barrage of utterly useless thoughts .. like: “There are many people so much worse off than you are.” And how, pray tell, is that meant to help me? Should I feel sorry for them, as well as struggling to breathe? Christians do struggle – this life can be terribly hard! Sin is still rampant in this world and we have an enemy who wants to target us whenever he can. That other guy does not want us to believe and stand up! he wants us lying on the floor counting the ceiling tiles. 

Now let’s look at the fact that when Jesus said: “Cheer up” …  the power of God was present in His Words to overcome the situation! We need to remember sometimes it can be impossible to cheer-up without supernatural help. Sadly there also times when any one around us can lack compassion for someone who is suffering. The thing is, life itself is weighing this person down, and they are drowning in their own sorrows. These things are real … not over exaggerated or imagined! Personally at those times I pray for truck-loads of MERCY for that other person. You know, sometimes there is more to be gained by living through those dark moments, than there is by escaping.

Sadly, sometimes the way we feel about people we don’t like, or someone who has deliberately hurt us, when they get sick or hurt etc., those reactionary thoughts are a fantastic personal diagnostic tool. Our immediate responses can take the inner temperature on the condition of our hearts, and whether we should repent or not. Those unsympathetic symptoms we feel, mean we are going to need lots of His GRACE right alongside MERCY and compassion, ASAP. I like to remember that the bible says God will supply all our needs, so I ask for what I need …which is mercy, grace and compassion.

The woman in the bible with an issue of blood had the right attitude for recovery from her pain. She just kept right on pressing through the crowds to grab at His hem. Meanwhile, imagine the noise, the dirt, plus the feet nearly stepping on her! She had to crawl to get her answer! We have this kind of power on someone else’s behalf — to crawl through the noise and heartache to bring healing and comfort. Kindness and understanding are the vehicles that can transport someone out of their negative focus and into His Love. We can always go to God on their behalf.

There are times when anyone can end up feeling spiritually flattened by their circumstances, as if they are hanging on by a thread. In those times if we cannot press through to grab at the hem of His garment, then we will need the Body of Christ to intercede for us. Human beings always need grace, mercy, peace, kindness, patience etc. far more than anything else, we need those things for ourselves, and others… Bye. 👋


“For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, Nor will My covenant of peace be shaken,” Says the Lord Who has compassion on you.”Isaiah 54:10.

P 2822 Remembering.

/ DVH

Mark 1:9-13 “At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, He saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, Whom I love; with You I am well pleased.” At once the Spirit sent Him out into the wilderness, and He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.”

My first thought when I read this scripture is this: isn’t Almighty God so wonderful to bless and reassure His beloved Son in this way… He owned Jesus as His Son right in front of His cousin, John. It was so personal! And then the Holy Spirit came and kissed Him. All that happened immediately before He had to wrangle with extreme fasting – and the kind of temptation that urged the Lord Jesus to accomplish what He came here for without any pain! satan tested Jesus at His weakest physical hour. And there would come another day, three+ years later, when satan would come at Jesus again, as He wrestled with God’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Here is something I have noticed over the years that can happen in our walk with the Lord. (I try not to make a rule out of anything, this is just an observation.) I’ve found that the Lord sometimes extravagantly blesses you or I and our families, with something quite wonderful and unexpected – and right after that – something happens that truly stretches and tests our faith. You will notice I offer no explanation for this – I don’t have one. I’ve just seen it happen.

My point today is that God is so good, and so kind, He gives us something substantial to hold onto as we slog through our own personal wilderness and testing time. A memory of good is a brilliant asset, it will hold you up in times of pain and sorrow and stress. Here’s my free advice — don’t be someone who is always looking for the next thing, the next blessing, the next breakthrough – take the time to savour everything He has ever done for you in your life-time, so far. 

Also, don’t ever wander so far away from your salvation that you can no longer see the cross anymore. To me blessings and trouble mean I had better pay close attention to whatever is going on, in me and around me. Otherwise I know I will  totally miss the blessing, and end up flailing about when the bad stuff hits me. I have a teenage grandson, he used to be little now he is taller than his mum! Growth stretches us and sometimes that is uncomfortable, the clothes we’ve grown so used to don’t fit anymore!

Jesus Himself did a reassuring thing with His disciples, right before He was betrayed. It says in 1 Corinthians 11:23b-25.”The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My Body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”We all know this litany by heart, but there are also times when God is doing something on many levels – we need to live looking for Him in everything that happens to us.

Right after this meal, the downward spiral toward Christ’s death starts. His betrayer and captors are almost at the door. Jesus knows these men, He loves them. They have been dependent upon Him, His leadership. They have seen His wisdom in action in every single moment. While He was eating, sleeping, and interacting with them and others. He has been their in-front-of-your-eyes example of how to live. He was with them for three and a half years, and He knows they are going to need something spiritually substantial to remember Him by — because right after this meal together, He will be brutally beaten, murdered, and resurrected. Soon after that He will go back to His Father in heaven. And then, for our sake, He sent back the Holy Spirit for us. The Holy Spirit has never left.

Christ lovingly gave His men something spiritual and physical to do that night – it will remind them in the dark days to come, that He is still with them – even though He is no longer physically present. This action is to be a continual visible reminder, a joining together, ‘a remembrance party’ that what He did will last, and be with all of them their whole lives. But like I often am, sometimes these men were clueless. Fortunately the Holy Spirit came and opened their eyes at Pentecost!

I love another story that is in the book. It also happens while all these devastating things were going on. Two of the Lord’s men walking along the road to Emmaus. And Jesus, the resurrected One, walks with them and joins Himself into their conversation. They have no clue Who He is!  The Lord gives these men an opportunity to remember and revise all the things that have happened to the Jews, as well as when He was with them. He is so kind even in the face of their heartbroken loss. Further, the Lord pretends He wants to keep on going with His journey, but they are so taken with Him, and the conversation, they beg Him to stay…

…AND THEN HE BREAKS THE BREAD. Those men knew that action!!!… They had seen Him do that very thing days before with their own eyes. Suddenly, He is gone again, but now, their hearts are are rejoicing. They gallop off to tell the others – because now they know that DEAD isn’t DEAD! 

In this life, of ours, our human ways are often like a little stream bubbling along, moving past this, bumping into that — but God’s ways are a river in full flood. Carefully moving this obstacle, watering that dry place, and teeming with life. I exhort you to keep daily jumping into His river! We have a river of life in us. Remembering is part of following Him.  Bye, 🙌.

P 2714 “Blessed are they who mourn …”

/ DVH

In the Western world we have weird ideas about mourning and loss. We treat it like it is a terrible flu or something and other people stand by patiently waiting for you to get over it. If only. As if someone else knows how much grief is enough for you! The loss of someone close is not just a small thing – it can be devastating. I love the fact that in the Eastern parts of this world grief is allowed to be expressed, and passion for another person is not pushed away when they leave this world. Instead grief is expressed – loudly. I think that is quite healthy. Jesus told us that mourning is a blessing, so perhaps we need to revise our way of thinking. Grief is something we must go through, not avoid.

Grief comes in many different forms and has many different causes, like losing a career you love. Maybe you have been forced into a severely financially straightened life-stye. Perhaps you have been injured or ill, and you’ve lost your old way of life and you have to reinvent yourself. Or a much loved child has wandered so far away from everything good, right and worthwhile – you cannot even allow yourself to think about it… so your prayers turn into groaning. The bible says this for people who are so grief-stricken they can’t pray: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Romans 8:26.

Thank God He is praying for us when we cannot!

There are also times that we can be suddenly dragged under into grief by things that have happened to people we love. Truly loving people means we share their sorrow. At the same time, other people’s actions and attitudes can also cause much grief. Or we can be greatly misunderstood personally, and not able to explain ourselves, and that causes the terrible pain of grief as well. Bin there, dun that! I think of grief as some sort of emotional drowning, and the surface of the water – where the fresh air is – seems too far away to reach and unachievable. Maybe we will never reach the surface again – that thought causes even more grief! Whatever the cause, grief, sorrow and suffering are all a reality, and we can get stuck there.

I have observed that grief weakens even the strongest people. I’ve known people who could not find their way out of a grief cycle. It was as if their grief was a terrible burden that horrible circumstances had tied to their backs. So they clung like mad to what they had lost, because their grief was all they had left! I’ve also known other people who carried their grief as proof of their love for someone else who has long since gone to their reward. Grief then becomes an unnatural tie that cannot easily be dealt with or resolved. How long is long enough to grieve?  I have no idea. I can only say that we need to pass through this process, one step at a time. If we hurry grief, we run the risk of postponing it – only to have it grab us by the throat unexpectedly.

What does God say about it? Actually grief made an appearance in the garden of Eden! We barely get to Chapter 6 of Genesis when this verse appears:“And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart.” It is too easy to pass off the Lord’s grief over mankind’s sin as something that He can absorb, because, after all – He’s God! But this verse teaches us something about Him, and us. The bible tells us that we are made in His image and we have shared characteristics with our Heavenly Father. That one line in Genesis shows us that under some circumstances, grief is normal – He feels it … we feel it. You can experience it after you have been betrayed. 

In Isaiah 53:4 it tells us that we can have grief because of our sin. “Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for His own sins!” Grief can be misunderstood, because our society hates pain of any sort – even the natural pain of aging! Unfortunately then we can easily miss the point of any grief we feel because of our own sin. That kind of grief is good. Grief, sorrow and suffering lead us to repentance. But at the same time we need to realise that because we feel those things, it means we have a tender heart.

In Matthew 5:4 Jesus says: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” And in Revelation 21:4 the bible says this: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

These two verses tell me that Almighty God has a plan for those who are not completely comforted in this life. One day He will wipe all those tears away, forever. That’s how important our grief is to Him – He has a plan and He will deal with it. We know that even Jesus Himself stood outside Lazarus’ tomb and wept – yet only minutes later, that man was resurrected. Personally, I see what happened to Lazarus as a sign that dead to this world is not really dead. People may be gone from this life, but they are not just plain GONE. We are eternal beings, made to live forever!

Lastly I want to mention a verse in Ephesians 4:30 that has great meaning for each of our lives because it involves the most sensitive and dearest Person Who truly cares for us: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by Whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” The Holy Spirit totally understands grief, because people grieve His precious heart every single day. Seeking to cultivate His company is the greatest privilege we have been given, why would we cause Him unnecessary pain? We are blessed when we mourn, we learn that we are limited beings who need Him. 👋

P 2698 Some things really are as plain as the nose on your face.

/ DVH

Thank God we always have HIS MIRROR! The bible clearly reveals to us that we cannot love God and hate our brother. “We love because He first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister IS A LIAR. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” 1 John 4:19-21. And just in case we think we can wiggle out of that particular idea on a technicality, Jesus Himself answered the whole …  “Just who is my brother?” scenario, brilliantly, in the story of the Good Samaritan. He made it clear, my brother or sister is the person I want to avoid, or the person I blame for making ME feel bad!

We can be easily fooled into missing out on our new life in Christ’s life-giving lessons, by dismissing our own personal responsibility to fix things. Being reconciled means humbling yourself not just shoving the blame off onto the other person. We can’t just silently excuse or dismiss our need to cherish Him, and His Word above everything else, and hope He won’t notice! Fixing stuff isn’t just a process of negotiation, and agreement – true reconciliation means we can go back to walking with each other in love, as quickly as possible. The aim is change – not pretending! Self-deception is the worst kind of deception.

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.” Romans 12:17-19. Personally, I ask the Lord for His help to sort me, and the other person out. I let Him know I am happy with what He wants to do about it, either way. And I aim to take the low road – because I probably did something or other! His Presence is way more important to me than my ego. People who protect themselves have fragile egos and, sadly, they can easily miss opportunities to die to self.

I recommend true reconciliation with others highly, because that action quickly diagnoses all the greebilies that hang around, unnoticed, in our own lives. These creepy critters disguise themselves as terrible wounds that have been inflicted on us – and that means many times we avoid the stab-ber like the plague. Have you ever noticed how dead-set easy it is to prove your point and get sympathy for your sorrow when somebody hurts you and everybody else can see it was their fault? My advice is to give sympathy a swerve and go for the Gold – walking with Jesus.

Oh the temptation to feel justified can be such a battle. We can easily want to bad mouth that person who did us so much harm! We can end up collecting other people who agree with our assessment of the perpetrator’s behaviour like we’d collect postage stamps! The temptation rises up to go over and over the events in our mind, revisiting what we should have said to put that other person in their place. Of course YOU don’t do that … and … neither do I! Where is the faith in self-justification? Nobody should owe anybody anything but LOVE … and that situation is only diagnosed by the One Who paid it all.

Unless we choose to leave our fate in His hands, we can end up wasting our time and effort trying to paint a picture of how right WE are and how wrong the other person is. Of course they are wrong! It’s often as plain as the nose on anyone’s face who is at fault. But the real point is this … our response is our response. And guess what? The only thing we have any power over is OUR RESPONSE. Um … ‘turn the other cheek, and walk the extra mile’ seem familiar to me.  You know if Jesus had avoided the toxic people WE WOULD ALL BE DEAD IN OUR SIN!

Yes, I know I am advocating letting that person who hurt you or I go free! But that’s what Jesus did for US, and He didn’t put any caveats on what He did either… He died once for all. That’s what the book says. So that serial killer who has despatched numerous people in ghastly ways… can stand on the same ground I do. GRACE. Sin is a great leveller, and fast recognition of what I’ve done, is a brilliant way to get humble quickly! That murderer can change their life too, just like I did. Meanwhile it is so dumb to keep lists of things anyone did! Just give it all to Jesus quickly, and make sure that you fix things with that other person too – to both people’s satisfaction.  

The thing that has a permanently lasting effect on us is to value Him above all the bumps, breakages and bruises this life hands out. It’s as plain as the nose on your face. My advice is …keep your mirror handy – we all need it! Bye. 👋