Soul

P 2190 Ya can’t take it with you.

/ DVH

“Someone in the crowd said to Him, (Jesus) “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then He said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And He told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:13-21.

I got my knickers in a twist about an inheritance, a while ago. A relative was being appreciated and praised much more than I was. Jealousy is the strangest thing! Song of Solomon says: “… jealousy is as cruel as the grave.” I get that. That stuff kills off any desire for reconciliation, and focusses on me and what I think I have, or, what I think I don’t. I didn’t know I could be jealous … until I was. These things sneak up on you, but I think that resentment and gossip can easily let them in. Yes, I’ve repented!

This parable is one of many that Jesus taught that probably doesn’t get preached on all that often in the Western world. We all like our things where I live, and if our pastors know what’s good for them, they won’t preach about this particular parable in Luke! Actually, we’ve got a whole lot of things in the Western world. Boats, caravans, trips overseas, big houses – to mention a few. The kind of stuff others in poorer countries cannot imagine. Yeah yeah, I know people gotta live somewhere. but we are rich in so many material things. BTW, God is not against people having things, He just doesn’t want our things to own us! That’s called a conflict of interest.

This parable the Lord told, pretty much sums up our current society today. We’re the more more generations. We like excess, like the person in the parable. This man worked very hard for what he had, and so do we. It never occurred to the guy in this story to give away some of that surplus grain. Nope. It was all his. He earnt it and it was up to him to enjoy it. He had no thought about the fact that God Himself had given him that excess, his lack of recognition of the Lord’s generosity tripped him up. The thing was, at that moment, he was undervaluing something that was far more important – the state of his soul before God. 

Personally, I think that this particular person expected the Lord to side with them on the matter of that inheritance. They thought Jesus would agree with them, that their brother was trying to cheat them. Sadly I understand that, sometimes human beings love to take polls. When we are unsure, we ask 20 people what they think about something or other, and get 11 for and 9 against. This individual wanted Jesus to come out on their side. Fat chance. They were saying: “It’s not fair!” But Jesus went right around the complaint to the heart of the matter. GREED. 

There may be many poorer people in this world who feel that this world’s wealth distribution is not fair on them. That’s true! OR … alternatively, they could be too busy trying to find food and water for today to even care! It is up to those who have to care for those who don’t! Just because the Lord Jesus once said that we would always have the poor with us, that doesn’t mean we should ignore them. (Matthew 26:11) Some of them probably live in our neighbourhood. Our Heavenly Father loves generosity – He’s a generous God and He wants His kids to look and act like Him.

Despite our man-made boundaries, great and grand cities, and fabulous houses, Jesus is telling us that those material things don’t actually matter – it is how we TREAT each other that counts – plus remembering Who gave us what we have in the first place! Jesus went straight to the heart of things, but we all get so tied up in this thing and that situation we forget that we are gone in a heartbeat. The Lord is telling us to keep an overall view of this life, not a reactionary, situational one. He is explaining that we need to value sharing in this life we’ve been given – far more than the things we earn, or have.

All we really have is who we are, not land, or houses, or money or position etc.  Jesus was saying in the Aussie vernacular: “Ya can’t take it with you!” Bye. 👋🏻

P 2114 Learn to govern your own thoughts.

/ DVH

“So I say to my soul, “Don’t be discouraged. Don’t be disturbed. For I know my God will break through for me.” Then I’ll have plenty of reasons to praise Him all over again. Yes, He is my saving grace!” Psalms 42:11 TPT

So, talking to yourself out loud, in public places may not be a good thing – nice large men in white coats might come and get you. 🚑 Fortunately, nowadays, many people have phones in their ears so it may not be quite so obvious when we talk out loud into thin air on a busy street! 😆 However, this Psalmist is not talking about saying stuff out loud – he is talking about internally speaking to his soul. Which is his mind, will and emotions. I talk to my soul a lot – it needs it. However, I don’t talk to my soul out loud in public, be-cau-se those nice men in white coats kinda put me off that!

Most of the time I have to tell my mind to ‘shut up please,’ because it has a habit of reminding me of my own failures, fears and inadequacies, as well as lists of any dumb hurtful things other people have done to me! The bible, however, teaches me to rest, relax and sit down with happier thoughts about the God of all the Universe Who loves me dearly. So, I take this verse: “Whatsoever is good, whatsoever is right, whatsoever is profitable let your mind dwell on these things…” LITERALLY.

BTW, dwell on means live like that, think like this. I have to be honest with you, and say that a lot of the time, I find this scripture very challenging!  My mind wanders off along some well-worn tracks when it comes to some if the people I know, and … not all of those tracks are things that are good, right and excellent. 😶 However, what I have learnt by applying this scripture is this – every time we embrace what the bible says and intentionally apply it into our lives by doing it – what He says becomes stronger than the turmoil.

The Lord calls that in His book … “renewing our mind.” It works like this: I look at what I think, and then I intentionally go and look up what He thinks. It is wise to not get stuck on what I think – that sends me down the path of fear, anger, worry, disappointment and discouragement. I start reminding myself about what the Lord says instead. I see this process like a coin – I can stick with the side of that coin I know very well, or I can become acquainted with the other side and try to find the good in whatever uncomfortable, nasty situation I’ve ended up in! And then I go on from there and pray about something I can do, then I CHOOSE to obey what HE says, and ignore that old record playing in my head. This is a hard thing, but if you can conquer the battle of your thoughts – you can kill a giant! I wonder if that’s why David ran at Goliath shouting??!!

I have learnt, from experience, that our God is extremely generous. Whenever I make even a teen tiny effort to be obedient, I’ve found that He is already running toward me to help me. The thing is, that other guy will try to fool us with remarks that go like this: a/ you are thinking bad thoughts about someone who hurt you because they have been so mean and you are a truly awful person. How could God love me? And:  b/ it is my own fault that I got into this mess in the first place! 😱 Reasons pop up in my mind like daisies on a lawn. 

The Lord has provided us with a better way in His book. This Psalm teaches us that we can talk to our soul and learn to stop embracing the ugly thoughts. Here’s a helpful tip I’ve needed many MANY times! Not every thought in your dear little head is YOURS. The other guy chucks in his evil contribution and because he is so incredibly sneaky so we think it is us. So then we beat ourselves up for being a bad Christian or we agree with him that our life is terrible and it is never going to get better. Agreeing with the other guy is a really bad plan. It is like watching water go down the drain – you can’t get it back. Time is valuable, it is all we have. However, we always need to remember, Jesus can redeem anything.

If we choose to obey what the Lord says in the book and act on it – that produces His strength in our weakness. Meanwhile, the next time we choose to obey, it is easier. It’s like a muscle being strengthened. the more we use it the stronger it gets. So here’s another helpful hint: I’ve found that I cannot build a case against someone else and, at the same time, build one for what the Lord wants. I have to choose to govern my own thoughts, and select which kind of thinking I want to facilitate. That can involve a whole lot of deep breathing! Otherwise I know I will get anxious and start worrying about a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t really matter.

And here is a fantastic scripture to end with: “I hear the Lord saying, “I will stay close to you, instructing and guiding you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you along the way and lead you forth with My eyes as your guide. So don’t make it difficult; don’t be stubborn when I take you where you’ve not been before. Don’t make Me tug you and pull you along. Just come with Me!”” Psalms 32:8-9. There’s good advice for all of us!

I encourage everyone reading this blog today to start speaking to your soul about any immediate chaos or trouble that has being dogging your heels – because our thoughts and choices are powerful. They change us and they will, over time, change the environment around us. Bye. 👋🏻