Strengths

P 3480 More attainable than we think.

/ DVH

It can be hard to adapt to new ways of thinking, doing and being. But when we choose to live this life totally sold out to Jesus, living out His Will, His way, that choice is far more easily attainable than we’ve ever realised. It is worth anything, but it will cost us, comfort-wise. Nowadays, bad stuff happens all the time.

As usual, I have what I hope will be an illustrative story. A couple of years ago, my dear hubby began to develop osteoarthritis in his hands, feet, fingers, toes, back, shoulder etc. and he not only experienced awful pain, he had to have injections for that pain regularly. His ability to do ordinary things easily, just disappeared. It was very traumatic, as you know, we travel a lot. Hubby had just begun to enjoy watercolour painting and he loves to give his paintings away. He paints whatever God tells him to paint and it speaks to the other person.

Because of his lack of dexterity and the awful pain, losing the freedom to paint was very hard. Then the Lord gave me a word of knowledge – the skill to paint does not come from our hands and fingers or their co-ordination.. that skill comes from God and it can’t be taken away. It is a gift. A visual word of knowledge. I passed that on to hubby and suggested he try to paint with his other, non-dominant hand. At first he thought I had gone a bit loopy, but he trusts the LORD, so he began to paint with his other non-dominant hand, which wasn’t as painful. He had never ever done this before.

Lo and behold the pictures he painted with his left hand, were fantastic! Even more full of life than the original ones. The original paintings were beautifully done, but his left hand produced things that were much free-er. Now here’s what I think … hubby could always paint, with his left, or right hand, it didn’t really matter – but using his left hand to paint meant he really had to extend his faith. What we do in faith reaches into God’s kingdom and it creates miracles. Read John 21:6.

Over to my point today. For years the church at large has wandered in the wilderness, trying so hard to please Jesus, and follow Him. But we did not know what to do with the “stuff’ that continued to happen to us, every single day. Everybody wants to cope and remain victorious, but we don’t seem to have the skills to help us to stay away from the very things that were sent by the enemy to drag us down. So we often have no personal victory over sin. We promise God over and over again that we will not gossip, or drink too much, judge others, or watch risqué films  etc. but it seems we have no power to change.

However, because of what Jesus did, now we have inside us the very gift and power we longed for, it just isn’t going to manifest itself according to our knowledge and our rules. God Himself has a WAY to do things. The bible is full of illustrations of what His Way looks like. His way looks like total surrender and confidence in everything Jesus achieved on that cross. It operates in faith and splashes love freely all around it. It knows when to say yes, and when to say no. Now we need to lay aside our coping mechanisms and learn to live this life dead to what we want and think we need, and alive to what Jesus wants for us, every day.

It is easy to say that we want to do everything the Lord asks us to do … until we don’t — because suddenly it seems too hard. Sometimes what Jesus asks us to do, doesn’t suit our plans, or make sense to our natural minds. Acting in faith is not automatic, it is learnt by practising it. Living this way. I know I need to take what the Holy Spirit said in the bible seriously, and continually choose to act on it at every opportunity, even when my flesh is desperately screaming its head off. I do that by returning love for meanness, faith for doubt, exercise real joy because of what Jesus did, no matter what else is going on. As we are following Jesus we continually need to make faith adjustments. We pray – do whatever He tells us to do – and then we follow Him. Human beings  want to escape trials, but the Lord has promised to take us through them.

Humility is one of our greatest strengths, and we get it by humbling ourselves and admitting we need His help to die to what we want, and live for what He wants. When some awful trial or other seems to be much bigger than we are, we have an opportunity to lean on everything Jesus did for us, and learn to trust Him, no matter how it looks. Let’s use our faith to respond to trials differently. This is not a passive thing. We must grab hold of Jesus, just like Peter did when he thought he would drown. 

Jesus once said this to Peter when he began to berate the Lord for talking about His death. “Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Matthew 16:23. But this man had been following the Lord for over two years! Then Jesus explained what God wants: “…“Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it.” Verses 24&25.

In other words we have to be prepared to put down our own ideas, and agendas, and pick up the things of God, that are eternal. Returning love for hate. Faith for passive resignation. When we were born again eternity entered our hearts. Let’s begin to rely upon His ability to know what we can and can’t do and trust the Lord to get us through it. We can get through things we have never ever dreamt about because we have God’s Spirit in us, with us, to guide us. Just like my little illustration, we can paint with our left hand even though we can barely write with it! This new way of living is more attainable because of His Grace, than we realise. Bye. 👋.

P 3193 Chosen to do His will.

/ DVH

In the Holy Spirit’s processes, there needs to be room allowed for those who have weaker faith than we do. They too have so many valuable things to contribute. Actually their weaknesses often expose to us the reality of our own inner value systems – pomposity anyone? This brother or sister can give us an opportunity to identify faulty thoughts within us. They are helping us. Now there’s a reality rush!! Those things that have remained hidden, and untested in our lives, sometimes come out when we bump into someone else who is not on the same page we are. And if we are not aware of what God Himself says, we can end up in judgment. 

Romans 14:1-4 has a bit to say about these attitudes: “Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.”

The point Paul is making is that we need to be careful not to judge other people who have weaker faith than ours. Otherwise we are questioning His judgment. It is so easy for us to say: “This person doesn’t do this, and the pastor blah blah blah…” God Himself chooses leaders. The bible says so. Here’s something to think about — sometimes leaders are chosen because they expose what’s wrong in US. King Saul is a great example of that. He was not a good leader, he exposed and personally illustrated cowardice and fear to his armies. But his people liked the way he looked so they chose him for the job. 

On the other hand, David, the King the Lord chose, was a great leader. Two men were given the role, for many different reasons. One of them showed the Israelites their weaknesses, and the other brought out their strengths. Both of those things are relevant when you are marching into battle. And both things were God’s doing. The Lord is not like us! He doesn’t see things the way we do, because we have limited sight and He sees everything. When He says it is not good for us to do such and such … believe Him!

Back to the point. So one man feels OK about eating meat, he does not feel condemned, but the next guy can’t. The point isn’t who is right …the point is, what are WE going to do about the difference? And the answer is we must not to leap into judgment! Bits of Romans 13:1-5 say this:“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. … … Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.”

It’s not about whoever gleefully eats up all their veggies and who doesn’t – these two scriptures are about an attitude that we can easily allow to flourish within our hearts. And yes, I too have had people in charge of my life who seemed to be complete numpties. The amazing thing was they actually taught me more about myself and who I really am, than the nice guys who loved my ideas and supported them. Ya might want to think on that one!

Some people have weaker faith than others – they can’t do the kind of things someone else thinks is easy. This is not an opportunity to lord it over the person who can’t, and be superior. They are the Lord’s servants — He gets to choose who does what – and He chooses His heroes differently than we do. Who else would choose to make His only Son, the Darling of heaven …into a carpenter? And give His precious Only child into the inept hands of ordinary people? God would that’s Who! Telling the Lord what I think you should do or be, is an impertinence. I’m His servant. If He wants my life for His glory that’s enough for me. And what He chooses to do in your life is none of my business.

We have been given a singular task, and that is to love each other. This has nothing to do with judgment. Our assignment is to love the person whose lack of faith seems to be holding me back from where I think we should go. Here’s a red hot tip:  we can’t do that without the Holy Spirit’s help, most of us are not wired that way! I need rewiring!! Everything in this life is a set-up, heavenly-crafted to convince us that we need Him! If we put our faith alongside the faith that Jesus demonstrated, we are all duds.

So when someone — your spouse, your boss, or your pastor does some knuckle-headed thing, and you knew it wouldn’t work before they did it, but they just plain wouldn’t listen to you – that’s when we have a giant opportunity to learn to bear with those who have lesser faith than we do. And at the same time we need to support them, not criticise them, so that their faith has a chance to develop. So let them eat mushrooms, broccoli and tomatoes, while you knock off a juicy steak! Why would what someone else wants to eat have anything to do with you and I?

To finish – here’s what I’ve learned: One day you are the smart guy and the next day you are the numptie, and what matters has nothing to do with either one. The joy we share is that we have all been chosen by God to do His will. End of story. Bye. 👋

P 3166 Judgment kills faith …

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 3138 Be real.

/ DVH

Let’s actively work at being real. We have all become so tied up in our own thoughts and superficial communications with each other, that we are barely skimming the surface of what God intended to exist within the Body of Christ. One of our greatest strengths is being over-looked — it’s becoming one with each other. Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.

“There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. We were all baptised by one Holy Spirit. And so we are formed into one body. It didn’t matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free people. We were all given the same Spirit to drink. So the body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts.

Suppose the foot says, “I am not a hand. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. And suppose the ear says, “I am not an eye. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If the whole body were an ear, how could it smell?  God has placed each part in the body just as hHe wanted it to be.  If all the parts were the same, how could there be a body?  As it is, there are many parts. But there is only one body.

The eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” In fact, it is just the opposite. The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are the ones we can’t do without. The parts that we think are less important we treat with special honour. The private parts aren’t shown. But they are treated with special care. The parts that can be shown don’t need special care. But God has put together all the parts of the body. And He has given more honour to the parts that didn’t have any. In that way, the parts of the body will not take sides. All of them will take care of one another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honoured, every part shares in its joy. You are the body of Christ. Each one of you is a part of it.”

This is a huge portion of scripture, but I believe it is often overlooked – except when we squabble with each other about which gift is important! Somehow we have convinced ourselves that having coffee and cake in the break at church means we are having real fellowship. I don’t think that for minute. Many churches seem to rely upon the individual to care for themselves, so what about the verses that talk about ‘one another?’ I believe that praying for something that someone mentioned in the coffee and cake time … can be incredibly important.  People need to know they are loved, and cherished by the Lord, and us, at all times!  And the Holy Spirit wants to use each one of us to communicate those things to each other. 

I go to a church that has members all around the city I live in. Most of those church members work, so they don’t have “spare time” during the week. So when can we minister to one another? My answer is simple – do it at church, do it on the phone, do it by TEXT!  Ask the person who is suffering: ‘Would you like me to pray with you about that?’ If they say ‘yes’ then do it. If their pain is enough to make them uncomfortable or cry in front of you, then my advice is pray for them! We are not the ANSWER to each other’s prayers — but we can hold up someone’s arms when the heaviness of their pain means they feel they can’t go on. We need to join our prayers with anyone who is suffering, instead of saying: “I’ll pray for you” – do it NOW, on the spot!” 

That person who is not coping, is an elbow, or a toe in the Body of Christ and I should no more ignore their pain, than I would ignore physical pain in my own body. I once broke a teeny tiny bone in my foot. On the grand scale of things it was nothing, but it hurt anyway! And it meant I couldn’t walk properly or do any of the normal things that happened in my day. Pain is a terrible thing when you feel all alone. But if you know someone else cares about you enough to hold you up before His throne of Grace – then you begin to feel a little better. Make it a habit, when you meet with other Christians to make sure you ask: “Does anyone need prayer?”

Many churches have people in them who are shy or inexperienced with extemporaneous prayer. Because they are not in leadership roles, they can feel their prayers are minor. The power of God operates when we take faith steps – He healed Naaman, the Syrian commander, because a little girl was brave and spoke up. Let’s actively encourage the Body to minister healing, help, kindness, wherever they can. We make time for the sermon, and the worship and the announcements – how about we make time to minister to each other? 

Church members need an opportunity to help, to take a risk, and pray for someone else. A bonus benefit is that they will gain more trust and faith, when they realise they too can hear God well enough to help somebody. That is irreplaceable gain. It means the stress to be everybody, to everyone, comes off the leaders. The barriers that hold us back from gaining further knowledge of each other, must come down. You may not think you pray all that well, but when God Himself answers your prayers for your brother or sister – you knock that lie into the bin where it belongs.

I once prayed out loud in a prayer meeting, and I hadn’t met Jesus yet! I sure fooled the other participants, they didn’t talk to me about the gospel for months, they thought I already knew the Lord. Just because I prayed aloud in a group!  I think it is time we were REAL with each other. BTW, there’s nothing realer than “confessing your faults to one another.” Bye. 👋 

P 2325 Mechanical things and I are not always friends …

/ DVH

… and I don’t just mean this computer I am typing on either! Now, if you give me a paint brush, I will paint you a picture … if you give me a pencil I will write you a story… But computers, or things with technological chips in them … like the kettle, or the car, or the cell phone, or the air-conditioning… those kind of things are the bane of my life. They promise so much, and drive you nuts instead. Tell me you haven’t yelled at some inanimate object that didn’t deliver as promised! 😡 

Life has given me lots of opportunities to discover what I can’t do. I was once given the opportunity to use an electric disabled scooter in a supermarket… that was an absolute disaster! I kept hitting all the fittings. Sigh… I even moved some of them sideways – by hitting them of course. A very nice employee came along after that and asked for the keys back. I didn’t blame him, I wouldn’t want anyone moving the shelves in my supermarket either. It appears I definitely can’t use one of those darn mechanical gismos. 

It actually took me six months of three times a week driving lessons, to get my driver’s licence. I could easily remember the rules but the whole steering/parking driving down the road steering thing escaped me. Sigh. I just ain’t mechanically minded and I’m not excited about the responsibility either. I once tried to ride a Vespa and I kept sticking my feet down to stop it. 😱 That was not a good plan. And never ever let me near your Venetian blinds… I know they aren’t mechanical – but try telling them that! I mean well, and I try hard, but the practical outworking sabotages me. I always pull the wrong string first, and it goes rapidly downhill from there. 

One of the fantastic things about getting to know the Lord Jesus is the distinct lack of any need to feel important – for His sake or my own. The realisation that the God of the Universe loves me … Meh! Everything else becomes superficial trimmings that can disappear in a heartbeat … and they often do! Even things with chips in … and I’m not talking about fish and chips either.

So what am I on about? I’ve learnt, from my own very obvious inadequacies,that we need each other. It is not good for man to be alone. You know, that verse is not just about finding a spouse. It is about us, the brethren, needing each other. ← There’s that pesky FULL STOP. I can’t sing by myself, however I can sing in a choir. I freeze up in a solo, in front of an audience. 🥶  So I suggest we keep me in the choir… and maybe YOU sing the solo instead. I know some people who look so ordinary… but when they sing … I feel like heaven stops to listen.

And, I know some preachers who usher in God’s Presence and challenge everything you think you know … in a good way. Afterward you feel like you lost ten pounds of excess weight. It just drops off and you feel lighter. I’ve met people who can say three words and shift your focus off your troubles and back onto the Lord – without preaching at you. There are others who make me smile and laugh  – there is just something about the way they view this life …

… We cannot do Christianity alone. It is NOT GOOD FOR US. We need to stop analysing other people’s theology and just start appreciating their strengths. Having opinions can be vastly overrated. I’ve learnt that the Lord loves it when we make a choice to see the good in each other. He kisses it. Our God loves unity. If we want Him to hang around with us, then we had better figure out how to accept the people who mess up like I do. Who can do somethings OK a-n-d others … not-so-much. Unity is not just enforced agreement, it is having the same heart toward each other. 

That does not come about easily.

God so loved the world … and HE thrives on our differences. Let’s move outside our comfort zones and make room for each other. You can fix my venetian blinds and I’ll draw you a picture.  😂 💻!