Team

P 2945 God’s TEAM needs HIS preparation.

/ DVH

“For the Lord is the greatest of all, King-God over all other gods! In one hand He holds the mysteries of the earth, and in the other He holds the highest mountain peaks. He’s the owner of every ocean, the engineer and sculptor of earth itself! Come and kneel before this Creator-God; come and bow before the mighty God, our majestic Maker! For we are those He cares for, and He is the God we worship. So drop everything else and listen to His voice!”Psalm 95:3–7 TPT.

““I tell you this timeless truth: The person who follows Me in faith, believing in Me, will do the same mighty miracles that I do—even greater miracles than these because I go to be with My Father!”John 14:12 TPT.

“Whether you eat or drink, live your life in a way that glorifies and honours God.”1 Corinthians 10:31 TPT.

Our total faith in God’s unchanging goodness, together with our decision to deliberately lay down our lives unconditionally — as lovers of Christ – IS glorifying to God. We have been destined to stand with the same steadfastness David had in front of Goliath, sure in the knowledge that God will help us, so nothing can stand in our way! You and I can walk into an enemy’s camp with nothing but lights and horns because He said to do it… and then we get to win! The Old Testament has profound teaching in it about the love and power of God in action in a people-group’s lives. Today I want to talk about difficulties being a part of our preparation.

Remember Job? God Himself set that man up for a huge test! He didn’t kill the man’s kids, or take his money, or cause his financial problems, the other guy did that. But we don’t like to think about what God will allow in our  lives, because we all love a happy ending! Unfortunately the bit in the middle of that process leaves us cold! Sometimes that is because fear has a foothold and we are not acquainted with His unending goodness. However, Job clearly shows us what life is like without the Lord’s protective hand … Job came through that awful test, because even though his faith was often misplaced and sometimes wobbly – He was still God’s man! 

The Lord wants to lead each one of us to those green pastures in Psalm 23, but we may need to go through the valley of the shadow of death to get there!! Even if He has to drag us through a bramble bush backwards! We need to approach this life dedicated to actively learn every day, to CO-operate with Almighty God, just like Jesus did. We need the same mind toward God HE had.  “Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself;  He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. Yes, and He will show Him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.” John 15:19&20. 

This life we have here and now, is our chance to be the people who co-operate with God’s plan. But we must remember that we cannot choose how that works. That’s because God can do more than one, or ninety-four things at a time. So at the same time as we are walking in His power, we are growing fruit for His glory, fighting off the enemy and standing firm. Staying attached to the vine means we don’t move, we are there through thick and thin without doubting His love toward us.

The biggest mistake we can ever make is to see God’s goodness as a reward, or an add-on to what we already have – or even what we think we want or need – His goodness is about His character not our actions. God did not save us just to bless us and make this life peachy-keen! He is looking for A PEOPLE.  Read the book. He wants a people who will act and speak love toward others, just like Jesus did! He chose YOU because He knows what you are capable of when you choose to trust Him.

These daily tests we face are preparing us for what comes next. We are to be His salt in a bland, blah world, as well as His light shining brightly in the darkness all around us. We need to learn, through our own personal experiences, to be confident in God’s love for us even when things get difficult — because: “Depths of purpose and layers of meaning saturate everything You – (He) do(es).” Psalm 92:5 TPT.

Everything that comes AT us, is Father-filtered. So when we gave our lives to Jesus we put Him in charge of our new life. Now we are “His people, the sheep of His pasture…” It is good to remind ourselves that when we gave Him our lives, He took them! 🎼”It’s no longer I that liveth, but Christ that liveth in me…🎶” … that is not just a sweetly sentimental song … THAT IS AN AIM! …  A purpose … A battle cry!

Let’s stop trying hard to make our own lives perfect, by telling ourselves that when that happens we will have the freedom to obey Him! Otherwise we end up telling ourselves that when everything is going well for us — that’s when we will engage in His alternative unknown plan … after we’ve done this thing and that aim — THEN we can go be about our Father’s business. We need to GO be about our Father’s business, all the time — ready or not! Almighty God has not been, nor will He ever be, an add-on. Nor is the blood of Jesus just a free ticket to a better place after we have died. He’s the meaning of life!

We have been commissioned by the Lord Himself to tell others they need to be ready for what comes next … but are WE ready? “… However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [persistence in] faith on the earth?”  Luke 18:8b. Obedience to His heavenly vision is the key that unlocks the door to an eternal perspective … here and now. God’s team needs His preparation – and He chooses that for each one of us. Bye. 👋

P 2608 My final hidden gem.

/ DVH

This precious gem is about being honest with myself, as well as others. It is a gem that is hidden. Other people may notice inconsistencies, but what goes on in our own heads is only made clear when we speak or act … or both! Sadly, personal dishonesty is a big snare. It happens when we colour our own perceptions in with pretty colours, to hide any spiritual lack or laziness we have chosen to tolerate. Jesus is “…the Way, the Truth and the Life …”John 14:6. We cannot possibly follow Him and not be truthful with ourselves! John also said: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”3 John 1:4.

Let me explain. We can convince ourselves that in order to serve God we need to be a/ ready;  b/ equipped;  c/ doing really well spiritually. Rhubarb! It is not good to allow that kind of escapist thinking in our lives. Yes, I know that’s a bit harsh, but just like a child needs correction, or it will make up its own rules …  adults too use evasion far more than we realise – simply to escape from the very reason we were saved.

Now let’s look at a/ being ready. Have you read in the book that Jesus is coming back? To be accurate, actually, He’s ‘coming READY or NOT!’ Ya might wanna Selah that for a second or two. And here’s another nifty thought! The people who said they couldn’t come to the beyond-our-dreams wedding feast – missed out. (Matthew 22.) Just saying … 😶 …You know God doesn’t want you and I to be the whole ballgame, we are part of a team. But the people who don’t join in with the team usually end up on the bench.

On to – b/ equipped. Jesus sent His totally untrained, undisciplined, haven’t-got-a-clue disciples out to do what He did. (See Mark 6:7-13; Luke 9:1-2.) Um … now let’s see what He told them to do … He sent them to raise the dead, heal the sick, cast out demons and announce the kingdom of God has come! Without any training or anything!! Not even a conference! And guess what? They didn’t have the bible either! They simply took Jesus’ word and His Name and went out and did it. Training is only ever useful if we apply it.

And c/ our lack of spirituality. Christians give up their desire to truly embrace the Christian Way of life with the feeblest of excuses. We lack honesty … which is kind of criminal if you think about the fact that we pay incredible attention to appearances! We look at others as being more spiritual than we are, or more qualified, and use that as an excuse. “Oh, those people see angels. They prophesy. They are missionaries. That group over there pray in tongues.” Instead of finding excuses, why can’t we find reasons to try?! The short answer is – we don’t want to, it’s too hard, it is inconvenient. But the Jesus Christ that lives in those other more spiritual people, lives in you and me, and HE has never been, nor will He ever be … inadequate! There are things that we will never experience unless we’re prepared to take a risk. 

EG: there is no need to walk on water if you have a ferry standing by. We will need to walk on water when there is no other way to get to the other side! At the same time there is no need to trust God for food when the supermarket is down the road, and you have money in your pocket. We simply must understand that our lack of total honesty with ourselves is crippling our faith. We would be far better off to say: “I don’t want to,” than we are to say: “I can’t.”  “I don’t want to,” can be repented from! Let’s get that rebellion out in the open where it can be dealt with.

Other people tried evasion and it failed because God didn’t take any notice of their feeble excuses. (Moses, Gideon, Jonah, Jeremiah …I could go on!!) We have plenty of examples in the Bible of people who had huge excuses as to why they couldn’t possibly do what the Lord asked them to do and, you know what? He said … “Do it anyway.” 

Human beings have been making excuses since the garden of Eden! Every time the Lord Himself helped people do what they were asked to do, but there were also times when He said “Use your faith!”  And once or twice He said: “Where did your faith GO?” Why do we leave so much work to a half a dozen people, when what needs to be done needs an army?! An army functions because every man does the job he was given. And experience thrives when we simply turn up and get going! Experience is another way to know Almighty God for yourself.

Christianity was never designed by God to be a part time job. Jesus, Who is our Perfect Example, did not do the work God gave Him to do part-time. Jesus Christ was always ALL IN. He was always on. Honesty with ourselves and others is a hidden gem, it is a key to opening new doors in our faith that have remained firmly shut.  Bye. 👋

P 2412 People need help to understand.

/ DVH

I often really struggle with the concept that the people-who-don’t-know-Jesus-yet, are somehow our enemies or they are in the wrong team. The Bible describes these people as lost  …to me that means they can be found – at any minute, of any hour, of any day, any time at all! Even if people are supposedly our enemies, we are to love them! Now there’s a directive that changes stuff.  Christianity is not an exclusive club, with passwords and incomprehensible language – it’s a whosever-will-may-come-club!

Jesus told us parables about things that have been lost, and then they get found. However, we both know that He’s talking about people, not coins or sheep … ! It is a tragedy when we treat the people-who-don’t-know-Jesus yet like they are somehow inferior to us. No wonder they avoid us like the plague. We need to learn to love who HE loves, and He loves ALL OF THEM. Let’s stop trying to get them saved, so we will feel more comfortable, and share the love of God instead. There ain’t nothing more powerful than His love.

The difference between us and most non-Christians, or non-believers, is simply … His Grace. We know about what He did for all of us, and they don’t!  Grace can totally transform a human heart. “What do we have that we were not GIVEN?!’ (I Corinthians 4:7) In other words, somebody else told us there was another way to live. You or I could be the first person to ever tell another person the salvation story. What a privilege we have – we get to invite people into eternity with Jesus. His GRACE IS WHAT MATTERS – Grace works fine when you use your faith.

The dividing line between “them” and “us” is imaginary and quite useless. It puts a space where there is no need to put one! Personally, I was “them” not that many years ago. Then somebody took the time to tell me Jesus loves me. That sentence changed my life utterly. I don’t know your story, but I know I believed in a God Who was out there, somewhere, for many many years, before I met Jesus Christ personally. Up until that day I had no clue that He was available to be MET. I had never heard the gospel even once. The news that Jesus loved me, before I was even born, and He had a plan for my life, was astonishing. Before that point my own plans were kind of haphazard, and they were not working out all that well! 

I think somehow, we are afraid that if we tell people the cost of Christianity, they won’t ‘sign up!’ We’ve forgotten the whole point is for them to meet a Person, not join a church group. When they meet Him, He’s worth the cost! Prior to meeting the Lord myself, my life was a revolving door with people coming in and going out on their own whims. Then I met SomeOne Who came IN to stay. When you have suffered rejection all of your life God’s acceptance blows your mind.

As I speak to other people about the Lord, I often think of my previous life and I talk to other people with it in mind. Funnily enough, I witnessed to all my family and friends until I was no longer welcome with some of my rellies.. teehee..  Hah! Truth be told I still do that actually – giggle.😂 That’s because some of those people are now closer to the shoving-off point than they were back then, and I figure what the heck? They definitely need to know!! That’s called LOVE.

At this very moment hubby has gone off to share the gospel with a lady who knows nothing about Jesus, and she is part of a small group of people who meet to talk about the Gideon bible. Talk about dedicated! She barely speaks English!! She came here from mainland China. We have given her heaps of stuff to help her on her journey toward knowing Jesus. Her words to my hubby about the Gideon bible were: ‘This is a very hard book to understand.’ I’ll say! That’s why we give away modern versions of His book..

Finally, I want to leave everyone reading this today, with one last thought – “Where are the Phillips who will come alongside others to help them understand what they are reading?” …Just like Philip did with the Ethiopian eunuch. That godly man ran alongside this man’s carriage to help him understand the gospel. Hubby and I will, of course, pray for this lady… but we are not leaving her alone – now the Holy Spirit has her. The most important point hubby gave her today was JESUS LOVES YOU – He wants to be a part of your life. 👋🏻

PS It ain’t rocket science. A child can do it! And our children and grandchildren might have to if we keep dodging out of our own responsibility. It wouldn’t be the first time God has gone right ’round one generation to the next!