Time

P 3317 We get the order wrong sometimes. 

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“This is how we can be sure that we love the children of God: by having a passionate love for God and by obedience to His commands. True love for God means obeying His commands, and His commands don’t weigh us down as heavy burdens.” 1 John 5:2&3. TPT.

I think we can get the order wrong when it comes to loving others. We strain and we stretch ourselves, like possessed people in a gym — trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear – or in my case, trying to make a thin person out of a fat one! Desperately hoping if we take up planking, sprints, cycling, weight lifting or crunches, we will restore our bodies to the energetic life we enjoyed in our youth. Fat chance! Meanwhile who wants to spend their entire life trying to be something that they are not! Here’s a thought …  

…Why not expend all our energy getting to know the King of all Kings? He knows what our bodies can and can’t do, and He knows those things in each of our lives that are in the way and stopping us from important things like loving Him and loving others. The verse above tells us that loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength leads to loving our neighbour as ourselves.

We often get that thought the wrong way round. And so we end up trying so hard to love Sister Susie and her kids, or Brother Erwin and his! Sister Susie, BTW, is the church’s best source of unsolicited information, and Brother Erwin’s kids do wheelies and burn outs in the car park!  Unless each one of us is transformed by God’s Grace, we simply won’t easily get along – we are all too different.

We often throw the word ‘Grace’ about like confetti at a wedding, Oops! Sorry. I meant rice at a wedding! Instead of polluting the world with teeny-weeny tiny bits of paper, now we are cultivating rice paddies in front of our churches! So we can’t throw confetti anymore, the mad conservationists have objected to it. I’m with Charlie Brown … good grief!!

A while ago when we noticed the temperatures rising, we started focussing on saving this world – um! Didn’t the Lord already do that? What about taking care of the souls that are rapidly leaving this earth? Sometimes we have different priorities. Try telling a starving person to recycle the wrapper on food, when they haven’t eaten for days! Personally, I think people are far more important than anything else. So how can we agree? We are all like grumpy porcupines trying to find a way to get close to each other. BTW, if I think you are nuts that’s not going to help!!

Let’s use the time we have in this world to love Jesus, and others. That will help us learn His Ways, and out of that will flow those rivers of living water that we would all like to have living inside us. The sad truth is — I probably can’t love you, easily. And a couple of hours of effort each Sunday won’t cut it!  I can easily smile at you, and pretend to listen to your conversation, while I am waiting for a space to say something I think is better than what you just said! But after ten minutes of trying to talk to each other like that, somebody’s going to probably want to leave.

Our God knows us all, each and every one of us, and He loves us as individuals, dearly … and … glory of glories …He has chosen not to see what unpleasant people we can be. And He loves us in our humanity. I have learnt that Love can’t be legislated! Let’s go to Him, day by day with our little empty cup of “I can’t be bothered” and “Why would I care about them?” And instead, receive a full to overflowing cup of acceptance, repentance, patience, love, grace, etc. which we then freely give away to each other. And if my cup gets bumped, and I lose some Grace just because I’m moving about, then I go back to Him and say “More Grace please Jesus, thank you.” Amen.

If my cup is empty then what can I give you? I have to go to the Source, the Lord Himself, and replenish what I have lost. You don’t find any of those graces lying about in the street, and you can’t go to a shop and buy them either. But as we voluntarily give Jesus our love, our obedience and time, and He gives us His nature in abundance back – then our cups will overflow again.

Spending time with Him is an investment in our new life. Think about it. What did the disciples have to give the Lord? Fishing advice? He knew how to fish better than they did. Maybe their experience, or their sparkling personalities? I.Don’t.Think.So. Those men gave up their whole lives to follow Him and receive from Him. Receiving from Him, is as important as giving. 

Just think about being Mrs Peter, or Mrs John, or Mrs Andrew for a minute. They had to sacrifice everything to let their husbands follow the Lord. Our TIME is all we have. I may not have tomorrow, but I do have NOW. So like Paul, let’s choose to say, “I will!” ‘I will read the bible and I will sing songs to Him. I will pray for others and I will pray for me’…“ I will talk to Jesus on the bus, at my desk, in the car, in the shower, in my bed – at every opportunity. It’s all an act of our will.

God is a Father Who loves His kids! When I began to think about this, I realised I too understand that people are irreplaceable. I am a parent, I could not replace even one of my children, their partners, or my grandchildren with someone else, anymore than I can fly. Although I have been tempted occasionally! The reality is, the people I know and love are irreplaceable to me. Almighty God is a w-a-a-y better parent than any of us could ever ever hope to be.

YOU are irreplaceable to Him. He loves us so much He sent Jesus here, to show us His heart toward each one of us. Let’s not get the order wrong anymore, love God first, and then – you can love others. Bye. 👋

What fills our hearts comes out, if we spill it.

P 3312 Staying in the river!

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“Believe in ME so that rivers of living water will burst out from within you, flowing from your innermost being, just like the Scripture says!””  John 7:38 TPT. Great scripture! … I love to watch things on YouTube that many people might think are a bit boring. Every morning we put on one of those supposedly, sappy Christian music videos, that feature pretty pictures of nature. They can stream away for like 11 hours. And then I just let that stuff quietly run, so I can be engaged with my blog, bible reading, prayers and thoughts. You might like just plain silence!

I’ve personally found I’m far more likely to recognise His ‘rivers of living water’ when I am not distracted by other noises, or things that fly past on the TV screen trying to capture my attention! Meanwhile, I’m incredibly blessed and grateful that my time is my own, and how I spend it is up to me. Many people reading this don’t have that kind of freedom. But I think the secret to staying in the river of God begins with staying aware of Him and giving Him my attention. Have you ever watched a well trained sheep dog? The dog never takes its eyes off its Master. Meeting with Jesus is the place where we can ‘let it all hang out,’ because He knows our junk anyway!

Today, I want to talk about the importance of spiritual breathing. Living this new life the way God Himself has designed it, is a natural process with no striving involved. It’s just as natural as breathing IN and OUT. After all we do that without even thinking about it – unless we have some sort of disease or obstruction – we just do it!  “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 3:12-14. 

Jesus has taken hold of my life for a reason, He will help me find my real life in Him. I am greatly cheered up by the fact that the Apostle Paul, who wrote most of the Epistles — who was, some say, taken up into the 3rd heaven  — told us, he hadn’t arrived at that goal yet! This means that the best bits are still out in front of each one of us. However, just because this goal can seem unattainable, that doesn’t mean we should give up on aiming at it! It simply means we are in the best company, so I shouldn’t give up I should press on! He is now my focus.

Pressing on involves dogged dedication. So does finding out,  knowing and liking the same things the Lord likes! Plus doing whatever Jesus would do in any situation. All that takes focus, time and energy. To do this we need to sort out our priorities. Is it to be God – or the washing first? Jesus has to be more real to us than the people around us. Be assured that I don’t always get it right, that’s why I keep pressing on. However, I have learnt over the years that when my heart is pointed in His direction, the Lord is incredibly loving and tolerant of my muddles and misses, and ‘He makes my paths smooth.’ 

His infinite patience lovingly watches over us. He despatches angels to catch us when we fall, or fail. He can redeem everything and anything. “Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, Who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercy;…” Psalm 103:4. In other words, to the Lord, human beings are not just a hobby, or a pastime – we are the focus of His attention and affections. Let’s not relegate Him to the back burner as SomeOne we call on when the ceiling falls in. He is our refuge, not our emergency standby. 

“But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9a. What does that scripture mean when we are talking about the River of God? I think we can often put an accent on one bit of scripture over another, and in this instance that means we will be skipping over the best bit. The River bit. The bit that says: ‘My grace is sufficient for you…’ that is the important bit. His Grace is always enough! We just need to return our focus to Him when distracted, and GRACE WILL BE THERE.  Instead of looking into our hearts and seeing our inner cupboards bare and bankrupt—choose to look into Jesus’ eyes and heart, and see the abundance He has for you. We dare not try to manage the weakness we see in ourselves without looking at the greatness of His Grace toward us. Despite our whimsical feelings, we are not poverty stricken!

His power is made perfect in our weakness, but we can’t afford to be distracted by those weaknesses! Instead,let’s pray that He will give us the Grace to comprehend the incredible POWER that was released through the cross.  Our weaknesses cannot stand in the face of that power. Let’s not focus on the negative, let’s focus on Jesus and what He already did. The only thing that can negate His power from releasing itself into our situations, is our decision, or choice, to believe that our badness can possibly be bigger than His goodness!

The Lord Jesus did not just emerge from that grave ‘alive’ like Lazarus did! He was filled with so much Grace and power, He instantly saved the world! That included those Who believed before He came and all those who came afterward. The Grace He gives us is without limit. We need to cherish it with every part of us. The river of God is always available to us, so let’s jump into His love and grace, and stay there on floating on our backs. If we fall out of the river, then we need to jump back in again. Bye.👋

P 3273 Spiritual exercise.

/ DVH

Every time we turn the TV on there is some new exercise ad with an enthusiastic person telling us we will die from some dastardly disease if we don’t start to exercise. We need their machine, which often costs more than half a house …but it is guaranteed to give you a longer life. These people are usually in their early twenties and they don’t have a spare ounce of fat on them. It would be funny if it wasn’t so darn annoying! 

It’s like those dumb endless ads about how my skin can be peach-like and greatly improved, if I just use this monumentally expensive cream that costs a month’s wages. And the girl in the ad who is having her skin transformed (?) as we watch —  well she is about 12 years old and she wouldn’t know a wrinkle or a pimple if she fell over one. Like I said the other day: ‘Liar liar, pants on fire.’

I have had plenty of thoughts about the constant pressure in ads from people trying to sell us something. The powers that be must be pretty desperate to save on hospital costs, to threaten us with death that will come too soon!  Um… fellas? Hot News Flash! We are ALL going to DIE one way or another. Nobody gets out of this life alive. Those guys who get cryogenically frozen are in for a big surprise. Huge.

Back to today’s point:  just like we have been told that we should be doing this or that:  push ups, pull ups, running on the spot, lifting weights etc. Plus we should jog/not jog, we should count steps/not count steps, blah blah blah. Here is a new thought today. Spiritual exercise. Oh no! You cry – here’s another place for me to feel bad about!! 

Nope. Jesus paid for all the selfish stuff we do or don’t do, so feeling bad is a waste of time, because it is unnecessary. Repent, and repair, move on. We have chosen to live our lives looking to the cross. Feeling about to find things that we have done wrong, will actually make us more likely to enter into avoidance, rather than transformation. I think we might daily pause and look more carefully at what we are actually doing. 

Faith opportunities turn up at odd times, and it does not grow all by itself. The bible tells us: “So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).…” Romans 10:17. Everybody knows this verse! You can read lots of faith instructions in the bible. My point is, that faith comes, but it can GO pretty quickly unless we purpose to act upon what we heard! Hearing by itself, is not enough to bring down the things stored up for us in heavenly places. Remember the parable of the sower Jesus taught us? 

Some seed fell on hard ground, some were picked up by the birds of the air, and some grew in the weeds. We need to expect that birds (relentless illness, prayer unanswered, situations remaining the same) those things will  come and try to rob us of our living faith. Plus there will be weeds. I think weeds come from half-truths, things that occupy our time, but are non-productive. We need to deliberately plant His productive seed into our lives. If our hearts ever get hard from ignoring what the Lord has told us in His book, then truth will be a casualty, it will slide right off us instantly. Rationalisation takes over.

Here’s some great food for thought:  “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” James 2:14-18. Are you exercising your faith?

Spiritual exercise is good for our spiritual health. So what is spiritual exercise? It always starts with prayer and then we do a whole lot more than just reading or hearing — faith deliberately looks for something to do then acts on what it has heard. We ask the Holy Spirit how we can put what we’ve read into action. This process is costly — it will cost us energy, time, dedication, plus we will have to fight our own fears along the way. 

It’s a bit like participating in a triathlon.That will cost you time, energy, even family time. Our friend is a triathlete. He is of another faith. One time he was injured and hubby prayed for him and the Lord healed him. Praying for healing for someone is exercising our faith! Praying by ourselves at home is great, but praying with a person we know, or don’t know, will take action, and courage. 

We need to live out our faith as well as talk about it. Faith that doesn’t act is not living faith — instead it’s a shadow of all it can be. We are mistaken if we claim to have faith, and yet we have nothing that illustrates it. Concrete illustrations, things like testimonies, will appear regularly in our lives when we choose to take a risk. Thankfully, the Word of God always accomplishes whatever He sent it to do. Lastly, don’t ever take your faith back, let’s leave things in His hands. 

Our spiritual exercise is not like push ups or sit ups. It is responsive, it keeps our faith alive and active in the middle of the stuff we face daily. God has given each one of us a measure of faith, so let’s give Him thanks! What a blessing we have inside these clay jars! 👋

P 3258 Unless the Lord …?

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Here is a quick quiz to help you to identify the gifts the Lord has given YOU. Ask yourself, how do I? “… show that… (I am)… … a letter from Christ, … … written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”  2 Corinthians 3:3. 

Part 1: What stirs your heart and sets it on fire? Is it, talking about Jesus to others, or helping them spiritually by praying for them, or do you like to do practical things? Do you find yourself secretly praying for strangers? Is it really important to you that people understand the bible, as well as read it?  Do you look at others and suddenly understand what is holding them back? Are you in love with Godly wisdom? Ready? … Here’s more!

When something bad happens does your faith rise up and say – “God can fix that!”  Are you the kind of person who looks at difficulty and you can see a way through? Do you love to help others to regain their hope in Him? Do you love to write music, or sing along praising God for no other reason than He is worthy — whether anybody else is there or not? Do you suddenly find creative answers to sticky problems? Does purity mean everything to you? Do you like to help others grow?  Here’s some more…

Can you stick with difficult situations and remain determined to see God at work? Have you got a deep unfathomable, reverential respect for the Lord and His ways? Do you see gifts in other people’s lives and they don’t know about them? Have you got a burning desire to raise up many churches for God’s glory? Do you see and want to help sick or broken people, and no matter where you are, you want to pray for them? Does the devil and his rubbish make you mad and you want to go after him because you know Jesus died to see people set free? Can you see through satan’s lies,to the truth? Nearly there…

Have you found that extraordinary things happen all around you? Do you speak out words you don’t understand, but somehow the Holy Spirit helps you to understand them? Here are some scriptures that are worthy of your prayerful attention.1 Corinthians 12; Romans12; Ephesians 4. This little quiz was FYI. If you look at your answers they may help you find a gift in these scriptures. Personally I’m not fussed about labels, because I think they can limit what we think God can do.The Holy Spirit has very kindly given us His three expositions about gifts, and they are worthy of our attention.

A spiritual gift is God’s power at work through us to build up, change, transform, and help others. It may be one person or it could be ten thousand. These gifts are given to use for other people, they are not of this world! We don’t earn these things, nor do we deserve them—they have been chosen for us by the Holy Spirit specifically. He gives His gifts to as He wants, to use in situations of His choosing.

Part 2, How to know what gift you don’t have! Years ago, there were all kinds of meetings we needed to attend at our church. You were supposed to bring food, often delegated by someone else. I can bake a cake … any idiot can! I used to make all sorts of cakes for my kid’s lunches etc. But as soon as someone asked me to bring a cake to a meeting, it would collapse, burn, or get stuck in the pan.

When I made it at home for us, it was fine. But when I made it for a meeting … it transformed into an ugly mess the minute I walked through the church door. So they asked me to make sandwiches instead. That was worse! You know those little pointy bits are meant to stand up like soldiers in a neat row? Mine instantly fell apart – and turned into two soggy separate bits that laid flat and looked appalling. The thing was, nobody ate them, they’d always end up in the bin. 

Over the years, I became aware that I definitely do not have the gift of hospitality – it is torture for me to have to entertain! However, I know people who have this gift and they are delighted to have strangers turn up at their door so they can pull together a meal for them … out of two bits of old bread and some stale sausage!!Everybody has a fabulous time, including the hosts. When guests leave our house, I need a cuppa tea, an aspirin and a good lie down – my fear of doing it wrong exhausts me!  

I’m also not good at arranging flowers. I just shove ‘em into a vase and hope for the best! Yet the church I went to years ago, kept putting me on the flower roster. In the end I plucked up the courage to tell them they didn’t deserve what I would come up with!! Another time we had a fete. My job was to put fringes on these fabulous shawls the minister’s wife made. I cut the first piece and then I used the first piece to cut the second and so on, all around the shawl. The fringe kind of looked like it was swimming up hill, getting smaller as it went. His wife looked at me, shook her head — then she went and did it herself. Hers was perfect. Of course!

My last point is this – don’t be pushed into doing something that isn’t on the Holy Spirit’s agenda for you. This is why we need to know Him and His ways! Otherwise you will waste your time, energy and probably stretch relationships – all at the same time. But whatever the Lord asks you to do, you can do it, even if you do feel scared.“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. ” Psalm 127:1. PS: I’m a lousy bricklayer too! Bye. 👋

P 3211 Procrastination.

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“Procrastination is the thief of time.” I was taught that saying in my teens, years ago. Here’s the meaning: procrastination is the act of unnecessarily delaying tasks, even when you know it will lead to negative consequences, by choosing less important activities instead. It’s a common behaviour, not just laziness, often stemming from poor emotion regulation, perfectionism, fear of failure, or executive function challenges. While occasional procrastination is normal, chronic procrastination can cause significant stress, guilt, anxiety, and harm productivity and well-being. 

If you are a Christian, this particular attitude can cause doubt, fear, unbelief, and eventually inactivity to grab us. These traits often show up in our thought patterns: “Did God say that?’ “He wouldn’t really want me to do that would He?’ ‘I need to wait to be ready to do what He said.’ ‘He knows I can’t do that!’ ‘There are other people who can do things like that better than me.” ‘I don’t have an anointing to do that!’

That last thought is just plain dumb. We have the Lord’s instructions written down in the bible, signed in Jesus’ blood. It almost goes without saying that none of us are ever ready! I urge everyone to stop looking at famous Christians and let go of the kind of thinking that says, they are our example. Maybe you and I don’t have their anointing but we can still be obedient to our own personal heavenly calling. Besides —Jesus is OUR example, and motivation – not other people.  

Sometimes all I can do in a ‘talking to people’ situation, is to get my feet moving. When that happens it is not because I am disabled, it’s because I’m scared! Scared of someone else’s response, scared of somebody being mean to me, scared of the consequences in my life and in theirs. Maybe I will mess witnessing etc. up! This is a good time to remind ourselves of the things the Lord has done in the past. God fought without-number Midianites with Gideon and 300 men, and He also got Jonah to Nineveh via a whale taxi. Of course He can help us! Here’s something from His book to sort out our excuses. PS … when the Lord says ‘ME” He means YOU too!

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on ME, because the Lord has anointed ME, to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent ME to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendour.” Isaiah 61:1-3.

If we both sit about waiting to feel super spiritual, or hoping to have some wild experience with Him, to signify we have been sent by Him – we will miss the boat. Famous Christians are the exceptions, not the norm. Procrastination can easily steal the time that God has generously given to us, and we will end up at the end of our lives in the land of regret.  

The bible says this in 1 Corinthians 3:15 In the Message bible: “Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely.”  Um… found out? We won’t get BY?! Torn out and started over?!! Barely survive?? None of that sounds good! 

There is a kind of evasive thinking that can dominate our hearts and minds, spiralling us into fear, as well as hiding from our calling. We can never afford to forget that we are now dead! We died with Him. We’ve been saved for His purposes now – plus we’ve been given gifts to use for His glory, and to benefit other people. None of that has anything to do with our comfort, lives, families, or our careers. When we live our lives for His glory our focus actually changes.

Someone once told me that their boss was so demanding they couldn’t find a minute to talk to anyone about anything, so Jesus was relegated to the back seat…. plus it didn’t seem fair to do the Lord’s work on the boss’s payroll! That kind of sounds OK eh? Except the bible tells us we can ask for anything and it will be given to us, and if we have a need He will supply it. Ask the Lord to make a way, where there seems to be no way! He’s really really good at it. 

I’ve had to face facts, one of them being there is nothing extraordinary about me. I’m everybody and nobody rolled into one older lady! But it’s a New Year and Father God has left us on this earth for a purpose. We need to find out why, and start doing it. Postponing God’s will, together with doing things His way, means we are postponing the very thing that will set us free from fear, anxiety and the spirit of stupid that seems to be extremely prevalent everywhere.

We are called to pray so we can find out what we are here to do. We do not pray to get Father God’s rubber stamp on what we think we should be doing! If HE is not in charge, then whatever we do, it will fall on its head! And produce no fruit! Procrastination is the thief of time, I urge you to watch out for it. Otherwise it will steal your birthright away. Bye. 👋

P 3182 Gold can be found by a smart seeker.

/ DVH

Here’s a fairly common family scenario – it’s early, you just got up, and you have 40 things to do before you leave for work, and suddenly the dog throws up in the lounge. When you’ve dealt with all that, plus getting kids off to school — you pray, and hope that somehow, something from reading the bible might fall into place. Meanwhile you are actively looking for encouragement, because you are already stressed!

The following parable gives us an example of adaptation, doing what we know realistically, we can do, rather than stuffing too much in, hoping we will somehow slide by. Remember, we are not reading for the sake of learning or understanding it, we are reading the bible trying to find something to DO. Our aim matters. I have sometimes read 3 words, and had enough food to keep me chewing on it all day. We are aiming at digesting truth so that our behaviour changes. Jesus is explaining that even a crook knows how to make the best of a difficult situation!

The following parable seems very puzzling, because it appears inconsistent with everything else Jesus teaches. This manager is a lazy crook and a bad servant, and yet the Lord is commending him. But this manager knew how to survive in difficult circumstances. I think sometimes we give up too soon, and so we adapt our aim to facilitate our TIME, instead of making HIM our priority. So we aren’t aiming for food—instead we are settling for soothing our conscience. 

In Luke 16:1-13 MSG Jesus said to His disciples, “There was once a rich man who had a manager. He got reports that the manager had been taking advantage of his position by running up huge personal expenses. So he called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? You’re fired. And I want a complete audit of your books.’“The manager said to himself, ‘What am I going to do? I’ve lost my job as manager. I’m not strong enough for a laboring job, and I’m too proud to beg. . . . Ah, I’ve got a plan. Here’s what I’ll do . . . then when I’m turned out into the street, people will take me into their houses.’

“Then he went at it. One after another, he called in the people who were in debt to his master. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’“He replied, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’“The manager said, ‘Here, take your bill, sit down here—quick now—write fifty.’“To the next he said, ‘And you, what do you owe?’“ He answered, ‘A hundred sacks of wheat.’“He said, ‘Take your bill, write in eighty.’“Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behaviour.”

This sneaky manager, found a way to gain something to benefit him despite his circumstances. He did what he could to survive. Reading paragraphs in the bible when you have no time may not help you survive spiritually. Why not read just one or two verses, and chew on them, and find something to do in them, and then do it. Fresh bread from heaven, doesn’t have to be a whole loaf, it can be a small slice instead! Valuing God is about looking for what He wants to say to you personally, rather than treating Him like a chore you must perform. I consider going over and over the things that I don’t really understand, extremely valuable. So I pray ‘please help me understand this Lord,’ and I keep on doing that until I get an answer. 

I was impacted by these two verses – V9-11:“I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to CREATIVE SURVIVAL to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behaviour.” See what I mean? When you are having “a day’ and it is not a good one, doing something is better than doing nothing at all. Even though doing nothing is far more tempting! It is much easier to say: ‘I’ll catch up tomorrow,’ When we do this we’ve missed the point, it is not the amount of scripture we read that matters – it is the attention we give to it while we are reading it. It’s the chewing that matters.That plus the actions we deliberately choose to carry out, to bring what we’ve read to life in our lives.

This steward was lazy etc. but he did something and it saved him. He didn’t get his old job back, but at least two other men would have been quite happy to employ him because he helped them out! Meanwhile his old boss received a benefit as well. Before, when this manager did what he did – his old boss wasn’t going to receive any payment at all!  We all need to be smart and prioritise the right things. You don’t have to read 12 chapters, so long as you keep putting what it says into action!

Even a little bit of God’s Word, when you act on it to digest it, will keep you going spiritually. We make friends with unrighteous mammon when we are realistic about what we can actually do and still prioritise our relationship with Him. Jesus Himself said: ‘every word’ that comes out of God’s mouth has power in it.’  We are better off to take in the little we can digest, rather than bite off huge chunks that get relegated into never-never-land and simply add to what I call ‘overall knowledge!’ Stuff that lies about in our brains and doesn’t benefit us because we didn’t give it enough attention. Make your situation work for you. With reading comes digestion.

The Gospels and Epistles are great places where we can find stuff we can do. Read and reread and then insist in your prayers that you want more than lip-service. Gold can be found by a smart seeker. Bye  👋

P 3175 Piece of cake!

/ DVH

“Christ is our message! We preach to awaken hearts and bring every person into the full understanding of truth. It has become my inspiration and passion in ministry to labor with a tireless intensity, with His power flowing through me, to present to every believer the revelation of being His perfect one in Jesus Christ.” Colossians 1:28-29 TPT. 

“Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honor, and authority! Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm.” Colossians 3:1-2 TPT.

We can waste a lot of our God-given time reflecting on where we’ve missed it, and end up living in the land of regret. It is good to be aware of where you’ve fallen short of the mark, but not to the point where you can’t even see the mark anymore! That mark is this – Jesus’ sacrifice and His wonderful love for mankind. We have all been given a priceless gift …total reconciliation with God. Yes, He knows what we are like;  yes He knows we fail;  but our wonderful Father, God, is far greater than we can ever imagine. Right here. Right now. He sees us complete in Christ. That’s because of Who He is, His nature – not our spirituality.   

The best news ever, is this… Jesus did not fail. He was tempted in every aspect of this life, just like we are, He got tired, just like we do, He had responsibilities, just like we do. Listen to this particular responsibility!  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18&19. Howzat for hard? 

Yet Jesus quite naturally walked and lived with SomeOne that we need to learn to walk with, minute by minute, day by day — the precious Holy Spirit.The good news is this – I don’t have to be all that – Jesus already did it for me. Our hearts need to be awakened all the time, to the reality of His truth – by reading and acting on the stuff that is written down in His book.

For instance, the bible says: ‘agree with your adversary quickly.’  Matthew 5:25. We’ve been lied to by our enemy who told us: ‘There is no way you can ever be like Jesus. After all, you did this and that. And something much worse, yesterday!!’ So I agree with the enemy when he accuses me, but then I refer him to the bible, because that is what Jesus did when He was tempted.  I point to the cross because I know I have nothing else but His Grace to commend me.

Sometimes I think we’d rather hide in the wine press, like Gideon did, than be seen! The bible says the people recorded in the Old Testament are there ‘…as an example to us.’ 1 Corinthians 10:11. Let’s not hide like that young man did. Instead let’s remember God has a plan and we are already in it! Our problem is we need to maintain our faith in His goodness, His promises … not just focus on our sins. We have weak wobbly faith in a tiger-pouncing world! It’s time to get up off the mat and get back into doing what we’ve been destined to do …telling and showing everyone around us how much Jesus loves them! 

A lady came here yesterday and in the course of our conversation she mentioned that she didn’t go to church but she did talk to God. She said this like she thought it was a bad thing. Like somehow she was sneaking into a rock concert without a ticket! We assured her she didn’t need a ticket, because God heard every word she said. Then we went on to reassure her that Christianity is not a club you join, it’s a Person you meet, so we don’t have to shout out our number as we go through the door! She laughed, and said: “You should tell people that more often!”  We need to remember …’it is the kindness of God that leads people into repentance.’  Romans 2:4. The-people-who-haven’t-met-Him-yet are often more happy to hear the truth than we are to give it to them!

However, we all know that sometimes witnesses can be quite reluctant. Cop shows on TV taught me that!! There is no such thing as getting it right, there is only obeying Him, or not. He’s a Redeemer! He can take the mess we’ve made of our lives, and turn it into something more wonderful than we can imagine. At the same time the Holy Spirit knows our frame. He also knows our weaknesses …but when we give them to Him, He will give us His strength in exchange. We don’t have to give someone else a 20 course dinner about what the bible says, in our testimony – we just give them the fresh bread He gave us this morning when we read the bible! 

There is the saddest parable told by Jesus Himself, about a rich man and a beggar. Luke 16:19-31. As the beggar talks to the rich man he says: “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” Let’s choose to take the time to tell others that–SomeOne, God Himself!–came here and made Himself that bridge between what people think they know about Him and Who He really is. Tell them Jesus is everyone’s bridge back to God.  Our testimonies are powerful, because the Holy Spirit handpicks the people He sends us to.

Revelation 12:11 –“And they overcame him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”  You and I don’t have to be the whole band – but … you can be the banjo Jesus plays on… OK!… Let’s not be picky … you can be the flute instead! Piece of cake. Bye.👋

P 3170 Gratitude opens new doors.

/ DVH

Paul spent a whole Chapter on thanking and acknowledging people in Romans 16 – it seems it was extremely important to him. These people, whose names I struggle to pronounce! … are warmly acknowledged and greeted. You don’t find too many kids called Apelles, Epenetus or Ampliatus in birthday books today! Back then those names were normal. 

This godly man was an apostle and a missionary, and he travelled from one country to the next, founding churches. But he was not alone. Many people helped him fulfil this God-appointed mission. and he did not forget them. It seems to me, that we need to think about our new life with Jesus, and remember the people who have helped us to get this far. They have given up their valuable time on our behalf, to study and be available, to teach and guide us, and to pray for us,  to rejoice or weep with us. Let’s just take a moment to thank God for them, and heap blessings on their heads, simply  because they chose to give up their time to walk with us while we have been learning. Grateful people remember those who have sacrificed for them. Paul did!

I think time should be recorded as a most valuable commodity, along with gold, silver, various minerals and oil! Time is not a commodity in heaven, the way it is down here. Eternity, is by nature, timeless, and heaven is a place that we barely understand. That’s why it is so important to regularly listen to Jesus, because He kept on talking about God’s kingdom and what it looks like so we can recognise it.

The kingdom of God is not just ‘up there,’ its destination is also ‘down here’ where we are. As we lovingly share and care for others we need to know what it looks like. This man was so enthralled by Jesus, he was personally taught by Him. The Holy Spirit took all the carefully stored up, but under-developed fruit from his Old Testament knowledge, and blew Paul’s mind! The Spirit of God developed what this man already knew into mature, juicy, ripe, edible fruit. Who knows what He will do IN us if we gratefully allow Him to do it?

Paul’s gratitude for Christ’s own intervention in his life was paramount in everything he said and did. Gratitude is always a wonderful attitude to have – wherever it is cultivated. Paul was in jail on and off for five to six years, and the Lord used that time to download and develop great deep Kingdom truths into this man’s heart. The Holy Spirit gave Him incredible revelations, and the words to explain them! We cannot know what God will do with the things that seem terrible to us at the time. My advice is to always pray for deliverance and healing, but at the same time, pray for understanding IN your circumstances. God Himself will show us the many things we’ve overlooked in our pain, so we can continually be grateful to Him. 

When I look at someone like the Apostle Paul, I begin to understand that what I know is incredibly limited. Knowing about stuff in heaven, is not like knowing ordinary everyday stuff down here. Our whole beings are expanded and transformed by even just one encounter with the Lord Jesus …whether we feel something or not. I think we have barely begun to understand our own potential in Christ. It never ceases to amaze me that the Holy Spirit can just drop a word, or a phrase into my spirit, and suddenly I’ve gone from reading with a tiny little torch, into a room flooded with all kinds of light! I’m so thankful we have such a glorious Helper, Teacher, Guide, Comforter, Advocate. 

In the past many Christian men and women have thoughtfully and carefully studied God’s words over and over again with a motivation to extract deeper, clearer meanings for all of us. God bless those translators for their tireless efforts on behalf of the Body of Christ! But! One moment of personal inspiration and revelation, can save us years of living puzzled and disappointed lives. WHY DESCRIBE THE WIND WHEN YOU CAN CATCH HIM?

We dearly need translators and expounders of His word, but we also desperately need His personal insight in our own lives, day by day — so we can walk with Him unashamed, peaceful and content. Even in the middle of all kinds of trouble. We cannot afford to allow someone else go up the mountain of God, like Moses once did, and miss out on the kind of inner expansion that only comes from being with God Himself! 70 elders once sat, and broke bread and ate with Almighty God present at the table. Even that thought is mind-blowing! 

I believe the deepest revelations can come from the hardest situations. Let’s pray even more during difficult times, not just for healing and deliverance, but to thank Him for walking us through each and every one of them. Every test or trial contains His wisdom, plus the opportunity to build our own faith. It would be a shame to live our lives simply trying to escape from trouble, when there is so much to be learnt about Him in the middle of it!

To sum up, one way to bless and encourage others in their walk is to be thankful for the way they have helped you and say so! Gratitude in any and all circumstances, blesses God Himself and it opens new doors. Read Luke 17:11-19, you will see how important gratitude is to Jesus. Bye 👋

P 3120 Know what you believe.

/ DVH

“Christ’s resurrection is (y)OUR resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honour, and authority!” Colossians 3:1 TPT. My first question—do you often during your day, reflect on what Jesus did for YOU? Are your thoughts on His kingdom, or yours? I thank Him when blessings come, and pray ‘help,’ when stuff is difficult. Whatever we mull over and meditate on influences our daily walk of faith. Don’t beat yourself up if you forget or overlook His new way to live. Just remember, that  faith, and our awareness of His love for us, will simply melt away IF we lose focus;  or we choose to live in the dark and pasty, unhealthy light of this world’s rejection, ideas, schemes and plans.

Meanwhile, even though we may not actually say – ”I choose this” – we can end up choosing to stew on bad stuff by default. A lack of a positive God-breathed choice will leave a vacuum that satan would be delighted to fill! That guy will get us going round and round and round:  worrying about this, thinking about how to fix that, and concentrating on the lacks we all have … Until we have wasted away our precious time. Time is a gift. And we don’t have to live that way anymore. Just as surely as Peter, (who was in prison at the time), looked up and saw his jail door open – and walked out a free man!  Our jail door is also OPEN. Look up!! Revise your circumstances. We need to walk out of sin’s prison using our faith. 

At the same time we can concentrate all our thoughts and efforts on dying to self, but in the end that will just make us SIN conscious. We want to be Him-conscious, so I pray He will reveal Himself to me during my day. We need to add to our life with Him, by seeing Him at work in our lives, not just concentrate on getting rid of our sin or adverse circumstances. Jesus Christ has already done that for us! Because God’s unrelenting, always available, never-ending kingdom power was released at Calvary – we can NOW live in this world absolutely devoted to Him.  He has a much better plan for your life and mine than either of us can imagine!

“For we know that our old self WAS crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—…” Romans 6:6. Sin, regret, anxiety does not have to be in charge of our lives anymore! Our minds, our emotions will help us when they are fixed on Him;  to do that is not difficult, we meditate on His never-ending love.  We can’t afford to give up our precious time stewing over former things, turn your worry into prayers of thanksgiving for Who He is and what He did for you.

Worry is a habit – habits can be changed. When we gave our lives to Jesus, we put Him in charge. And His response 2000+years ago, was to take our sin with Him to the cross and nail it there in HIS OWN BODY. The urge, desire, and the will to sin has been dealt with, we are now free to choose.“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live IN THE BODY, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20. 

That’s how we walk out our Promised land of becoming a new creation. I don’t ignore sin, or gloss it over, or pretend it didn’t happen, instead I acknowledge it on the spot, and repent and repair things. Why? There is incredible power in redemption! satan can’t make us do anything anymore because of what Jesus did for us. But unlike satan – the Lord will not coerce us or make us do anything. He loves our freely-made choices!!  We were not saved just so we can go to heaven and be with Him one day in the future… He saved us for here and now, today—from this world, the devil and ourselves —so we can live our earthly lives, like He would. 

It was a transaction. An exchange, His life, freely laid down, bought us a new way to live and the power to do it. It was the greatest LOVE GIFT EVER GIVEN. Our sin has been exchanged for His new life overflowing in us, we take on His obedience, His passionate desire to please His Father. It was not God’s plan just to kill off sin!… Instead, Christ defeated its power over mankind! Our Father’s plan was to give us back what Adam and Eve had in the garden … the greatest inheritance ever – Emmanuel, God-with-us. The freedom to choose what is good right and profitable, AND THE POWER TO DO IT.

Acts 1:8:“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”The Holy Spirit fell on mankind at Pentecost and HE DIDN’T LEAVE. He is still here, to help, counsel, transform, and motivate us into our new life in Christ. He didn’t give us  power just so we can raise the dead, heal the sick etc! Those blessings are a by-product of our redemption.We should all live like that. But that is not God’s primary AIM. 

The Holy Spirit came to help us, and live inside us, so we can live a victorious, overcoming life, in a world that is going to hell in a hand basket. The person I was 52 years ago, died the minute I asked Jesus to come into my life. That is also true for you. If you dearly love and want Him — He will be yours, forever. His love is so great He chose to die for the whole world, even those people who refuse to accept Him. Imagine that. We have been bought with an unbelievable price.

Daily, with His help, we identify and guerrilla fight all the stubborn stuff we’ve cultivated over the previous years before we met Him. Those things that keep pretending they have a hold over us. Now we can take God at His Word and believe Him. That’s how faith works. we refuse to listen to the so-called evidence that pops its ugly head up, and say to ourselves: “What does the Lord have to say about that? Is He REALLY like that?” satan can no longer use my history to define me – even if I did something extremely dumb yesterday! I have been redefined as alive in Christ. I urge you, take the time to know what you believe. Bye. 👋