Unconditional

P 3288 Life attracts more life.

/ DVH

Here’s a dumb but logical thought:  dead things don’t move. The life that was in them, has been extinguished. You and I, will pass through death. However, it’s a doorway not a brick wall. We simply move on… to somewhere SO MUCH better! God’s Love for mankind is written down in BIG impactful words in John 3:16;  Romans 5:8: 1 John 4:16;  Romans 8:37-39. The thing about the Lord is this – what He says He means!

While we are on this earth, here and now, for some of us waking up alive is a faith statement we make every morning! And some bits of me are harder to wake up now. When I was younger I didn’t even think about moving my body — I just did it. Now I approach any kind of moving with a modicum of caution, and a boat-load of human history. However I am not about to wail on about how getting older means getting creakier! Instead, today, I want to talk about spiritually moving and how essential that is in our living faith. His life in us encourages others to believe. We were reborn spiritually, when the Holy Spirit first breathed His life into us.

So, right now, we have life in us the way this world understands it … and His new life in us … but many other people don’t understand the difference … yet. This world should be able to see that kind of life too! Here’s James, who talks at length about the way we are to live this new life we have been given. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”  James 1:23-25. One of the best ways I know to keep our faith a living faith, is to share it with someone else!

James is teaching us that this new life we now have must be expressed. It needs to be seen, and be conspicuous. This might be a good time to repent of getting angry at those people in your church who would preach salvation to a donkey, if God said to do it!  We might get angry with them because we are convicted by their actions! But then we feel guilty because we feel like we can’t do what they do. We may not be called to preach to people, but you and I were called to exhibit faith by our works, as well as our words. “Faith without works is dead!” (Also in James.) That’s dead dead – all dead, no sign of life – DEAD!

I have one of those nasty questions nobody likes to answer. If you or I were taken into a court of law could we be convicted, with clear evidence – of knowing and loving Jesus with all our heart, soul, mind and strength? Stephen was. (The book of Acts) His reward for his boldness was that he was able to see into heaven just before he got there!  The Lord does not ask us all to be Stephen. You get to be you, and I get to be me. But whoever we are, we can, and must both obey what the bible says: 

“We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the One Who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work.” John 9:4. “For this reason He says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine [as dawn] upon you and give you light.” Ephesians 5:14. Here’s a song to ponder on, from a man who lived what he believed. His life was short, but fruitful, and his legacy continues to this day. Click here for some of Keith Green’s lyrics they will blow the dust and fluff out!  https://genius.com/Keith-green-asleep-in-the-light-lyrics

In the book of Matthew, chapter 25, the parable of the ten virgins shows us clearly that we need to be prepared for any eventuality. We can’t just slough off our responsibilities. We are His kids, so we can’t afford to do nothing. Jesus weeps over the millions of people who are falling off the cliff of this life into the next, and they don’t know about Him and what He did for us. Please don’t fool yourself with the idea that this kind of work is for someone else. Complete strangers ask me how I cope with illness in my life? I tell them I can’t, I have to lean on Jesus all the time!  I don’t have to have a clever answer to trick them into wanting to follow Him – I HAVE A TRUTHFUL ONE. They also ask hubby why we give away things to the poor, and he tells them that Jesus sent him!

We don’t have to convert or convince others, that’s the Holy Spirit’s job, our job is to speak, or act, or do something that shows them that our faith is not a theory!  ‘What if I get it wrong?’ Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and go again. Absolutely nothing enlivens our faith more than using it! Faith made those five  virgins provide more oil than it seemed like they needed at that time. Everybody fell asleep that night, but the ones that used their faith had provision for the delay. Moving is a sign of life, otherwise the church appears to be deader than a dodo. Who wants to go to a dead church? But His life in us attracts more life. Bye. 👋

P 3164 Take up the wrap God has given us.

/ DVH

We need to daily wrap ourselves up in His LOVE, reminding ourselves that love is the best language of all. That means we deliberately remember that He loves us, that our sin can’t separate us from Him. And unlike everything else in this life – His love is not only totally unconditional – it’s free! Love is the heading under which every other grace and gift blossoms. I have put my version of 1 Corinthians 13 down below because it is essential that we remember that this kind of love is not just given away – GOD GIVES IT TO US EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Here’s a thought about outgoing love that is familiar. 1 Corinthians 12:31b – “And yet I will show you the most excellent way.”  I often ask myself when I get stuck: “what would love do?” I’ve hardly ever come up with the kind of answer that says: ‘punch that guy in the face!’ Jesus didn’t, and He had every kind of provocation to do so! Our Lord is love Himself personified and He gives us that kind of sacrificial, personal love – the kind of love that consists of undivided attention. I have put my version of 1 Corinthians 13 down below because it is essential that we also remember that this kind of love is not just to be given away – God Himself freely gives those things to each one of US and it is always unconditional.  HE is patient, kind, faithful, enduring etc. toward us.

In my mind’s eye, I can see the Lord when He squatted down on the ground, talking to a woman no-one else would bother to speak to. Or the desolated father who needed His help because the man’s little girl was sick. Jesus did everything for us, with us in His heart. He walked up that awful hill carrying a cross that was too heavy to bear. God’s love inside Him attracted people. Jesus went to His death carrying everything that separated us from God, staggering under the weight of this world upon Him. 

I enjoy old-fashioned words. I think “consider” is a very interesting word —  this is what it means: ‘look attentively.’ Let’s consider the facts given to us in the bible, never let the cross fall out of our attention. Christ’s death and resurrection totally encompasses and exhibits God’s incredible love for us. On that day, in that dark hour, Jesus Christ personally became man’s proof that our Heavenly Father God dearly loves us. Paul explains this to us so carefully. He tells us that we have a better way to live, and that means we are to live in love.

Let’s live every single day knowing we are loved by SomeOne so glorious, that we can’t even look at Him without being utterly transfixed and transformed! The very best gift in the list of spiritual gifts is LOVE. Any other gift mentioned will totally flourish in the warmth of that one gift. We need to consider the fact that it is easy to ignore what God Himself calls – THE BEST GIFT.  Love. God’s love won’t leave, it won’t betray us, He knows and cares about what is happening in our lives. The bible tells us: ‘He takes all our broken, shattered pieces, and works them together for our good!’

You know, just because we think that we can’t have that kind of love in us, that doesn’t mean we should ignore it! Instead let’s chase after Love Himself, not gifts. Let other people identify your gifts —just allow your life to continually release the sweet fragrance of His love into your family and the world around you. And if you want to know what it looks like — right after 1 Corinthians chapter 12, comes chapter 13 with a brilliant summation of what love is. I think Paul gave us this so we can’t be misled by the kind of love this world engages in. 

The bible clearly tells us love is patient, it has the kind of endurance that does not end;  it is always kind, so you don’t have to be afraid of it. It’s not envious, it could care less what you have, or how clever you are;  instead love is enthralled and captured only by Jesus Himself, and His love for you. Love won’t boast, because it knows it has nothing to boast about!  Nor is is proud, because this kind of love wants Jesus to get all the glory. It wouldn’t dream of dishonouring others because it values other people more;  it chooses not to protect itself; and it won’t get angry easily either. It doesn’t have a record of your past, or my past, or anyone else’s past! It is not happy when an enemy suffers, because it loves the truth more than revenge. It will go out of its way to protect others, and trust God with them. Love always hopes for a good outcome. It has a never-ending source of hope in Christ, and what He did for us. And it quite simply refuses to give up on anyone.

Then we read in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13, how Paul goes on to say that grown ups think one way, and children think another. He cautions us to stop thinking like children and move on into maturity. Living in Love is seen as maturity in Christ. It is the most excellent way. Everything else pales into insignificance in comparison. Who cares if we can prophesy about glories unknown, or that we should beware because danger is coming? Love is always in the NOW, it sees the best in others, and calls the best out. Living in love covers everything. 

All the other stuff will disappear, but love will always remain. Unconditional love is the quality that introduces other people to the Character of God more quickly than any of the other gifts. Let’s take off our old coats of inadequacy, obligation, and ‘ought to,’ and wrap ourselves in the wrap of God’s love instead. It is like Joseph’s coat of many colours: dazzling, varied, unique and different. Even though each piece can sometimes include suffering, solitude, and rejection, we know we are following our Saviour WHO LOVES US.. 

That coat of many colours symbolises all the favour of God, all His divine grace, power and love, plus all the gifts and fruits of the Spirit. Learn to live in His Love then give it away. Bye. 👋 

P 2885 Grace is our teacher.

/ DVH

“God’s marvellous grace has manifested in Person, bringing salvation for everyone. This same grace teaches us how to live each day as we turn our backs on ungodliness and indulgent lifestyles, and it equips us to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age.” Titus 2:11-12 TPT.

I don’t know about you, but I was almost glad to leave school behind me. I never did seem to fit in there. I certainly wasn’t clever enough for the smart people, plus I was born with two left feet, and two vastly uncoordinated arms …so that eliminated the sporty ones. And I wasn’t creative enough for the arty ones. Not to mention the fact that our resident Queen Bee thought I was some kind of a joke, and she laughed every time I walked by.

Then, in my early twenties, Jesus saved me. It was unexpected, and totally undeserved. And a whole new way of life opened up in front of me. He accepted who I was. My life to this point, has had its ups and downs, like yours, but I can say with total assurance that our God has used everything, good and bad, and He worked every single bit of it together for my good according to His purposes  … and I ain’t just whistling ‘Dixie.’ (Cos I can’t whistle either!) 

In Romans 8:28 it says:“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” This is a reality in my life, I’ve experienced it over and over again…  God really does know how to take our muddled-up lives, deliberate sins, errors in judgment, stinky rotten attitudes and weave them all together, and then somehow(?) He uses those things to reveal His incredible love toward us. All because Jesus perfectly pleased our Father, then our Lord picked up our sins which were bigger-than-any-nation’s national debt — an enormous bill, and stamped PAID IN FULL on it – just before He left.

God’s love for us is so much greater than we can imagine. Which is why I ramble on so much about being honest about our sins – we need to be reminded, and alerted to the benefits of His Grace. Grace not only teaches us how utterly broken we are, it shows us how much we need Him. If we were to ask our Heavenly Father to show us the results of our sin, I think He would point to Jesus’ broken, bloodied body on that tree, and then … Jesus will smile at us, and say these incredible words:  “You. Were. Worth. It. All.” That thought cracks me up every single time.

This is what repentance is for – we need to be constantly restored into the realisation that Grace was free but it was also costly. Grace is not a rule or a formality, it is an acknowledgment that Jesus Christ is God’s standard and we’ve failed. We need His help, all the time. The above verse from Titus explains His Grace doesn’t just save us, His Grace is now our teacher. Grace teaches us about the enormity of God’s totally undeserved Love for us. Let’s not let those lessons fly over the top of our heads, because we are too busy to learn, or too proud to change our ways.

The Lord has asked us to forgive others, whether they deserve it or not. That kind of unilateral, unconditional forgiveness, has a personal cost, so it reminds us how much it cost Jesus to forgive US!  The payment Christ chose to make for us, was far far more than we can ever understand this side of heaven — it totally outweighed our debts, their debts, anyone’s debts! Grace teaches us, firsthand, that we owe Him our lives.

As we live this life acknowledging what we’ve been given, we will be reminded how incredible the gift is! It is no small thing. What Jesus did for us, can make our lives into a wonderful testimony to His Grace. Let’s surrender and yield to His will and learn to be obedient. Our refusal to change, slows up this process. Like many parents say to their teenagers as they go out of the door every day — we need to “Make good choices!”

Human beings can see love as rampant permissiveness – God’s love is not like that! His Love wants the very best for the one it loves, and if that involves sacrifice or even hardship, then so be it. If it involves difficult circumstances, that is OK too. He won’t cause those things, but He will use them. The trouble is we do our best to avoid, or pray our way out of hard things, rather than face them with Him. I’m not saying we shouldn’t pray, by the way, I am saying that the very best response is not to head for the nearest exit, but to ask the Lord: “What would You like me to learn here?” We need to let His Grace teach us.

His Grace defines ungodliness to us, just like a strong  microscope reveals hidden germs. Most people like to go for the obvious, but the Lord focuses on far more than that. He will show us why we do what we do — and then He will heal that why! And while His Grace is teaching us, He provides us with a safe place to stand, right next to Him.  When we understand the power of Grace, then we can begin to comprehend what we’ve received for free. We benefit when we let His Grace in our lives teach us gratefulness. Bye. 👋

P 2731 I press on …

/ DVH

“Surely He will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge;  His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.  A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

IF you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;  they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. “Because he loves Me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges My name.  He will call on me, and I will answer him;  I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.”  Psalm 91:3-16.

That’s quite a bit to think on. When I read this Psalm I wanted to take everything in it, as a personal promise – it’s filled with them! But, I thought if I used my faith and held the Lord to His promises, that meant He had to do HIS BIT. So much so that when I broke a bone in my foot – I was a bit miffed. It seemed to me that He had promised He would help me not to fall over and break bones! So I prayed that He would please show me why that stuff happened. And since then, I’ve been learning that the promises in His Word ARE unconditional, but we can’t just randomly claim stuff.

He needs to give those promises to us … personally. Jesus Christ is not an add-on to make whatever we choose, better. He promises to be ‘with us’ in trouble – He doesn’t promise to give us a life free from it! We can easily forget that we have an enemy, and we can be misled. Check the news out sometimes – Christians can do really weird stuff in His Name. 

Purity of thought goes right alongside renewing our minds, and renewing our minds leads to changing our behaviour. Changed behaviour helps us to become spectators. We learn to hide in Him.The bible tells us not to “forget all His benefits” and it seems that we thought that if we committed verses like that to memory that that would do it. However, a renewed mind, leads to a renewed life. We look like Jesus, not just indulged children with special favours.

Let’s look at Psalm 23. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” and … “Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” That doesn’t sound like a free ride does it? What with our enemies peering at us, while we are eating or death all around us as we are walking!! Even when we choose to live in the secret place that is not a guarantee that bad things won’t happen to us. What the Lord promises us, over and over again, is that “He will be WITH us in trouble…”  My advice is NEVER minimise His Presence with you.

Our loving Father will not leave us to muddle through on our own, like the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet often have to do. Instead we can expect His guidance on how to walk through these things. I am not saying that the Lord, in His great Grace, will never protect us – however, I am saying that our protection and grace to deal with difficult things, lies in that secret place where our lives are totally His — and we have no agendas or designs for our future, and no resentments about our past!

The idea that Jesus died to give us a happy carefree life, here on earth, is a MYTH! Father God is telling us that when we live this life sold out to Him:  what happens to us will not be BIGGER than our ability to stay close to Him in the middle of it! But He will not take our choices away – every single day, in every single situation, we need to choose to continually follow Him.

A year ago now, I fell up the stairs and sat at the bottom of them with a shattered humerus. Not funny BTW! I sat there stunned and then I became aware that I had a choice. I could choose to fuss and fret, or I could choose to let God walk me through it. There were many days I utterly failed. The pain, lack of sleep and discomfort got me, and I complained, instead of asking for Him for His Grace to help me with it. Yet the minute I asked Him, He gave me so much help. He is where Grace comes from. I learnt a lot about my own way of thinking, and how easy it is to twist things to suit myself, while I avoid being changed! 

Let us choose to yield to His will His way – despite how things look, in the good and the bad times. Those choices can lead us into maturity. In other words, we will need to use our faith, even when circumstances seem overwhelming. We can tell the Lord we want to live in the secret place of the most High God, but life itself will test us. Sometimes it seems I flunk more tests than I pass! But like Paul, I press on … bye. 👋

P 2459 Run after something worth running after …

/ DVH

“Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 TPT.

Paul suggests in the scripture above that if you want to run after something then run toward something worthwhile — like love. In other versions of the bible, this verse says …PURSUE love. I like that. Chase after love because it is worth chasing after. We will always need to chase after love however, because with some people, it seems like it is always too far away, plus we are not perfect yet! That’s great BTW, that means we are ‘poor in spirit’ and the poor in spirit inherit the kingdom – at those times we need the kingdom!  Sadly some human relationships are often full of surprises, nasty ones. We are going to need the Holy Spirit to be our full-time coach.

Before we start, here’s a great thought to help us focus and praise God – GOD’S LOVE IS ALWAYS RUNNING TOWARD US! Back to the verse, it says if we are going to run, we need to run after knowing, and living in HIS kind of love. Forget human affection – that disappears quickly in conflict. How do you aim at His love? First of all, remember Love is a VERB not a noun. It is not just an attitude, it is an action. It is see-able! It does something good.

Now let’s look at a metaphoric illustration. You are running alongside somebody you know, and everything is going well, … Then they — we both know it’s always them, it’s never me — say or do some dumb thing, and you’ve lost your stride.  And bit by bit, the rhythm we had together is suddenly broken. Now they are nowhere near me at all and we don’t agree about anything. I’ve lost my peace, patience, and eventually my temper… usually in that order!

What happened? Perhaps I stumbled over something they said or did, or maybe they didn’t say something I needed to hear. Or vice versa. Whatever! The rhythm we had together is now lost. However, the point of pursuing love is not about running …it is the fact that you were running together. There is POWER in ‘together!’ Sadly we can end up brokenhearted when we no longer have the same aim as the other person. However, I am not powerless.  I can always aim at love – with, or without them. The result is the same. I don’t need them to love me back, or even treat me kindly, because God’s love follows the Holy Spirit and His kind of love runs on GRACE not performance. 

Further, the bible says: ‘Love bears all things’, so, in those hard moments when we cannot bear what is going on — we will actually need His love helping us to do more than resolve conflict. People are always impacted by God’s Love. Human love is tainted by need, but God’s love is highlighted by the fact it is unconditional.

What to do? Apologise! Yeah, I know, I didn’t do anything. But apologising clears the air, and repentance lets in grace. And grace makes room for the other person to come to terms with their part in what happened. You see the point is not to instantly arrive at agreement, the real point is going straight back into running toward LOVING LIKE HE DOES. Whether the other person comes or not!

When we are pursuing this kind of love we cannot enter into a brawl about who was right and who was wrong, be-cau-se … we cannot get to love, by that route! That route will end up in a bigger argument. The way to pursue and arrive at running after love is to give up your idea of how things are meant to happen, and start running after the Holy Spirit. We need His help. We do this despite how unkind the other person has been toward us. 

BTW, loving someone with God’s love does not mean we utterly approve of everything they are doing. LOVE AND APPROVAL are two different things. God’s kind of love is supernatural. We always need His love flowing through us, and we access it by obeying what the Holy Spirit prompts us to say and do. Now we stay under the instruction of the Holy Spirit – we don’t give in to our own temper or hurt feelings.

At the same time, we are going to need our faith and hope to kick in to help us to keep on running. I ask the Holy Spirit for ALL those things, plus loads of Grace – because Grace saved the world!  Meanwhile, God’s love is accurately described in the bible and HIS Love always looks like this …”Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. So the reverse of these things is a good indicator that we are not walking in love … if we are impatient, unkind, envious, boastful, or proud etc.

Obviously aiming at love means we are going to die to self. But that is fantastic be-cau-se …”greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friends.” If 1 Corinthians 13 is to be part of our daily lives then we must pursue love and obey the Holy Spirit. He will take care of our attitudes and actions. Plus we are also acknowledging our own poverty of spirit. Chasing after His Love means we are running after something worth pursuing. Bye. 🥰

P 2440 How do we smell to others?

/ DVH

“Be imitators of God in everything you do, for then you will represent your Father as His beloved sons and daughters. And continue to walk surrendered to the extravagant love of Christ, for He surrendered His life as a sacrifice for us. His great love for us was pleasing to God, like an aroma of adoration—a sweet healing fragrance.” Ephesians 5:1-2 TPT

Jesus Christ is the perfect role model – He is what active Love smells like! We can have this strange man-made idea of what love should smell, or even look like …depending on our personal needs, or favourite perfume, flower or plant. Christ’s love smells like obedient sacrificial death. It was His unconditional devotion to His Father’s will on our behalf, that was a beautiful fragrance to Father God. Jesus Christ conquered death, by what He voluntarily did, and that heavenly aroma is pleasing to God. Not the smell of death, BTW .. but the smell of sacrifice.

The Lord accomplished everything He did for us by that total obedience, plus He treasured every word that came out of His Father’s mouth. He acted on every single one of those words — even when it killed Him. Christ’s faith in our heavenly Father’s goodness, and His ability to bring life out of death was not only complete, it went into places we cannot begin to imagine. Right into the depths of man’s depravity, despair, indifference and disobedience. Jesus conquered it all – with a vibrant living faith founded on God’s truth. The smell in heaven must have been incredible on Resurrection Sunday!

And Jesus Christ passed that incredibly perfumed blazing torch onto US. “For WE are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 2:15-17. We smell like LIFE to those who are perishing in their sins!

We are definitely not perfume salesmen. Instead, I think that we are His perfume bottles. Some of us are short ordinary looking bottles and some of us are amazing feats of glass. That bit does not matter – it is what is inside those bottles that matters! It is the sweet fragrance of Christ that matters. The more we use our faith to obey His word, the more His perfume inside us is released, and then it becomes an appealing and sweet fragrance to God, and also toward others. 

Our living sacrifice of Love for Him, is precious incense toward Him. If you want to really worship God – present your body as a living sacrifice and follow that through! He trusts us to carry His sweet fragrance out into the world, where that glorious fragrance changes us and impacts others. Christ’s death was terrible to see, but it brought forth a fragrance that is still present all over this world today, in the hearts and lives of His laid-down lovers.

On another note, I want to take a brief moment to look at Esther. FYI, this young woman was already beautiful — that’s why she was chosen! For six months this lovely young woman was treated with oil and myrrh and for a further six months with perfumes and cosmetics. That was some beauty spa she went to!! After all that she was deemed ready to go to meet the king. (Esther 2:12) 

First of all, we can start cheering that we can go to our King Jesus with or without beauty(?) treatments, because His love toward all mankind is unconditional! We can come into His Presence whenever we like. After meeting Him, we can get spiritual beauty treatments from the Holy Spirit. They are optional, but effective.  Unlike Esther who had to get slathered and gussied up to even get into the room with King Xerxes!

At that time SomeOne just like the Holy Spirit came into her life, in the form of a eunuch named Hegai. That person knew exactly what Xerxes liked!Here are a couple of  brief sentences that I think have great significance in this true story. Esther 2:8&9: “Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. She pleased him and won his favour. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food.”

I believe that Hegai is a quiet reflection of the nature of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Likewise the Holy Spirit knows exactly what our King likes. He knows what attitudes and actions etc. will please the Lord Jesus, and He is so happy to share those things with us. Everything is free, all we need to do is to obey whatever He says! Like Esther, all we must do is be prepared to take His advice. Spending time soaking in the precious things the Holy Spirit has provided for us, will bring the smell of heaven into our lives and distribute it out into the world around us. 🥰 👋🏻

P 2358 Priorities

/ DVH

Following the Holy Spirit and His leading, is the greatest choice of all. I dare to say that it is essential. However, we must get the thought out of our heads that walking with the Holy Spirit means we will always feel something, or get some benefit or other. HOW ABOUT THE BENEFIT OF BEING SAVED while we were yet sinners!! I exhort all of us to leave the idea of constant wonderful overwhelming spiritual feelings behind us, and do what we do because we love Him. That’s what Jesus did for His Father and us.

Here is something for free that I’ve learned the hard way when I walk with Him. When the Lord’s POV crosses my own, often all I feel is grumpy and hard done by. At that particular moment I can give you about 900 reasons why what I think is more right than that other person is. However there is no actual faith exercised when we think we can prove our point by walloping some poor unsuspecting schmuck over the head with God’s book. 

That’s not what His book is for – we have it to get to know our God and His ways, not just to search it for the things I might want make my life better, or to prove a point. The bible is a beautiful story of salvation and redemption, so that now we can live our our lives acknowledging: ‘that without HIM we can do nothing.’ 

You know the Holy Spirit will point out our sins and flaws, but only with the thought in mind of smoothing out the pathway in front of us. You and I are a highway for the King to travel on – we just need to be willing for the Holy Spirit  to smooth out those pathways, by filling in the potholes and removing bumps. There is nothing on this earth better than watching King Jesus reach out to one of His lost little ones ….and He just used our unconditional loving words to do it!

Sadly, instead, many of us have used our time thus far memorising all the “ME” verses… ‘I am this and that and I’ve been given this and that.’ Here’s something worth thinking on —Father God has given us Himself – HE is our treasure and gain. Not some promise or other that we demand He fulfil. He is our priority.

I hardly ever feel happy happy joy joy all the time. – I figure that’s in the book too! Nor is this life of mine all sunbeams and rainbows …sometimes its creaky painful joints and  a complete lack of can-do motivation! HOWEVER … I’ve learnt to obey the Holy Spirit, because I want to follow Jesus. This process is not meant to be tried, it is meant to be learnt. All that means is this:  I’m probably going to bump my nose into my own particular cross regularly… and I won’t like it much. I’m not convinced that this life is actually meant to suit us. 

We can easily fool each other with our ‘nice’ smiles and faces that look like we are listening to others. But we don’t fool Him. Living this life as a laid-down, totally surrendered lover of Christ is not easy. Learning obedience through suffering isn’t easy either, but it does become more natural when we practise it. Dying to self means we are making room for Him. I urge you to weigh up those attitudes in this life that act against His unconditional love for us and others. And then go on to think about what we are losing every time we give in to the temptation to look after me, myself and I. I know I lose the opportunity to see God at work IN MY OWN LIFE. 

I was saved to serve Him wherever I am. At my school, job, house, and in my ordinary little unspectacular day-to-day life. That is what is actually really powerful. When ordinary people who serve an extraordinary God – but they have no grand destiny to speak of — when those people choose to give up living for themselves, and they choose to live for Him instead. To them, nothing else matters.That’s called single-mindedness and the Holy Spirit loves it! Jesus had it and it needs to be our great, never-ending quest. Let’s keep watch over our priorities.

We can go through this life praying desperate emergency prayers as needed, or we can choose to walk constantly and ever-increasingly with the One Who knows the way. He not only knows the way, He knows US inside and out! There is nobody better equipped to help us to deal with our day to day problems and heartaches than the Holy Spirit. Make Him and His will your priority and watch your whole life change. 👋🏻

P 2221 Watch out, or judgment will get ya!

/ DVH

“For we reach the goal of fulfilling all the commandments when we love others deeply with a pure heart, a clean conscience, and sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5 TPT. If we ever wanted a simple answer to every situation – this scripture is it. Love others deeply. Yeah, I wonder how we might try and wiggle out of that one?  Fat chance, BTW. Jesus died to give us a pure heart and a clean conscience – so if we don’t have those things then we need to seriously start to revise our theology. Read the book.

If you are even a little like me, you could look at that verse and think – ‘well that’s not easy!’ Then several people who really bother the daylights out of you, might instantly pop into your head. I’ve asked the Lord to help me with all those people that I want to love … but they drive me crazy instead. He said this. “You need a wider view of them. A kingdom view.” Up until then I was madly praying for more love and scrabbling about in my feelings to find it, plus I prayed for lots more wisdom. It had never occurred to me that to see them differently, I need to see those people through His eyes. God has the widest view of humanity ever – He saw all of US as redeemable. I like HIS view!

Here’s another big thought to add to the first one: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39. If we really ARE convinced that nothing, including death, can separate us from Him – then why do we live this life in a defeated fashion. Or even half-heartedly? What are we so afraid of? Why are we so easily satisfied with religion and its rituals? 

Here’s my answer. It is all about control. Religion is a BOX. It is sometimes a really BIG box full of big thoughts – but it is still a box! And human beings love to categorise things so we can make them easier to handle. Stuff like this: ‘He’s a murderer. That person is a trans person. That one is a liar. Those people aren’t married, they are living in adultery. That person is homosexual. This nationality are all thieves. Those people are gossips. Those people, over there, don’t believe in Jesus so they are going to hell.’ 

We comfort ourselves with the thought that if we identify the other person’s sin – it is OK not to love them, be-cau-se God doesn’t like those things and we’ve got the scriptures to prove it! Hmmmm.  God saved you and I when we were DEAD in our sins, why can’t HE save them? You know if you go fishing you don’t clean the fish before you’ve caught them! Selah. 

If the Body of Christ is going to truly love other people like Timothy said, and if His love is available for everyone – then we will have to chuck away our boxes and suspend judgment. Which BTW, is a really good plan… be-ca-use … JESUS said in Matthew 7. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Now, just hang on a minute lady …WE are the good guys, the bible says WE are the beloved of God, the head not the tail, the blessed ones! We go to church every single Sunday! Plus we have the righteousness of Christ!  HOWEVER … surprise surprise! … It doesn’t much sound like we have LOVE… Clang clang clang.

The above judgmental thinking shows us that our personal theology is prejudiced against the very people Jesus came to save! Now, we have an opportunity. We can comfort ourselves and hide from the truth, or face it square on and confess our lack of love. We don’t have to like what people do to love them. When Lord Jesus chose His disciples – He chose a thief who was a betrayer, a doubter, a person with no self-control, a man who was boastful, two revengeful and ambitious men, and a TAX-collector to follow Him. He was looking for people who were spiritually hungry and thirsty, not morally sound ones! HE STILL IS. Maybe some of the people I mentioned above are trapped by their sins and they don’t know how to get out … and perhaps our lack of love keeps them away from our churches! We need His wisdom.

And if we truly want to love others we are going to have to  suspend, and make sure we get rid of judgment toward everyone else and leave that bit up to Him. Let’s get on with our bit instead, shall we? Our bit is to love them with His unconditional wide, deep, love, into His kingdom. (Romans 8) Our other bit is to be personally transformed by His love so we become like Him. HIS BRIDE IS MEANT TO BE MORE LIKE A HOSPITAL than a bunch of pious people congratulating themselves on what they think they know. Well, that’s enough to think on for one morning. Bye.. 👋🏻