Wonder

P 3310 The power of Pausing.

/ DVH

There is a word in the bible that means … “stop and think on this.” It appears often in the Psalms — SELAH. We translate that word into ‘pause.’ So we need to do more than agree with what it says, we need to stop and think about it. Selah means ‘I will stop and think about how these words I have just read can impact my life, my concerns, my hopes.’  Pausing and waiting for Him allows us to breathe, instead of anxiously holding our breath.

Pausing is like hitting the refresh button on a computer. It means we’ve been captured by something and we want to stop long enough to go back over it and see what is really being said. Pausing adds clarity.  We can find His Presence far more easily when we stop ‘think-worrying,’ and choose to pause. Then pray. I call it pausing, but Father God calls it by many names. In James 1:12 it says it like this: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him.”  This is a person who stands still, when everything around him is whirling about. He is pausing to steady himself.  

Steadfastness is the ability to believe God is good even when every circumstance around you says differently. We deliberately choose to hold fast to Him. It means you stop trying to solve the unsolvable and simply look at the One Who is so much bigger than our problem or questions. It’s taking a big breath and taking the time to lay these things aside, then we choose to take hold of Him and His Word, and wait. We want to cultivate the ability to understand that despite how formidable something seems, God has it. Meanwhile we patiently wait to see what He will do next!

“I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope.”  Psalm 130:5. Waiting means I don’t react, so eventually I choose to act as He prescribes. I believe what He said in the bible and so I put my whole thought processes into meditating on that. And I stop ruminating on stuff.  My hope is always in Who He is, not just getting an answer. The secret to being blessed in waiting is not merely waiting til the trial is over — it’s waiting to hear what He says about it in the time you have chosen to pause. That is done deliberately. Pausing is letting go and letting Him do what He wants.

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Romans 12:12. These things are unattainable if we do not take the time to pause. Our un-renewed minds can easily run into panic without real, tangible, God-given reassurance. Our assurance is in the bible! Pausing helps us to learn His Ways. We learn first-hand how He handles things. How unhurried He is in a world that is often rushing here and there. Whatever is flattening our well-being slides away in the light of His Word. Standing still, waiting, pausing, remaining steadfast – all these things can help us to unravel the difficulties that land on us. Then we can see them without a whole lot of mind-busyness. Pausing releases and relieves stress. 

Moses literally paused.  He was going about his daily routine and then he saw the burning bush — and the bible says this: “And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”  Exodus 3:3. He stopped what he was doing long enough to do more than give the bush a cursory glance. He actually physically engaged his body by using his feet to find out what was happening. He immediately encountered Almighty God when he took the time to pause and wonder.  

Pausing shows the Lord we value Him and His input. It engages His attention. It says: “I am not going to rush past this moment, I will give it to You. I am curious to hear what you want to say to me Lord.” It has a parallel truth present in the Song of Songs. The singer says to His beloved: “You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.” The shepherd has been captivated, He stands still long enough to notice not just her, but her presence. He refuses to move past his beloved’s loveliness quickly. Pausing is about deliberately paying attention to something that captures our hearts.

It may not be about something unusual, it might just be we have seen whatever it is many times before, but this time it grabbed us and other things faded into the background. Then all we can see is Him, His wishes, His Way. Time stops pushing at us because, it becomes irrelevant. Like Moses we turn aside to ‘see.’ Pausing is about those moments, when the busyness of this world fades into the background and we are lost in what we’ve seen, or read, or experienced. Pausing, waiting on Him, adds depth where we might simply live in the shallows.

Pausing is about ceasing from any activity temporarily, whilst listening to and waiting for the Lord. Personally, I think if we practice learning to pause over Godly things, we will learn to live in His rest far more easily. Pausing is like drinking in the Lord’s peace, on purpose. There is such value in simply stopping and choosing to look at Him, to see what He wants to say. I recommend it. Bye. 👋

P 2751 Stop and smell the flowers …

/ DVH

unless you happen to get hay fever … then maybe you should just look … from a distance … preferably with a mask on! 😂 Meanwhile there are a plethora of hay fever tablets nowadays, supposedly fixing that problem. 

I sometimes sit and watch other people when I am out. They rush about, doing this, wrangling kids, checking off things on a list, plus catching up with that. I came to the conclusion that we should watch our little children more. They can have fun just swinging their legs, sitting on a seat! Tiny children don’t have timetables. From the minute they wake up until they finally shut their little eyeballs in sleep – all that is on the agenda is fun fun fun fun fun. And if you are lucky you might just get food in as they run about. Forget changing their nappies – it’s catch me if you can!!

Jesus said some fantastic things about the way we need to live to thrive, not just survive! Matthew 6: 25-33 (Luke 12:22-32) “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to Him than birds.

“Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen colour and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think He’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do His best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving.”

Rushing about fills our lives with noise and stuff – the things that don’t last. The practicalities of this life can get in the way of our daily “God awareness.”  We can easily elevate these everyday things into places they don’t belong. If I could go back in time, I would rush back to the time when my kids were little and I saw this world through their brand new, highly delighted eyes. I enjoyed watching them – the wonder of their discovery and fascination with everything. Of course I also greatly appreciate that back then … I was their hero! … I was also ready for a stretcher at the end most days.

Sometimes I think we are so intent on escaping from this world, through entertainment etc., we’ve lost our wonder. The dictionary says wonder is a feeling of amazement and admiration, caused by something beautiful, remarkable, or unfamiliar. I can run with that. Ask yourself when was the last time you just stood still and watched the sun rise or set, or you watched a flock of birds wheeling through the sky? If Jesus said we should take note of these things then … we should take note of them. Those words are not just advertising or pretty things He said to fill up the page!!  

Try to stop regularly to smell the flowers, or sit still and watch the grass grow … without rushing to grab the mower!! That stuff is good for human beings. I often recover my peace in those moments. It has flown away because I got too tense over something I cannot possibly solve. And I recover my peace simply by looking at nature.

Even when you have kids, it is good to remember that not everything is a correcting, or teaching moment – allow them to teach you to slow down. Laugh a lot, and look around. Some things in this world are beautiful … just because they are!  Did you know that there are 400,000 species of flowering plants? You will if you get hay fever! My point is that all of that beauty came out of our God’s creativity. One of the ways to get to know Him is to be observant.

If you are struggling to have a quiet time, then give yourself 15 minutes every day, to watch this life continue to thrive all by itself, without you adding a bean to it. Don’t pray, don’t stuff the word into your already busy brain, breathe. Then after that, you can pray and read!  Having a peaceful heart is the best way to live this life. Most of the things we struggle with come from a lack of peace. An internally peaceful person spreads that peace around them wherever they go. That is our birthright. Father God’s got us and He will not let us go. “He that keepeth thee will not slumber…”

The last thing I regularly like to do is to enjoy silence. There is so much noise around us – everywhere we go! In a lift, in the shops, even in the public toilets!!  It’s hard to think. Silence is good for the soul. Give yourself the gift of silence and … stop and smell the flowers… 🌼 We were not designed to constantly rush about seeking the stuff we cannot keep, ignoring the very things that God provides for free. Bye 👋

P 2740 Hidden.

/ DVH

Colossians 3:3: “For you died [to this world], and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God.” (AMP) This verse reads like this in the MSG version: “Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.”

It is essential that we understand our God-given position because our Saviour’s blood bought and paid for it! Right now, we are dead to ourselves and alive to His Way of thinking and being. This is now our hiding place! Psalm 91 talks extensively about what being ‘hidden’ means. Read it often. Otherwise we can easily get discouraged, disappointed, and feel over-whelmed. Our complete strength lies in the place we choose to live. His will, His way is now our motto. Living hidden in Christ means we’ve put aside our way of living – grabbing this and fighting for that – and we’ve picked up His Way – the way of the Cross. And if I don’t have something, then I don’t need it!

God loves us so much that He wants to hide us in the safest place on this planet…He has hidden us in Christ, simply because He loves us. Our position is one of protection. Peace is now our right – because our peace comes from the inside, not from external circumstances. We live confident in the knowledge that nothing can get by His powerful, gentle, passionate love – unless He lets it through. When He allows stuff through, we face a learning curve, so we prayerfully follow Jesus through His ‘master class in surrender.’ So when something does come at us, we know that with His help we can deal with it..

God will never leave us alone to muddle along… He has chosen to hide us in what Christ did for us. He carved us into the palms of Jesus hands. (Isaiah) Those wicked nails carved through Christ’s flesh and bone, and Jesus has an eternal reminder that we belong to Him now. That’s how strongly He identifies with you and I. To Christ we were always worth the agony He suffered. That’s also our hope-filled message for others, that there is a safe place to live – our sins gone, hidden in what Christ already did! Jesus totally identified with us. He took our old self out of this world, so now we can be a blessing IN this world!  We are IN this world, not OF this world. Now we live our lives like He did – full of sacrifice and love for others.

Jesus faced down sin, as a human being, and He was punished for all of mankind. Now we have the power to step away from it. He has hidden us in the secret place of the most High God because in that place we can remain fixed — not tossed about by circumstances, fear, worry or our own emotions. Instead we are under the shadow of the Almighty … Whose power no foe can withstand. satan and his cohorts have nothing to say in the face of what Jesus did for us. Start speaking that out. Start saying of the Lord‘that He is your refuge, your fortress, your deliverer.’

We need to learn to become spectators. This means we step back and invite Him in, and now we are looking at our troubles through His eyes. Our emotions and thoughts are no longer in charge, and at the same time, while the terrible, worrying or difficult thing is going on, we will always have His thoughts (the bible) to think on …Learn to choose to emotionally, and mentally step away from being a participant, who has to come up with the answers — into being a spectator who is trusting God to be in charge.

The bible says there is peace in the secret place of God. I love that in the Old Testament, the Holy of Holies was quiet. That means that my brain shuts up — and wonder, security and His love all take over instead. I don’t have to pray endlessly because I am confident that He has got me. At any given moment, I can come out of there, because I always have a choice – but why on earth would I want to? Chaos is waiting for me right outside that door!

My best advice today is that we start praying to learn how to be spectators, instead of jumping into the devil’s plot and trying to wrangle with his ways– tormented by his innuendos and spiteful whispers. There are so many daily things that are far too hard for us to solve. Learn to pray first, then ask for the Holy Spirit’s help and step back away from the trouble into His peace. Hand Him every single part of whatever is going on because He knows what to do next. Now leave it all with Him. We need to learn to trust Him because … HE HAS A PLAN for us – He said so, in the book. 

The body of Christ today lacks trust, probably because we have placed more importance on feelings, encounters, and getting what we want. We can grow trust in Him by trusting Him when everything inside us is screaming that this a dumb idea and it will never work!  I guarantee that nobody feels like doing it at the time! That’s why it’s called faith. Learn to be a spectator, stay hidden, safe in His secret place – surrender everything to Him and live for Him. Bye 👋

P 2656 Let’s remember we are to be married.🕊

/ DVH

Romans 7:4-6 MSG: “So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When Christ died He took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with Him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God. For as long as we lived that old way of life, doing whatever we felt we could get away with, sin was calling most of the shots as the old law code hemmed us in. And this made us all the more rebellious. In the end, all we had to show for it was miscarriages and stillbirths. But now that we’re no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we’re free to live a new life in the freedom of God.”

Oh man, some days I can’t wait to get to heaven to listen to the Apostle Paul preaching  – that’s if I ever get over following Jesus around! What a conundrum … Picture this: Jesus is talking about how He and the Holy Spirit made the moon and stars, as He heard the Father speaking them into being. At the same time, Paul is talking about the beauty of Christ Jesus;  and James is reminding us of what we’ve been given … OR …OR!!! … every now and then we fall on our faces from the sheer wonder of where we are! And… AND!!! Here’s the biggest plus of all! We can run into the throne room and fall on our faces and worship at the throne. Choices, choices!  Maybe in heaven we can do all those things at once?! Sorry I got so distracted … moving on …

Romans 8:1-4 MSG: “With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. God went for the jugular when He sent His own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In His Son, Jesus, He personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all.”

Feel free to stand on a chair and cheer! 🥳 What a brilliant explanation! First of all I want to say, there is no worship and devotion toward the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit like the worship we choose to give All of Them down here. Why? Because down here worship is a choice, a sacrifice – in heaven, worship is joyously spontaneous. We give the Trinity the best gift when we choose to worship Them, because They are so worthy. Despite our busy lives, or whether we feel like it or not!

Just imagine the throne room for a second … there are these incredible angels — flying around the throne crying out; “Holy holy holy” over and over and over and over again – they never stop. I asked the Holy Spirit once why they do that and He told me this: ‘Because at every single turn they see something new, something glorious to enjoy, some aspect of the Father’s Love and Grace they have never seen before.” 🤯 Well, that’s my mind blown… how about you? Down here, we are always running after whatever is new – in heaven we simply have to gaze at our Heavenly Father and the view will be breath-taking and endless.

I shall vacate this heavenly rabbit trail and get back to my point … which is … look at what our beloved Bridegroom has done for us!  Take a minute to wander back to Romans 8:1-4 and read those verses again. Just when you think things can’t get any bigger or even more wonderful, we are reminded that our precious bridegroom, Jesus Christ, volunteered … because He loves us that much. Well, there’s me in a soggy heap in the corner. 😭

Christians can live like everyone else, staring at the ground, thinking that the next episode of our fav show is the only moment of joy in a week of drudgery and effort — OR — we can reread Romans and rediscover what we have been GIVEN. Those verses mean that we have the power to throw off depression and the cares of this world, because of our Bridegroom’s gifts. Those freely-given gifts mean we can be at rest, care-free, living in pure peace, despite our circumstances and difficulties.

JESUS HAS GOT US AND HE WILL NEVER EVER LEAVE US OR FORSAKE US. How we feel is just a blip on time’s radar. We don’t have to live under this world’s clouds of pessimism, constant drama and angst. Instead we can choose to embrace what we’ve been given. Each and every time I take hold of those hard-won gifts that He died to give me, I fall in love with Him over and over again.

Real Love is like that. It is a journey of discovery, familiarity …  as well as delight, where we visit and re-visit the Lord’s loving kindness, mercy and grace, and realise how much He loves us.  It’s time to remember we are engaged to be married to the most incredible Bridegroom … Who loved us before we even knew Him! Our faith is not based on pretty thoughts or theories, now we live in the daily reality of being totally forgiven, loved and cherished … And if we aren’t living there, then it is time we did!  Bye. 🙌

P 2567 He did it for LOVE!

/ DVH

Almighty God was never ever going to be content with lip-service and form – His love is way too relentless and all-encompassing for that! His desire is to have a real relationship with each one of us. To our astonishment, now we have discovered what He did to make that happen… And we stand by in awe and wonder about the God Who came to earth by His own choice, to pay for our sins, misunderstandings and lack of comprehension! And He did what He did personally … Jesus Christ died for LOVE’s sake.

Every single human being ever conceived and/or born, has been and will be known, cherished and loved by our God. Try standing in front of a mirror and telling yourself that regularly – it will do you good!  Today is about how far the great and Almighty God of our Universe and beyond, was prepared to go – in order to set us free from the sinful things we’ve chosen. We have all made ourselves captive to our enemy in one way or another. But our Father did what He did, so we would be free to comprehend and partake of what He has given us – at great personal cost to Him.

In order to understand God’s Love for us, we need to comprehend the lengths that His love went to – to rescue even the vilest sinner. Love is not a sentiment, it is an action. It looks like something we can see, read, feel, hear, touch and experience.  Love sacrifices even itself, in its relentless quest to restore the recipient of that love. It is utterly selfless. It is not kissy kissy love hearts, chocolates and lots of flowers! It looks like a bloodied and badly beaten, deeply maligned, and unrecognisable Human Being, Who allowed mankind to take out our murderous spite, hatred, rage and anger on Him. Those men who whipped and tormented the Lord were demonically inspired — yet they were still part of God’s plan, and His love was available to them too. 

Personally, I’ve learnt first-hand how shallow my love for God can be, I’ve had my theories tested and I found out I was definitely capable of loving me, more than HIM! Those Roman soldiers were exactly like US – even though we weren’t there in person. Nobody knows what they will do until they are tested. Christ was tempted, tested and yet He completed what He came to do. You know, you and I were in that crowd yelling abuse at the Lord, or turning our heads away, as surely as we were born back then. We’ve all sinned. We are not even remotely like our dear Saviour, Who gave up everything for us. We need help. And Help … came! 

In our minds and thoughts, what happened at Calvary does not seem like it is love – that’s because we do not define love rightly! We cannot afford to define LOVE for ourselves – when we do that we will end up indulging or even excusing ourselves. God’s idea of love does not look like our idea of it. He tells us about Himself in Isaiah 55:8-9. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

In our own personal lives, we want to be, and sometimes even choose to be – the heroes in our own little stories. But, in the new life that HE gave us, we are daily, minute by minute, challenged to change our minds, by renewing them — so that GOD Himself becomes the Hero in ALL our stories. The Father God, the Son, the Holy Spirit and everything They did together for each one of us on that cross, is our uniting force. Their love for us – unites us. No matter who we are or what we’ve done… WE.ARE.LOVED.

I know I have said this about a kajillion times, but our task now is to observe, learn, and absorb the way our God thinks, into our own personal lives until it becomes the way WE think. And we have a bible with 66 books in it, to help us. It details the way that God Himself interacts with other people in their own lives. It teaches us clearly what love actually looks like. It looks like sacrifice.

The bible showcases our Father’s thoughts toward mankind. His thoughts are always for us, reaching toward us. Here’s a little bit of what I have observed. He doesn’t treat any two people the same way. Our uniqueness is not a liability. To Almighty God each human being is the pearl He sacrificed everything precious to Him, so we can be His. The Bible is a LOVE STORY!  And we need to be transformed into a Worthy Bride for His dear Son – Who gave up everything for us. Our Bridegroom is oh! – so worthy of all our love and gratitude.  

OUR HEAVENLY FATHER WANTS US TO BE JOINED WITH CHRIST AND SHARE HIS LEGACY. We have a family inheritance – it is not gold, silver or precious gems  … our inheritance is the ability to love others the way Christ loved us. Loving others so deeply our self involvement fades away. Bless you today, as you press on toward that mark. 🕊️ 🙌

P 2469 “I was sitting around … minding my own business …”

/ DVH

This morning I was thinking about those shepherds who were sitting in a the field, long ago, simply watching over their sheep. You know who I mean … Jo and Mo (Joseph and Moses) and …  Fred and Barney … These men were sitting about keeping an eye on their sheep, and watching out for sneaky Pete the wolf and his pack, plus the odd lion or bear. I can’t imagine what they were actually talking about the minute before the sky exploded… maybe the low price of sheep at the market?  Or where’s the best pasture to go next??

Then BOOM! The sky lit up, an angel appeared and the world exploded with sound. It’s just as well the angels told them to “be not afraid!” You know if they hadn’t said that word straight from the throne of God — Jo, Mo, Fred and Barney would have had a heart attack … on the spot. “Mighty dread will do that to ya!”

Mo-oving on … back to these ordinary men, who were doing an ordinary job, day after day, after day. The same thing their fathers did and their fathers before them —- and their fathers before them. And nothing ever happened … until it did! Their whole world changed in a heartbeat when these heavenly beings appeared out of nowhere!!

Look at the faith of these men, once they got over being stunned, amazed and blessed … all at the same time! … Then they left their sheep mooching about, and hurried off looking for a baby in a manger. You and I might say: “What’s a manger?” But these shepherds knew what that was, and where to find one. They entered into the greatest miracle of all time, on a seemingly ordinary night … with the only fanfare provided by heavenly beings.

Father God chose a dirty stable as the site for His most precious Son’s birth. Jesus Christ was not elevated in any way! And those ordinary shepherds found out about His arrival first… Are we feeling the Vibe yet? Like where would the greatest SHEPHERD ever born … BE born? ….Among shepherds.

Isn’t it just like Jesus, to reveal Himself to people like you and I? That’s why the Good News IS the good news, it’s for everyone and anyone. You know the current King at that time, (Herod), heard about this extraordinary baby second-hand from travelling wisemen. So right from the beginning, Christ was destined to be revealed to this world through the poorest of the poor, ordinary workers… first.  And that set the scene for the rest of Jesus’ short life. He would always reach out to the people who were not rich, those who had no hope, and needed Him the most.

Maybe there were animals restlessly moving about in that tiny shelter, all around this new little family – we don’t really know. Let’s hope all that animal breathing kept them a little warmer in the cold clear night air! Meanwhile, there was no air freshener … no sterile hospital… no antibiotics!!  And no family helpers to assist Mary … just some straw, the floor, her inexperienced husband, and the inevitability of this baby coming … right now. 

What a totally scary place to give birth! There was no indoor plumbing either!! Ya might want to think about that. Christ was not born into a house … right from the beginning He had no home. Maybe Mary hoped He would be born where she had come from, with helpers all around her – but she and Joseph obeyed the law of the land and trotted off to a place far away to take part in a census. They took their chances … and then Almighty God said: “It’s time.”

Joseph himself had an enormous amount of trust.  I often talk about faith on this blog, and boy was his faith alive! He married Mary because of a dream. Sadly he could not give her and their new baby, the King of all Kings … a better place to stay! Such a huge responsibility for such a humble man. He was destined to protect this infant and remain obedient to what God had told him. How devoted to God’s purposes he was. This honourable young man, whose wife is going to give birth … to SomeOne else’s baby! He’s almost a footnote in this amazing story. Yet he was chosen to father God’s Son, when Jesus was a child.

The world was silent that night, and the only players in this little play were overwhelmed with awe and wonder. How could that be Almighty God Himself lying in a food trough? What could it possibly all mean? At that moment, He was just another newborn infant  … they are born every day.  Only those heavenly announcements made Him special. God made Himself known in an ordinary place, to ordinary people who were sitting around minding their own business. But when He speaks, this world gets turned right-side up!  Bless you! 👋🏻

P 2352 Pause with me and think on this.

/ DVH

“Go ahead and give God thanks for all the glorious things He has done! Go ahead and worship Him! Tell everyone about His wonders!” Psalms 105:1 TPT. Today I just want to mention some things that I thought about. Of course, primarily, we worship and thank Him that  He did not spare His precious Son, for our sakes! 

Down below I’ve put a picture of the moon. That beautiful orb reminds me that He put it there to be a guardian light in the darkness of night. That thing that took man four days to reach is something He simply spoke into being! I find that I need to take the time and make an effort to appreciate the things He has done  … even the way He decorated this world for our benefit. You gotta stop and look at it to love it!

At the same time I love meeting people. He made so many interesting ones! Human beings are incredibly interesting, we come in all sorts of shapes and sizes … well ….unless you are under 40 then apparently you are only allowed to be skinny with perfect skin and a perfect shape. Anything else quite obviously needs fixing! And if you are over 40 then middle-aged spread supposedly takes over, so you are only good as a money dispenser and a personal chauffeur. For people over 65 the attitude appears to be: “How come you are still here, I thought you’d be DEAD by now!” 😶 

Sometimes we forget that everything we can see HE made. It seems to me that criticising the ‘art-work’ to the Artist is like, a bit rich … whether it is a bull ant or a grumpy person. Hubby and I have a wonderful time meeting all sorts of  people. I highly recommend making the effort to talk to strangers. Hubby simply takes the time to say ‘hello’ to someone else. In the supermarket aisle, at the check-out, in the car park, on the street. He treats people with respect and kindness and that opens doors for communication.

We’ve found that new people widen our perceptions and horizons. When you appreciate others and you are interested in them;  supposedly ordinary, apparently drab, non-famous people come alive and they ✨ sparkle ✨.  I would go so far as to say that some of the most beautiful people I ever met did not have facial symmetry, perfect hair, or a body to die for. Some of them had bodies that were totally out of their control, but the beauty of their spirits outshone everything else. This stuff that our society values doesn’t matter to the Lord, He doesn’t see beauty the way we do. Check out 1 Peter 3:3&4.

Maybe it hasn’t occurred to us that the God who made butterflies, sunsets, hummingbirds, waterfalls and roses — also made — maggots, flies, cockroaches, buzzards, manx cats and the stinky corpse flower! The diversity of our world and all of humanity is a huge reminder of how creatively awesome He is. We worship our God simply because He is worthy, and everything else comes a far distant second to that. Meanwhile, making a GOD “after our own image” … is absolutely terrifying! Some of us aren’t all that nice. 

The Lord literally has to remain beyond our comprehension and that is part of His glory! A God we can sum up and explain is not the amazing Being Who is described in the bible. I exhort all of us to embrace the mystery, the wonder of Who He is and His unique ways and enjoy whatever we manage to glean and capture in our hearts about HIM.

Jesus Christ went totally outside of our rationale all the time. He kept offering new perspectives with a wisdom that astounded other people, even when He taught. He ignored the things that others expected from Him. He healed supposedly ‘unworthy’ people. Jesus used all of His circumstances as an opportunity to reveal His Father’s heart and will toward us. We are to be like Him and also take every opportunity to reveal His heart to others.

We must give thanks for Who Father God is, acknowledging that He is worthy of our praise and honour and gratitude. Let’s pass ON this news to anyone who comes our way and tell them what we have personally seen. So that ‘everyone who has breath can praise the Lord.’ And the very best way to do that is to take a risk, ask for His help, and stand back and watch Him move. 👋🏻

P 2258 So many denominations

/ DVH

Yeah, let’s established first up, on this blog you have one older lady’s opinion … right? I’m not a theologian, I haven’t been to bible school, I simply met Jesus Christ eons ago, and I’ve been following Him ever since. IF I know anything at all – HE taught me. Sadly there were some times that I ignored Him in favour of what my denomination taught me,  and yes I’ve repented! My point is, my opinions are limited.

I saw the above cartoon and I loved it. It seemed to me that it was the best explanation for why there are so many Christian denominations in this world. We are all looking at the same thing, we are just standing in different places. Please forgive me for intimating our Heavenly Father is like an elephant, that is not what I am trying to say! I am commenting on the fact that we all have so many different doctrines.

Some denominations even have sub-denominations! 😳 It also seems if you are in a denomination and want to make a splash, then you can skive off and start your own. Especially if what you believe seems important enough. That’s like expecting our arm to work by itself. Can’t happen! The Body of Christ is fragmented by its belief systems.  

The best I can offer by way of explanation is this – even if you have only two people you will still have a whole heap of different opinions. BTW, that could be why some marriages don’t work – people fall in love, but they don’t share the same basic beliefs and opinions. It’s the nitty gritty stuff that divides us, and “true love” often blinds us all! Well that was free! Moo-ving on …

… The fact is Almighty God is too big, too wise, too wonderful to be explained by any, or all of us. He is so much bigger than we have allowed Him to be. We are not acquainted with the fact that we don’t have to understand Him to relate to Him. And we don’t have to think like Him to explain Him – I suggest we let Him explain Himself. He’s so big He can say one thing to one person and something else to someone else. And both things are true. We must return to the place of wonder. It’s OK to not know stuff – instead let’s just fall in love with the God Who made it all.

If we think we can explain Him, no matter how clever we are, or how many words we take to do it, we are fooling ourselves. A truly wise person lets God explain Himself. And that’s called revelation. “We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing Him directly just as He knows us!” 1 Corinthians 13:12.

We need to be in a relationship with Him, and treasure His Presence far more than we need to understand how He thinks. People grab at this thing and that thing and think … “Aha! I finally have the Answer.” Denominations occur when we start trying to explain God. Even though some of those explanations or revelations are fantastic … but those things are not all there is. As soon as we think we have some sort of basic idea that sums up Almighty God – we just limited Him. We keep trying to fit  Almighty God into our teeny tiny boxes, and because He truly IS God, He will burst out of them!

We don’t have to prove Him. Let Him prove Himself! I don’t have to prove the sun is out when it is daytime or nighttime. Even if it is raining or cloudy – the SUN is still there. I just need to position myself into a place where I can see beyond my earthly restrictions. Like board a plane, or climb up above the clouds. Our position before Him is what matters, and to stand in the right place we need to realise that He is God and we are not. It is OK to have a Daddy Who knows more than we do. 

God forgave us all. He does not see the restrictions and boundaries and doctrines the way we see them – He sees people. And He loves them. Read the book! It is all about God relating to His people. Because of Jesus Christ, we are all now His people. No matter what denomination we belong to. We waste our time on this earth fighting, or abusing one another over things that won’t last. Father God does not care what colour skin we have, what sort of accent we have, what we believe – or not, HE JUST LOVES HIS KIDS. It’s in the book.

He’s so glorious He loves the people who actively hate Him. Imagine that. Not just loving your enemies, but deliberately actioning a plan to save them from themselves and then sacrificing Your only Son to provide the way to do it. That blows my mind. Let’s just agree that we don’t have to understand Him to love Him back. They will know we are Christians by our love … not by our denomination. Bye. 👋🏻