World

P 3162 This is true worship!

/ DVH

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2. True and proper worship starts and ends with ME, voluntarily laying myself down on His altar, daily. All day, every single day. The secret to walking with the Holy Spirit is to deliberately surrender your life, even when things are good as well as when they are bad. Then I pray: “Your will, Your way Lord.”  I’ve found it is best to have no other agenda but His.

When we follow Jesus it means our lives change. It is our obedience to God’s Word that causes that transformation. As we read it, we begin to realise that worship from His POV, requires more from us than just happily singing songs of praise and worship … it is about giving Him the gift of YOU. Your time, your energy, your obedience, your love, your family, your sometimes-present difficulties. Our families are so much better off in His hands, no matter what is going on around us. We put them in His care – and we leave them there. Obviously I am not talking about whether the kids need a bath, or not, and Jesus won’t be cooking the dinner! Everything  we do we do in service to Him. “Whatsoever you do, do it with all your heart, as though you were doing it for Jesus!”

Realistically speaking, in today’s climate, we know that very few people have spare time! So the reality is like this — to honour Father God with our whole self, we will have to put something else aside. Those things we need to put aside are often important to us. And at the same time, we can have interruptions that need attention. Like, if your toddler falls on its head, that’s an important thing! But, the phone can wait. Leave that somewhere else, turned off. You can tell your pre-school child: “I’m reading the bible, I will be with you soon.” Showing little ones that we also need to pray and read the bible, is just as important, as doing it with them. 

We simply have to make reading the bible and praying, a priority, just like we make family times a priority. My hubby’s dear mother used to sit in the middle of chaos, people coming and going, the phone ringing off the hook, squabbling everywhere etc – and there she was, in the middle of it, bible in her lap, with her eyes closed because she was praying. Her alone time with God is sacrosanct. The things that dear lady has taught me without saying one word!!

We all know that God’s Word requires our obedience. We simply need to read it to find things to do, not just to tick off a daily quota. That translates into – read it, then do it! Or read until you find something to do. Actually I read until something stands out to me. This is part of putting our bodies on His altar. Don’t  dismiss these things because you haven’t got time to pay attention to them, instead make it a priority to act on them. It is a delusion to think: “I will get around to doing that.” Trust me, you won’t. We have an enemy who loves to distract and interrupt us. Make a plan to obey while you are with the Lord. Ask Him: “How do I do this Lord?” However, when it comes to repentance, do that right away, including fixing and repairing it with the other person if necessary. Never postpone repentance. Repentance blows away the cobwebs over our hearts. 

If we want to know God’s will, then we must align ourselves with Him. It’s simple. Most things about the Lord look like this… stay out of the stuff that is going to drag you down, and cling to what He has said instead – and don’t move from that place. We need to recognise some things are a distraction or temptation, and avoid them. Just because something is demanding, that does not mean we must give it our attention. Paul said: “…I die daily…”  That’s what laying our lives on the altar looks like. God’s great love and provision for mankind, has been clearly demonstrated to us, through watching how Jesus lived His life.

Jesus laid Himself on that altar by everything He did. We don’t even get a recording of the Lord’s private  thoughts or opinions in the Gospels! He didn’t even go on Israel’s got Talent! 🤣🤣 Instead, He validated God’s Words for our benefit by the Way He lived. He knew the Father so well, He could see what His Father was doing, and then He went and did it too. Ten lepers were healed once – Jesus saw His Father healing them before it happened! BTW, the Lord didn’t want the lepers to thank Him, Jesus wanted the lepers to thank Father God for what happened to them!“Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Luke 17:18.

If we want to see what Jesus saw, and do what He did, then we need to live like He did, and do whatever our Father tells us to do. Obedience is one of the growth factors for flourishing faith. Our true worship is to lay our lives down for His sake, even as we sing and praise Him in our hearts. We are to be continually filled with the Spirit. And! We should take care of widows and orphans … James chapter one. All those good things are set into motion when we choose to lay our lives down, daily, for His sake, Galatians 2:20. Bye 👋

P 3156 Imagine that!

/ DVH

Jesus lived and walked, talked, loved and healed, right alongside the people who wanted to make Him king on one day — and on the next, they wanted to torture and kill Him! The bible says:“And He did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man [needed no evidence from anyone about men], for He Himself knew what was in human nature. [He could read men’s hearts.]”John 2:25. He knows all about you, the good, the bad, and the ugly – and He loves each of one of us anyway. Our God is always speaking to us – He just doesn’t always use words! People often tell me that they can’t hear the Lord, my advice is this, we need to learn to look around us – at the people He loves more than life itself.

But our priorities often kill off spontaneity. Most of us like to make plans for holidays and outings. Those preparatory days are often filled with excitement, laughter and anticipation. You know, if we can take the time to remember to bring the sunscreen, and the insect repellant, then it seems to me that we can make some time to meditate on God’s Word!

Maybe the reason that kind of meditation seems difficult, is that mulling over God’s Word doesn’t have a sun hat, the blue sea, plus a golden beach, with drinks that have little umbrellas in them. We have become so tied into what makes ME feel better, we are losing the joy of knowing Him, personally. We’ve become self-obsessed, which is in total opposition to the way the Lord Jesus lived.

The bible tells us that meditation on scriptures is good for us – it helps us keep Christ before our eyes. “… because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18 TPT. You would think that if someone saved your life you wouldn’t forget them in a hurry! Yet we all yield our precious time to the things that won’t last, or we monitor the time with the Lord because we are busy people. So we remain content to live inside the nether world of those soon-to-be-forgotten things. And try really hard to forget that God is calling us to Himself. You know that’s the very safest place to be!  

It is sad to think that many little ones today, are being raised in an atmosphere that is frivolous, pressurised and frenetic  One that has no more meaning than the next gift – the next fashion, the next shiny thing. Our world is currently filled with so many useless distractions. From the time that we get up, and we go back to bed again, we don’t seem to think about anything else but the things we have to get done before we finally collapse! Even leisure has become an effort. It is so easy to live this way. This world presses in on all of us, with its opinions and temptations. We live in a buy, buy, buy atmosphere —‘You must have one of these because the one you bought the other day is now obsolete!” 

Meanwhile, outside — right over our heads, day and night — God is speaking to us. He made everything we can see, purely for our sake. The stars, and galaxies, are His decorations in the sky. Our Father hung them there like we might hang ornaments on a Christmas tree. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.” Psalm 19:1-2. This shows us that there are so many different ways for our God to speak to us. Jesus spent His life loving others, speaking love everywhere He went by what HE DID! Our world is filled with useless words, words that don’t have any life in them. So let’s stop making everything purpose-driven and just step outside and look up!

Here’s what real life sounds like “…(Jesus) emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”Just think about that scripture for a minute. He’s the One Who made everything we can see. But once long ago in a life just like ours, God Himself was see-able!  Every time we read His book, and think about what He said, we can see Him again and again. Jesus Christ stripped off every vestige of His heavenly glory and became one of us. He spoke to our hearts by what He chose to do!

The One Who made everything is speaking to you every time you look at His creation, every time you read His book, every time you look into someone else’s face. One day He is going to step back onto this world’s stage and blow mankind’s collective mind. Imagine that!  Bye. 👋

P 3140 The Way through is to live IN HIM.

/ DVH

“I have told you these things, so that IN ME you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”John 16:33. Jesus Himself warned us in this world there WILL be trouble. But when trouble rises up against us, we can easily feel victimised and picked on by the circumstances. We all hate difficulties – yet here Jesus is telling us that trouble will come, it’s unavoidable. Trouble doesn’t mean you got it wrong, it’s a part of this life. Our great quest is to live our lives remaining inside His Will, His Way. When we ‘remain in Him – He remains in us.’ John 15:4.

The Lord makes it extremely clear that the peace He is talking about is IN HIM. Our circumstances may not change, but we will live in a safe place inside His will. Jesus wants us to live the same way He did, He lived for His Father’s will to be done!  We are witnesses to His glory as we live our lives His way. Think of a baby kangaroo. A joey is hidden away in its mother’s pouch. It goes wherever the mother wants to go, it is protected from the outside world by being in a safe unseen place. It can see anything that goes on around it, yet it remains in that place of protection. The baby kangaroo can go in and out of that pouch, but it totally relies upon the mother’s instincts to protect it from danger.

We rely upon the Lord to lead us through the battlefields of this life. Now we are living in another kingdom where we have a choice about our responses. We’ve decided to let Him choose what He knows we can face. Human beings have a tendency to think that if our circumstances change, then we will be at peace and we will … feel better. But Jesus clearly tells us that there is a difference between being affected by this world, and living our lives the way He has designed for us to live them. It all depends on where we choose to live. If we can’t find peace …maybe we are looking in the wrong place for it! 

Peace is not a cessation of trouble, instead it is the most incredibly powerful Person Who personally protects us! At the same time, trouble means different things to different people. So our lives, although they may be very different, are lived daily using our faith that He is in charge, despite any adverse circumstances. He knows the way through everything. Think of this kind of peace as living our lives inside everything Jesus died to give us. The same way we might think of staying INSIDE the eye of a hurricane.

Everything destructive ceases in the centre of those terrible storms, it’s actually quite peaceful in there! The destruction is all around – but there are blue skies and fluffy clouds in the centre. This is a bit like staying in the centre of His will. We simply need to follow His instructions, move with Him, and stay within that hypothetical eye. Our focus needs to remain on Him. He is our shelter, we are to live in the safety of His Presence, by following His instructions regarding this life.

Whatever He says we need to say and do, then we do and say it, and then we hand everything back over to Him.Then we ask the Holy Spirit to guide our steps through the chaos, and help us to keep our eyes on Jesus, because He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. As we go, we relinquish everything extraneous that comes up and we hold nothing back. It’s all about trusting Him no matter how things look.

Jesus taught us these things so that the situations that cause us to have doubts and despair may not influence our lives. We don’t have to respond like the world does when good or bad stuff happens, because we’ve given our lives to Jesus! Now we’ve  moved kingdoms – out from the kingdom of darkness and its influences — into the kingdom of His marvellous light. Our new home is IN HIM. In Psalm 91:1-4 the Psalmist says: “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will REST in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”  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.”

Christianity is about a Person, Jesus Christ. We no longer have to live buried under the troubles of this world, because we are the beneficiaries and recipients of the things Jesus told us He would give us. This means we can love others, we can have peace and joy etc. even in the middle of times of hardship and sadness. This world no longer influences us – HE DOES. We are daily learning how to live IN HIM, under His government – by reading the bible. Jesus is our model, He always did everything the Father asked Him to do, despite the ever-present risks and dangers around Him.

We must learn for ourselves — God good, devil bad – and take a stand against the bad every day. The only war we continually participate in now, is the one in our minds –  which tells us to doubt that whatever God is doing is for our good. At the same time, we are being carried by Jesus’ faith in us – yet we will still have to fight for our own faith. We are a peculiar army – we fight on our knees, for others, ourselves, and the Lord’s will to prosper in this world. 

Jesus won’t EVER leave us! He is deeply committed to each one of us. So we read His book because He shows us the Way through to overcoming and victory. It is not about winning and bashing up the other side, instead, now we are here to proclaim His goodness to the other side! We can have peace, joy and love in the middle of chaos – it is our right as citizens of heaven. Bless you, bye.👋

P 3131 Don’t give away your peace …

/ DVH

… to anyone! Cherish it. “And everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in Me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in Me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!”John 16:33. Peace is a Person, Jesus! He’s the Prince of peace – Who brings with Him a stable unfettered state of mind, so we can serve God and focus on what matters to Him.

What drags us away from the kind of peace that Jesus is talking about here – is the ordinary stuff that is unrelenting, and it flies at us daily. “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not LET your hearts be troubled or afraid,“John 14:27. We now have the power to not LET things get to us. Most of us deal with stuff every day. Kids don’t pick up their toys, or they disobey, or they talk back. Bosses have agendas, and many times they can have unrealistic expectations. Spouses don’t always understand what we are trying to tell them. 

We need to recognise that when human beings are living under pressure they say and do stupid, careless things!I Ask the Holy Spirit to – ‘Please help me to learn to live in peace – under fire!’ Jesus will teach us, as we read His Word, day by day, so we can have the inner resources to combat the thief. We all know where our help comes from! Our reality does not exist outside the Lord Himself. His Words in our heart comforts and upholds us, particularly as we choose to cherish and act on them. God has us in His care, and He knows what He is doing.

Those God-words from Him to you, daily, are powerful, they will pull down strongholds in our lives, when we let them. Don’t let your perception of yourself, or even your family history,  limit you. Now we are in a new family, a new kingdom. We can do things we’ve never done before because of HIS GRACE in us. Throw away family traits – unless they are Godly. Peace is an inside job. Let’s stop excusing our own shortcomings and face them squarely, instead. A lack of peace inside, is an indication that we need to pause and ask the Lord to show us what has caused our peace to leave … and then fix it.

Sometimes we lie to ourselves by soft-soaping the scriptures – like the one that says Jesus understands us in our weaknesses – Hebrews 4:15. Of course He does! That is why He is the perfect High Priest! But we can’t rely on excuses and continue to tolerate the very things that take our awareness of His Presence away from us. Which means we must face the truth and the consequences that our attitudes have had in our lives and the lives of others. Then repent, repair and move on because these things steal our peace away.

Let Jesus protect you. Be wise when you relate to difficult people, but always be prepared to be open and honest about yourself and your failings. Say: “I’m so sorry but I don’t cope with things like that. I need the Lord to help me, please pray for me.” Hiddenness can lead to a loss of peace because the Holy Spirit loves truth and unity, and when we hide ourselves to save face, or protect ourselves- He quietly leaves. No peace there then!

My next point is – over-thinking things, which can lead to anxiety and stress. So many times I have tossed and turned instead of happily sleeping, while I’m trying to figure out a good way to approach a difficult person. Or trying to think up ways to manage a hard day that is rushing at me. My advice is to give these things to Him, then leave them alone. At first it feels neglectful, because we are so used to worrying out answers to problems!

However, now we are engaged in peace maintenance, so we let the Prince of Peace take care of everything that clutters up our minds. “You will keep in perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both ]inclination and character], Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation].” Isaiah 26:3.

Busyness is a thief – yet sometimes we can’t help but be busy. Jesus Himself was often busy! Crowds came and came, demanding this and that. Unfortunately the cares and worries of this world demand everybody’s attention. Mark 4:19 says:“… but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.” Peace can be choked out by worry. I’ve found it extremely helpful to let go of these things by naming them, one by one.

We can think of prayer as taking many hours, and we know we have no time. But the truth is He already knows what is bugging you and HE wants to help you. Sooooo many times I have discovered He has a better way to carry out what must be done than I have. Remember, in the bible, we have two instances of Jesus Himself helping fishermen to FISH! We have given Him our lives, so we need to let Him organise them. That does not mean we do nothing, but it does mean we will enjoy His company through the day. 

Prayer is an attitude of surrendering our hearts to Him, deferring to His wisdom. It isn’t always WORDS. Think of the Lord Jesus as SomeOne Who is glad to be an intimate part of your life, SomeOne Who wants you to do much more than slog through your busy days. He wants to be with you. Imagine that – the Perfect One longs for your company.  His Presence within us is our peace.  Let that peace be your umpire. 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. 👋

P 3098 Be yourself …

/ DVH

… and don’t climb on the feelings train! That stuff will transport you from one nightmare scenario to another. I actually think there are little demonic ‘scribes’ that follow us around chucking pieces of worrying, fearful, nasty, ghastly info into our brains to distract us from the Lord and His purposes. Please remember that one of His purposes is deliverance from nasty little demon scribes!! It is a lie that “you” are a worry-wart. Jesus wouldn’t have told us not to do it if it didn’t matter.

We can spend ages majoring on minor things, worrying if this or that will work out the way we want it to. RELAX! God’s got us – ps it probably won’t work out the way you want it anyway … it will be better!  Let’s remember Who He is! The immortal invisible only wise God! Yeah! HIM!! He only made the world and everything in it. That thing you are worried about probably won’t happen, and if it does then you and the Holy Spirit will tackle it together. “If God be for us who can be against us?” Romans 8:31. Think on that instead. Jesus summed worry up beautifully when He asked this question:“Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” Matthew 6:27. Let’s hope nobody gets stuck on that answer!

You know it seems to me that lately we have all turned into billy goats … “butt,  butt … my life is a mess.” Like God Himself doesn’t know what’s going on. If the answer is hidden from you it is hidden for a reason. He’s got you, you are always on His heart, and He doesn’t take time off for high days and holidays!! Worry etc always seems like it is doing something, but that stuff will give you wrinkles on your face, indigestion, constipation, or the opposite, and mess with your well-being and brain. Treat it like someone is handing you a worm and say: “No, thank you.”

Just recently I gave someone a birthday card and realised the envelope I had for it wasn’t what I thought it was. I had to give the card without any envelope because the one I had was covered in one of those “Where’s Wally” pictures. But it was ultimately a clever piece of marketing that was advertising some plumber or other. I wasted an hour trying to find WALLY! And another one worrying about the lack of an envelope!  How dumb can you get and still breathe? When we worry we are making Father God too small to help us.

Our time is not just valuable because we are some clever business person making business deals, or someone who cares for the sick, elderly and infirm. Or maybe you drive a school bus, or you are home caring for little ones. Your time is valuable because this very second will not come back again. One of satan’s favourite ploys is to get us tied up in knots about the things we cannot change anyway. Pray, then give it all up to the Lord. Walk away. Not from the people, but from the temptation to think you just might come up with a solution. The Lord can interrupt people’s thoughts. He once threw Paul off a donkey – well, it was probably an angel, but you get my point!

This life is like trying to untangle a fine silver or gold chain, the more you tug on it, and wiggle this bit, and slide that one through this hole over here—  the tighter the knot gets. Put it down. Your time is worth far more than losing sleep or feeling mentally weary … God left you here on this earth for a purpose. Sometimes I think our  purpose is to not be worried no matter what is going on around us – what a witness that would be!! 

I know awful things happen to people, they happen to me too. I have to drag myself around feeling beaten up and broken, and I crawl or stagger into His Presence. There are days that I simply have to insist that Jesus is bigger than the problem. That torment means the thief is on the premises – fight the thief. Don’t let him take your peace. Over the last few years Christians seem to have accidentally made experiences with God the criteria for relating to the Lord. No experience means God did not show up. That’s actually in direct contradiction of His Word. 

We all know that verse in Hebrews 13:5: ”Let your character [your moral essence, your inner nature] be free from the love of money [shun greed—be financially ethical], being content with what you have; for He has said, “I will never [under any circumstances] desert you [nor give you up nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless], nor will I forsake or let you down or relax My hold on you [assuredly not]!” When God says NEVER He means NEVER! As in not ever. He’s there, right there, with you, right now, whether you feel Him or not! 

Right now in OUR world, people are living in places where there is no water, no house, no food, and bombs are falling out of the sky. Families have been shattered. Grief has become a way of life. The thing is – trouble bashes on everyone’s door. But in the Western world we can get persnickety if we break a nail or we need to call the plumber. I am ill most days, hubby has all kinds of nasty pain in his joints, so ordinary things are extremely difficult to do. But we’ve found if we obey God when He asks us to do this or that the pain matters less than the joy we feel when we see God reach into someone’s life. 

When we were away we went to a market. There were lots of people. However, I dislike markets because …lots of people go there!! In a wheelchair you get handbags in the face, and people walk so incredibly irrationally you have to swerve or stop, and the footpaths are uneven and … and … most people talk to hubby not me. Apparently your brain falls out when you get into a wheelchair. Hey ho! A-ny-w-ay!! We stopped at a jewellery stall, and we talked to the stall-holders. 

The short story is this — that beautiful young Turkish woman owner rushed across the stall and gave me the biggest hug like ever! Boy that will put icing on your bun trust me! People are hungry for real – BE YOU! Bye.👋

P 3090 Trust.

/ DVH

“May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;  may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May He send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May He remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests. Now this I know: The Lord gives victory to His anointed. He answers him from His heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of His right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” Psalm 20:1-7. “Before you do anything, put your trust totally in God and not in yourself. Then every plan you make will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3 TPT

Most of people barely trust each other nowadays, so I often wonder how Christians are doing with regard to trusting in the Lord? The bible tells us to trust in Him with all our heart and forget about what we think we know. I’ve commended David many times on this blog, he sets a wonderful example of someone who knew how to trust God. This man remembered what God had done for him in the past and it gave him momentum to push forward into the next challenge.

So where does that leave us today — when we want to learn how to trust in the Lord, but our society oozes mistrust and bitterness? Every single day we will simply have to choose to use our faith! Our only option is to follow Him, and believe His Word, over the rubbish our eyes and ears take in. We can be influenced for good by God’s Good News, or we can soak in the filth and stench of sin that saturates this world. In my opinion, our enemy has infiltrated our thinking so deeply, sometimes our first thought is not: “What would Jesus want me to do in this situation?” It’s often: “How does this affect me?”

Let’s make the Lord our first priority, because that’s a fixed mindset not an optional extra! I think the lack of faith we end up exhibiting daily has affected the temperature of the world around us. I am not trying to be negative here, I have had to face my own fears, and I didn’t do so well every single time. But I try to remember this: we learn to trust the Lord in the trenches and the ditches and dirt of this life – when we know full well if we poke our head up, some clown is going to shoot at us or we can wind up in jail for some misplaced remark! Trusting the Lord does not always mean we are in a peachy-keen rainbow situation, with milk and honey constantly flowing down the mountain …the Israelites are proof of that!

It’s called having the courage of our convictions. Sadly, for those amongst us that do try to stand up and speak out, a great deal of negative comments can sometimes come from… wait for it … other Christians. We are quite good at shooting our own wounded! I have known great men and women of God that have been constantly smashed against the side of someone else’s convictions, and left battered and bleeding because of it. I know this might shatter somebody else’s theology, but Almighty God is capable of contrasting opinions! WE are the limited ones – we need clarification, not competition. 

Trusting God with internal opposition going on can seem almost impossible – He promises to help us! But if His people have no grace at all, even for their brothers and sisters, then it seems highly improbable that the world is going to do all that well either. However, with God ALL things are possible. That’s in the book! We must not forget the power of the Holy Spirit to help, guide, lead, comfort, and transform our ways of thinking, doing and being – daily!  Sometimes we can be so busy being reformers, we forget we are merely grace carriers. Just because we don’t always understand what others are saying, that doesn’t make them wrong. As a matter of fact, that kind of attitude can make us look intolerant, and that is not a good look!

Over the years, I’ve learnt that I can’t trust myself under pressure, I will probably try to look after myself. I’ll make excuses for me, and blame you. Without His GRACE we are sunk. Thank God an incredible endless amount of His grace was released at Calvary — now nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. That means the only thing that can pull us this way and that, is our perception of the truth of His Word. However, at the same time, we dare not forget Jesus Himself is called – the Living Word! That’s how important it is to take note of the way Jesus lived.

God’s Grace is always available, when we let go of our opinions and bad attitudes and step into the place Jesus bought for us. “Before you do anything, put your trust totally in God and not in yourself. Then every plan you make will succeed.”  He is not with us so we can ‘win’ some ridiculous theological point! We all have a part of the many-sided wisdom of God available to us. However, He is with us, because HE IS GOOD not because we are smarter than someone else. Daily we have to make a quality decision. Do we want to be right, or walk with Him?

Walking with Him means we can change our minds – press the refresh button! That’s part of walking and learning to trust and walking by faith means trusting Him. We trust Him every single day, to get us out of whatever fool thing we just fell into. And at the same time, we choose to hold fast to the fact that He will bless everyone else as well! He’s God He can do anything. Bye👋

P 3085 Dust? … Anyone?

/ DVH

“The first one, (Adam) made from dust, has a race of people just like him, who are also made from dust. The One sent from heaven has a race of heavenly people who are just like Him. Once we carried the likeness of the man of dust, but now let us carry the likeness of the Man of heaven.” 1 Corinthians 15:48-49 TPT. (Just keep reading I do have a point!)

I have had dust on the brain recently, what with spring cleaning, and finding cobwebs in my own life in unexpected places. Then hubby found this verse in his daily readings and we both had a good laugh. Laughter really is good for all of us, especially if we can laugh at ourselves. So we hit a joy bubble together and laughed way out beyond the reality of whatever was supposedly funny and … felt much better.

Apparently people much smarter than I am, suggest that if you are struggling with depression or anxiety, watching a marathon of movies that you know can make you laugh can help. They suggested the Three Stooges – which made me doubt the accuracy of their prescription … mainly because I don’t find the Three Stooges even remotely funny. I’m not into physical gags. I find people having pianos dropped on their heads hard to watch!

Back to today’s verse, because inheriting and sorting out other people’s old things has been part of my day for weary weeks now. My take on what these verses are saying goes like this: If you want Adam for an ancestor more dust awaits you. Ya might want to think about that! You could definitely need one of those dust-buster gizmos they sell for $59.99 on TV. On a good TV advertising day you can get two for the price of one. My question is — why not sell ONE for thirty bucks and be done with it? ps maybe you need two because the one you start with will kark it and then, the other one will come in handy? Or you can always give the extra one to your mother-in-law. I’m allowed to tell M-I-L jokes – I ARE one. Splendid! Now there’s Christmas sorted. I am so-oo-oo helpful!

Did you read the next line in that scripture? I underlined it so it would stand out! “The One sent from heaven has a race of heavenly people who are just like Him.”  I underlined that bit because it serves my point. I know HEAPS of people who aren’t like Him and sadly, they dusty-up the church in this world all over the place. At the same time they also obscure other people’s view of what Jesus actually looks like! I’ve been in a dust storm – you can’t see a thing! Dust, BTW, in the Lord’s hands can be useful stuff – Jesus once wrote in it and saved a woman’s life. 

Meanwhile our churches need some of those dust-busters because we’ve forgotten where we came from — we are dust-free simply because of what HE did. Before we met Jesus we used to be Pig-pen … see picture above. But now we have been bought back from that dirty dusty scenario to live in the freedom and light that surrounds our Saviour, Jesus. Our job is to carry around His likeness wherever we go. No more cloudy nasty dust for us – it only makes people allergic to us! But that kind of cleanliness and clarity won’t fall on us – we will have to choose it. 

I have included this next testimony purely because it was not me that suffered through it. My hubby was on the phone for an hour and a half yesterday to Centrelink  – listening to truly awful music … who picks that stuff and where do they live? I want to disconnect their CD player right away – I may even jump on it! … An-y-wa-y he rang Centrelink to tell them that they had paid my mother her pension, and as she is no longer with us, he wanted to ask them, how could we give back those extra $$s? 

When hubby finally did get to speak to someone – hours later! The guy at the other end of the phone was gobsmacked by our honesty. Apparently nobody wants to give money back anymore, they usually have to chase after a person if the extra cash wasn’t theirs in the first place.. No wonder the government has no spare money for poor people to buy bread and milk! And now comes the kingdom of God angle…

… this young man then explained the money was actually legally ours. Colour me astonished! I can’t be bothered here explaining why here, because it isn’t worth the space, but no bill collectors will be knock knock knocking on our door. Praise the Lord!

I wanted to use this illustration to show the difference between dusty people and heavenly people — it’s the way they live and act. Dusty people attract dirt, cobwebs, spiders, and other nasty creepy critters… BUT … the people who choose to live in His light, attract other people who are out there looking for the light! Let’s go! Let’s live this life we have been given, carrying the light of heaven wherever we go. 

How do we do that? Easy peasy. Live in His love. I am not good at it, yet …I freely admit that. But when I get done and dusted, (teehee) I get up again – that’s the secret! We will all get it wrong … and then we repent, and repair relationships, and deliberately go back to our precious Saviour and let Him further transform our lives with His redemptive love. We will end up thanking Him all over again for saving us from the never-ending dust piles of this life…as we choose to carry the light of His love and forgiveness out into this world. Bye. 👋

P 3059 Up close and personal!

/ DVH

“Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms. For they are a powerful class of demon-gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage.” Ephesians 6:12 TPT. 

Ignoring our enemy may well be one of Christianity’s biggest mistakes so far. But I totally believe in the Lord’s great all-encompassing goodness. I know He is raising up a generation of believers who will face all of our enemies, unashamed, and fearless. The way we can enter this brave band of brothers, is to practice fighting the good fight in our own little lives, every single day. Up close and personal! I pray all the time for His Grace to be abundant upon me because I’ve lived long enough to know that I need it!

Lately it seems the Lord is stretching my patience, while He is perfecting me and transforming me …Sigh. So there is a big l-o-n-g space between whatever bad event just happened in my life – to finally being able to see the Lord’s outcome. I will always need a big dollop of His hope daily to cope. Here’s a freebie …put your hope in Jesus, not in the Answer. Sometimes we don’t actually know what is good for us. My faith can be feeble and self-serving, and without His help, impatience will jump up and down on the inside of me – demanding my attention.

I battle with a sense of overall tiredness daily. It’s the kind of tiredness that makes you want to sleep for a week and hope that everything will be fixed when you wake up! I sort of understand the whole deal with the Israelites when they left Egypt and wandered around in the wilderness. I don’t like to live my life feeling uncomfortable either! The solution is easy – instead of waiting for my circumstances to change I need to give the whole thing to Jesus and walk away, leaving it with Him. And refuse to pick it up again..

God is good ALL the time. I simply need to cultivate my spiritual eyes and ears and make what He wants my priority. The problem is not with Him. It’s me!! There are days when I realise there is much more of the world inside me than I’ve comprehended so far. You know some days I also understand the Israelites longing for the leeks and garlic of Egypt, even when Manna fell out of the sky every day. It seems to me that there’s not that many ways you can cook Manna over an open fire! Boiled? Scrambled? toasted? I have a limited diet but manna porridge every day for forty years seems hard to bear. That problem is not with what I am eating – it is with what I am thinking!

The bible says in Galatians 2:20:“I have been crucified with Christ [that is, in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith [by adhering to, relying on, and completely trusting] in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” I love the bible so much,.it shows me clearly there is no way forward without sticking to, leaning on, and totally surrendering to Jesus. ‘By faith’ means He is now my reference point, not the awful circumstances, or my feelings, but Jesus.

I love the bit in Galatians that says: “in the body.” My ability to conquer what’s going on in my head is already inside me – it came in when He came in! Salvation is not just something that happens only once. I am saved from all kinds of sin every single blooming minute of every day! Especially when icky thoughts float through my educated-idiot-box if I am irritable. That thing says stuff inside my head to the person who is annoying me: “If I give in to you, I am letting you win and there is no way you should win … because I don’t trust you!” Look at me, thoughts of reconciliation flowing about like a river! Hah! Fighting with YOU will not help ME overcome!!

That’s what this verse from Ephesians 6:12 is about. It is reminding us …“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.” 2 Corinthians 10:4. The war we fight daily, sometimes minute by minute, has nothing whatsoever to do with guns, spears, swords, or nuclear weapons – but it has everything to do with my own private thoughts … by the time that junk comes out of my mouth, I’m sunk!

If I let irritation with you pull up a chair in my private thoughts … then … all by myself, I can personally conjure up why you said what you said, and what you meant by it!   You did get the whole “conjure up” vibe right? I mean that junk floating about is not valid. It shows me that somebody else has been whispering to me:  “They said that because of this – and they mean this because of that!” That’s like one step away from necromancy and that stuff is bad news according to the bible. Saul lost his kingdom and his life to that sort of Chinese whispers because God did not answer the man according to his timetable. 

All of this fight is internal, and most definitely up close and personal! However, yielding my will to His, when I am in the middle of it, changes everything. When I choose to daily learn to give up quickly, and lay my life down for His sake, not yours …then He can make whatever He wants to make, out of it – and it is always good! Bye 🤗 

P 3054 Opting out.

/ DVH

Do you ever want to go back to bed, and hide under the covers? I get like that occasionally too. When I was working, eons ago, back in the ark, there were no ‘doona days.’  You were sick or you were there! Mental health did not rate a mention.

Recently I discovered that I have a previously unknown default position when it comes to pain, heartache, stress and strain. I’ve learnt that what seems to be normal day after day—may not actually BE normal! And what seems to be a part of who you think you are – may not be the real you after all! Sometimes we simply adapt our behaviour to fit in and cope with life’s difficulties. 

My mother died a week ago. She was 97, almost 98 years old. At the end she had cancer and awful pain. However, other people’s expectations of my response to this sad situation showed me that I apparently wasn’t grieving enough. Everybody I spoke to seemed to think I should be distraught and practically paralytic. They were, of course, being very sympathetic and kind at the same time, but I constantly felt like I was giving the wrong response to their sad, empathetic faces.

So I got stuck between their expectations, and my own reactions. In those moments I was incredibly grateful for all the intercessory prayer that came my way  … but, to be honest, I simply wanted everything about it all to just go away! Yesterday, the Lord Himself helped me, and I want to share here what I’ve learned from Him — in case somebody else finds my little story resonates with them.

I’ve learnt no matter how hard we try, we can all get stuck. Maybe you may have been stuck in something that put a ceiling on your growth because you’ve labelled some things as too hard. I know I’ve done that! My ‘ceiling’ kept telling me how much I could manage … then my own judgement of myself kicked in, and pointed out that anything over and above that, was just “too much and too hard.“

I’ve been in the land of ‘too much ’ for a week or so, since she died. But then a very sweet palliative care lady took the time to explain to me that there is no right way to grieve. We are all individuals and what seems right to me may not be right for you. Everybody’s got a story… What this lady said was such a relief!! Sometimes my own ideas of right and wrong, seem to overpower whatever the Lord is saying to me, and the result is I zone out and become deaf spiritually. However, the Holy Spirit has been incredibly gracious, He persevered with me.

The Lord gave mum and I two very sweet years at the end of her life, when I was able to tell her sincerely that I dearly loved her, and she returned that affection very vocally toward hubby and I. What a blessing that was! The more I talked to the Holy Spirit, the more I realised that He had helped me complete everything He wanted me to do for her.

It can be hard to cope when your sole parent is the most difficult person in your life, simply because you are very different people. During these last days, we forgave each other, and we also had fun and laughed together. So the reason I wasn’t weeping all the time, was that I had nothing to cry about, our situation had been turned around, and … praise God, I know where she is now! 

Hubby and I spent a lot of time talking to her about the Lord and how much He loves her. Although she is no longer here with us, something I had longed to see for 52 years, had finally happened. I’d been praying and hoping that my mother and I would both get to a new place at the same time! The Holy Spirit wonderfully answered me, and He did it all without any help from me! 

I know a happy ending may not occur for everyone, but today I wanted to share that there are also times that it can. I want to pass on the hope that even seemingly impossible situations can be turned around. Our God has a plan. We don’t always understand what He is doing, because our eyes have been dimmed by the sorrow and suffering of this world.

Opting out of dealing with difficult things means we are left with unanswered questions, and He is much too kind and loving, to want us to live with the terrible pain of loss, and things being unsaid, and unresolved. The land of regret is a terrible place. He knows the right moment for you and your loved one to reconcile. Bye. 🙌

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:..” Ecclesiastes 3:1a.