Worship

P 2853 Be real.

/ DVH

Hi! You know, there are times that we like to quote the verse “with God all things are possible …” especially when we need the Lord to do something impossible on our behalf! Being real means we see Him change impossible things in our lives, every single day. Yet, most of the time, we merrily roll along ignoring change, hoping the guy who annoys us will change instead! We only drag out our faith first thing in the morning and last thing at night, as well as on Sundays, and maybe for prayer meetings. OR we crank it up for those desperate times when the emergency bell is clanging away in our lives, and something has happened that we can’t fix!

Ticking off spiritual boxes is a way to appear to be spiritual. Many Christians seem to be totally unaware that we are knee-deep in practising living with the appearance of goodness – without embracing the substance of the kind of change that will transform us. And consequently, we affect the lives of every one else around us. Unfortunately living like that is like a great looking apple that’s been in the cool store too long. On the outside it looks fine but inside it is all brown and inedible. Real fruit is startling in its sweetness with every bite.

We can get by with hiding our faults from other people by going to church regularly, giving to the poor, never swearing, always being seen to do the right thing … but the truth is …if what we are doing is not coming from our hearts, then we actually need the kind of repentance that is followed up by change — not play-acting. Here’s an astonishing and amazing thought: GOD LOVED US WHEN WE WERE YET SINNERS! Pretending, or keeping up appearances, is a waste of whatever precious time we actually have on this earth. His love will never withdraw from us – actually most of the time, we withdraw from Him. Humbly admitting our faults to each other clears up the idea that we are somehow perfect. It is a much safer place to stand.

My point for today is that we always need to be real. Let’s not live our lives pretending to be something we aren’t just so we can fit in. Be yourself, warts and all. Let the One Who has changed men and women’s hearts since the dawn of time operate on your heart. One of the most valuable graces we can embrace – besides repentance, and obedience – is honesty with ourselves. The truth is, we don’t have to be afraid of sin anymore, because Jesus paid it all! So now there is no reason to hide. Hiding from His love is counterproductive – the power for us to change comes through receiving His unconditional love and forgiveness, and then giving it away to others. If we hide we short-circuit this process.

Today I want to briefly look at a woman who threw herself down on the floor at Jesus’ feet, at a dinner party. To start with – she wasn’t invited! And for her efforts the rest of the crowd judged her, plus they judged the Lord as well! But like I said before – HE looks at hearts! “She has been forgiven of all her many sins. This is why she has shown me such extravagant love. But those who assume they have very little to be forgiven will love me very little.”” Luke 7:47 TPT. The result of diminishing our sin is this: we miss out on understanding how much love HE gives us and how much worship He deserves!


Dismissing sin’s very real consequences produces ongoing bad results. To start with, we lose gratefulness. This dear woman did not care what others thought, she knew she needed to be right with God more than she needed their approval! She poured out all she had on His feet in repentance, and total adoration. And the Lord saw her and received her. Her honesty gained her an audience with the King and a chance to worship Him. Who doesn’t want that?

Here’s something I have learnt, over the years … Instead of spewing out my anger or withdrawing from people who hurt me …kindness, mercy and forgiveness opens amazing unseen new doors. Those doors lead to refreshing changes, and deeper relationships. Instead of minimising our faults, and accenting someone else’s sins against us – releasing loving forgiveness takes us out of any hot-headed drama and puts us squarely back into His kingdom.

It will cost us, of course. Worthwhile things are costly – just like that alabaster box. But our transformed attitudes in those moments become like that perfume that was released to the Lord. Jesus is not concerned with sin anymore – now He wants us all to move on into the freedom that flourishes in His Father’s kingdom. When I set you free, I get freedom too, whether you pick up your share or not! Learning to be real about who we are, plus who we are not —removes the weights and burdens we’ve tied on ourselves.

“Those whom the Son has set free, shall be free indeed.” These people will be free to enjoy who God made them to be. We can pick up a lot of dumb stuff in this life, and some of it comes from when we are too tiny to block it out. Let God Himself heal you and reveal how He sees you. Learn to be real. Nobody else can do YOU like YOU can! Bye. 👋

P 2851 Fruitless, but they didn’t know it.

/ DVH

Mark 11:11-17: “Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then He said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And His disciples heard Him say it.

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as He taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

The Lord once had a problem with a fruitless fig tree when he was hungry – He cursed its fruitlessness and moved on. And He and the disciples walked into the temple, where He became angry with the money changers etc. who were working in the temple courts. Those buyers and sellers were there out of necessity, to facilitate people’s sacrificial offerings  … but sadly they were doing what they did, purely to make a profit, not as an act of service to the community around them. Our perception of why we are here matters. Let’s always remember, we carry Love Himself with us everywhere we go. 

Today it struck me that the fig tree in this scripture is a spiritual example of the state of that temple back there in Jerusalem. Just like the empty fig tree, the temple itself was not bearing any fruit suitable for the place that was operating as God’s house. The temple was designed to be a place of prayer and worship not a market. Those money changers, animal and bird sellers etc. were supposed to be there to facilitate other people’s repentance and reconciliation before God – not to make a profit. 

The temple was established to be God’s house filled with the prayers of His people. And those now running it had made it all about gain. This clearly shows us that the intention of our hearts matters. The fruit of this activity did nothing but line pockets, and it cheated people who simply wanted to worship God. Just like the fig tree those merchants were producing nothing that people could spiritually eat. Or, even worse, they were taking advantage of the sincere participants. What they were doing appeared good, but just like that fig tree with lots of leaves – there was no fruit.

The buyers and sellers made it a costly hardship for ordinary people to get to God’s Grace. Well, there’s a huge warning right there! It seems to me that what enraged the Lord Jesus when He went inside was that people were making money off other people’s spiritual needs. Yet God had provided that temple for anyone and everyone. Even the desperate sinners and poor need a safe place to repent and worship! So that haggling had to go!

When the disciples saw the dead fig tree the next day they were astonished. Incredibly, Jesus turned that whole incident into a lesson about faith and how it works. Faith is meant to be productive – and bring us closer to God. It feeds our spiritual man. What the Lord taught constantly showed us was how to live by faith – what that looks like. He consistently used ordinary everyday illustrations to show us faith as a part of our everyday lives.  And on that particular day He was enraged about people taking advantage of others and their very real spiritual needs. 

God’s house is no longer a building, His home is now human hearts — Jesus Himself died to complete that transaction for us. The only things that can get in the way of our faith and spiritual development are our choices. We must choose to believe what Christ told us, and go on to live this life relying upon Him, every single day. We are not simply servants of the Lord. Now, today, at this very moment, we carry our King wherever we go. That ought to make us stop and think about where we are going, what we are doing and why! It would be tragic if, like the money lenders etc. we miss the point of what we are here to do.

There are times when we can easily end up running about raising money for this and that to improve the look of the building we use Sunday by Sunday. But sadly, the people who worship in that building sometimes remain vastly unchanged, simply because we are prioritising material things. The state of each of our hearts matters. His people can worship Him in a swamp or a wilderness, because we are now His temple as we gather together. Our aim is to be fruitful and feed people – unlike that fig tree!

It seems to me that sometimes we still regard a building as God’s house! Instead we need to pay attention to the needs of the people inside the building who are in reality, His house now. We glibly say: “My heart – His home,” and yet we act like God’s requirements are met within bricks and mortar. My final thought is this, nobody wants to be found fruitless when Jesus comes to do His fruit inspection! “… However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [this kind of persistent] faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8b. Let us never settle for tasks, let’s press on for a faith-filled fruitful life. Bye. 👋

P 2843 Do yourself a favour.

/ DVH

Proverbs 8:32-36 “Now then, My children, listen to Me; blessed are those who keep My ways. Listen to My instruction and be wise;  do not disregard it. Blessed are those who listen to Me, watching daily at My doors, waiting at My doorway. For those who find Me find life and receive favour from the Lord. But those who fail to find Me harm themselves; …”Proverbs 17:16 “What’s this? Fools out shopping for wisdom! They wouldn’t recognize it if they saw it!” … It’s in the book!

We need to show the Lord we value everything He gives us by the way we live, loving Him, others, and applying His wisdom. People rush here and there looking for that thing and this thing to ease their pain, when the answer to everything is in the Wisdom and Love of God. Humanity has learnt to value our own knowledge above His wisdom, that fact is our very great personal loss! 

The thing I want to say over and over again regarding the Lord’s wisdom is that God’s love language is time, followed up by obedience. It doesn’t have to be hours, but we must cultivate our hearts to be listening hearts. Our life-motto needs to be this – don’t go anywhere or do anything without Him!  We choose to daily get filled, so we can spill whatever He gives us … onto other people – His wisdom is for sharing.

This means continually being filled up with His Wisdom, and then we give it away to others … however He says to do it. Wisdom means taking the time to listen for His heart, and that takes patience as we wait for Him to speak – we need a heart that wants to learn and change. A heart that runs daily after Him. Waiting for God to speak is true wisdom. Sometimes I read the same verse in about 6 different versions before I finally get to “OH! I see!”

The people who live all around us don’t understand these things, they don’t have a clue that they are harming themselves, because they don’t know any better. They think we worship a theory – one theory amongst many! Simply because everybody else around them lives without any faith. satan has snuck in a new normal. People don’t know anything else, because Christianity has spent a lot of our time telling them what not to do, and very little about WHO they need to meet. Many people have no clue that Christianity is about a Person, not just a set of impossible rules. This is why we need to carry His Presence with us everywhere we go. – He wants to be with us!

When we pray and read His book, we are interacting with a Holy Person, not a legal document. That Person knows exactly what every single human being needs to hear. This means when we search for and seek His Wisdom, we are going after Him. Read the Gospels carefully, and watch how Christ Himself interacts with people. He is our primary example of how Christianity works. He spent quality time with His Father on purpose, and then He knew exactly what to say and do for each person. He treated people as an individuals, not just a succession of tasks to be done or sins to be sorted out. 

Did ya get the whole ‘don’t disregard His instructions’ bit in that scripture above? When we disregard what He says, we are tuning out from His frequency. True Godly wisdom listens and obeys. Otherwise we are literally saying: “Talk to the hand, the ears aren’t listening.” And then we complain that: ‘God never speaks to me’ — when He could easily say to us: “You are not listening to Me!”  And at the risk of repeating myself, endlessly! … we have a whole book of what He has said to keep us busy.

Living out even one of the gospels could keep us busy for years! I urge us all to tell Him that we are here to spend time with Him, because we really really really want to know what He thinks. That’s what wisdom looks like. It looks a lot like depending on every single word that comes out of His mouth. Father God doesn’t throw His pearls in front of pigs – that’s in the book too – just in case you think I am being insulting. Pigs rummage about in the mud and dirt looking for whatever they can find. Pigs may be smart but they are not even remotely discerning, they eat anything. 

God’s Word is the treasure buried in a field that some smart guy sold everything he had to buy. Don’t skim and skip, instead, read His book like a love letter to you. When it reveals something you are doing wrong, thank Him for telling you, and for valuing your relationship with Him so much that He told you what you needed to know. He never accuses us. That’s the other guy. Father God reveals His word to us so we can be transformed.“As silver in a crucible and gold in a pan, “so our lives are refined by God.” Proverbs 17:3. Our negative experiences are a part of His refining processes. Everything is Father filtered – He never takes His eyes off us.

His wisdom is our treasure. Anyone that takes the time to unwrap and uncover that treasure and buy that treasure with their time spent, will find even bigger revelations inside it than they can imagine. I urge you not to dismiss what you read, by saying, “I know that bit …” Wisdom is available to everyone, it simply needs to be our treasure, not an optional extra.  Bye 👋

P 2810 Discipline is not a bad word.

/ DVH

I wanted to call this blog:“What can you do when life whacks you around the ear-hole?” But then I thought: “Nah! That’s too long for a title.” Bad things have been happening at our house – as well as in our immediate family, and to people we love dearly. This stuff has been going on for weeks, sometimes it feels like forever!  It seems like we are being water-boarded by circumstances! We’ve barely had time to take a breath –  it’s like ‘whack a mole!’  

The latest jolt at our house was my 97 year old Mum being carted off to hospital with chest pains. There ought to be a law against getting difficult news before 7.00am! My mother is fine – she’s still very old – but she’s fine! I had to repent for not trusting the Lord to take care of her. You know when life overwhelms me, and it really does, there are times I have to crawl into the throne room to worship Him. I’m not looking for pity, BTW, we all have things going on that stretch us further than we want to go. 

Actually, apart from the actual circumstances — it’s my response to them that turns things upside down. I have come to love 💕 this scripture. “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil” Ephesians 4:26-27. Did ya get that? The bible says it in black and white … it is my all-time fav book, and – it gives me permission to be angry – temporarily! Of course that permission comes with a caveat … don’t sin. Fix bad stuff before the sun falls out of the sky. I guess that means whacking people around the ear-hole is out… sigh. But still … it is not a sin to be angry … BUT it IS a sin to let it go on and on and on, for DAYS, without fixing it.

Lately, as I have mentioned before, I have had to avoid the news. It makes me shouting-at-the-TV-mad! And I can’t even hold onto the mad … I have to get rid of it before night comes!!  I came from an era that believed when kids were naughty or rude you smacked them … not round the ear-hole … just on the padded bit that we all sit on. This whole no smacking kid’s policy is at war with the bible … read Proverbs and hang on to your hosiery… otherwise you just might end up fighting HIS system. 

Where I live 12-14 year old kids, boys and girls, are pinching other people’s cars, bashing up old people, disrespecting the law, and carrying knives and guns. Yeah! I rest my case! BTW, I live in a quiet suburb in a reasonably quiet city. It’s not the location that matters, it is the lack of discipline in the home. We are going to live to regret the new-age idea that children are born blameless. That’s not what the book says.

As a little child I lived in one of the worst suburbs for crime … two of my childhood friends tried to burn their mum’s shop down. Crime bosses walked down the street, and if you were unfortunate enough to meet them, you looked at the ground and said ‘hello’  and hoped they didn’t know where you lived. You also said SIR because you didn’t want to annoy them.  

Consequently, I can get really angry about the lack of discipline everywhere today, because it’s ungodly. Read the book! These poor greedy kids will end up in prison – all because discipline was a distasteful word to their parents. Any bird brain knows that people should not beat their kids up, but a well placed smack on the seat of learning can help little brains realise they don’t rule the world. Start young. You won’t catch them when they get into their teens, they can out-talk and out-run you.

Changing the subject slightly – here’s a great verse that can easily get stuck in anyone’s throat: “For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.” Hebrews 12:6. And here’s another one — but this one is guaranteed to bring a huge lump into your throat if you think on it.“Then Pilate took Jesus and had Him scourged.” John 19:1. I think this shows us clearly that Almighty God did not spare His only One-of-a-kind Son– so telling yourself that God will make an exception for you …  ! Well, you do the sum.

It also means that His discipline in our lives shows us that we are cherished by Him. Now ain’t that a rare and precious new thought!! I keep telling people that His ways are not our ways …BTW, did ya get the “everyone” bit in that Hebrew’s verse – no exceptions – not even JESUS! I understand that nobody likes discipline. It hurts. But it is necessary, because we can easily end up going the wrong way.

We must learn to resist the devil and persist in doing good while we still have the opportunity. Be-cau-se we need to be … “making the very most of (y)our time [on earth, recognising and taking advantage of each opportunity and using it with wisdom and diligence], because the days are [filled with] evil.” Ephesians 5:16. Discipline is not a bad word. Bye!👋

P 2809 Keep pressing on!

/ DVH

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39. The Apostle Paul really had a handle on something that we need to pick up and wear as a permanent garment! Nothing can take us away from the Love of God. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. His love has been freely given to us, because of what Jesus Himself chose to do for us.

Real love gets down in the dirt … then it writes something in that dirt that shames everybody else present. The people who are standing there, waiting to throw rocks at someone else! Jesus did that. Love dismisses the naysayers and critics because its source is from the sternest, boldest, most magnificent, strongest place of all. The throne of God Himself. The life, death, and resurrection of Christ, plus the infilling of the Holy Spirit, has made that kind of strong, powerful love, available to us.

So why don’t we have it? I mean seriously… we both know we don’t!  All we need is a hard couple of days and love leaks out of us like we are a sieve, and we end up wondering what we did to deserve this next heartache. Sadly I think sometimes we settle for a NICE attitude and hope that will do. Nice and pleasant seem easier …it means  we can make up a bunch of rules and stick with them, and after a while ‘nice’ becomes a habit which seems like love … until it is severely pushed by life’s circumstances!

God’s love on the other hand, in difficult times, can seem a bit ethereal. We need to walk with the Holy Spirit minute by minute to know what His thoughts on love look like. I do know His love is about way more than feelings. It means I give Him my trust and obedience, and I choose to follow His instructions no matter if my world is collapsing around me. I probably won’t end up responding the same way in every single situation – even if those situations are identical. People and their needs are not identical. 

And the Holy Spirit dearly loves people! Every single time He gets an opportunity, He sweeps them up into His arms and loves on them. It’s His all time favourite thing to do. That’s why He lovingly heals, delivers, and gives each one of us wisdom and insight when we ask for it. It’s because He deeply loves people. He is intimately involved in the things that concern us. He knows exactly what we need and why, He also knows when we need it. Plus He knows what is not good for us. My immediate response when things go bad is to want to escape from the bad … like yesterday!! But I know with His help, I can learn to live His way.

In this busy life it is too easy to forget that Jesus is our role model. I bet He would have wanted to come down from that cross from the very second He was nailed to it!  The pain would be excruciating!!  He is God – He had options! He could have come off it at any second, But He chose the painful way of obedience. God’s love is accessed by faith and it operates through our deliberate, intentional choices. His love actually makes hard, unpleasant choices. It is not weak, it constrains us to push toward good. 

His Love also chooses to love people who simply don’t deserve our approval, let alone our begrudging affections! How we feel fades into the background, when we choose to learn to walk in Love, because what He wants is far more important to us … and that takes over. We are no longer limited into escaping from pain – instead we understand that pain often speaks the loudest. TIME is also factor in our personal growth.“There’s a time for every purpose under heaven …”

Here’s another great scripture: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”Galatians 4:4-7. God’s timing is perfect…we need to gird up our loins and wrestle our feelings of desertion and not being loved by Him, into submission. Praying, reading the bible, joining in with fellowship — all these things give us courage to continue under pressure.   Each one of us, despite our personal feelings, were born again to be His Sons and Daughters — and we all know that sons and daughters have responsibilities!

I’ve found this helpful, when I have prayed the same prayer 100 times and there appears to be no answer — I start asking the Lord to show me what HE wants. He and I could be experiencing a conflict of interest, and as His interest is more important than mine … I may need to talk to Him about it. Always bearing in mind that He is not with us to serve us – we serve Him. His disciples died serving God’s plan. That means they put their own interests in this life to one side, and had a completely different life than the one they had planned for themselves. 

The glorious thing about this arrangement is that we will actually fall more deeply in love with the Lord as we watch Him at work in our lives – or even in someone else’s life. His love is REAL – we need to keep pressing on to experience it as a part of our daily lives.It is not a doctrine or a theory. It is worth living and dying for – Jesus thought so. Bye. 👋

P 2767 God’s incredible faithfulness.

/ DVH

Nehemiah 9 some excerpts from Verses 18-23, 26-31— this was read aloud by a group of Levites after the wall around Jerusalem was rebuilt and the conviction of the Holy Spirit fell upon them.

“… And You, a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, Incredibly patient, with tons of love—You didn’t dump them. Yes, even when they cast a sculpted calf and said, “This is your god who brought you out of Egypt,” and continued from bad to worse, You in your amazing compassion didn’t walk off and leave them in the desert. The Pillar of Cloud didn’t leave them;  daily it continued to show them their route; The Pillar of Fire did the same by night, showed them the right way to go.You gave them Your good Spirit to teach them to live wisely…”

“…They cried out to You again; in Your great compassion You heard and helped them again. This went on over and over and over…” “…Still, because of Your great compassion, You didn’t make a total end to them. You didn’t walk out and leave them for good;  yes, You are a God of grace and compassion…” “…You are not to blame for all that has come down on us; You did everything right we did everything wrong.”

Romans 8:32 “He Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.”

You and I are a part of God’s story on this earth. We have been chosen to show others His heart toward mankind.Because our lives are limited, time-wise, it is extremely tempting to think more about our own story, than His story. But God’s story is the one we will sing about one day in heaven. When we understand that our lives are part of that story – we will begin to live in God’s bigger picture. Christ died to give us the power to live free of the junk that this world chucks at us.

Those people who have already gone on before us are cheering us on. You and I are now the ones writing His story today –  right here, right now – everywhere we go. Almighty God is so faithful to mankind, His book glows with His faithfulness and compassion toward all of us. We have been so blessed, everything we have is a gift from Him – all of it is so undeserved. Our only response is to give Him our lives, and live this life as living worship for His glory.

Do you think you are faithful to Him? I know He sees the way we treat others … but before either one of us hangs our head in shame about our failures … here’s an incredible scripture to also think about.  Many people have failed Him throughout time, however — “If we are faithless [do not believe and are untrue to Him], HE REMAINS TRUE (faithful to His Word and His righteous character), for HE cannot deny Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13. We are standing, now, today, on what Jesus did. That cannot change. What He did will never change. It is more stable than the ground under our feet. This world may shake and tremble but the Lord said this: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.”

Because we count on Jesus, and Him alone to save us, we can have enormous security. Alive or dead – His words are so firm, so strong, so true, we can stand without fear upon them, because we know He is faithful. That’s why we need to choose to live by faith in this life. When we live by faith we are simply responding to His faithfulness. We are responding to a debt that we owe, that we can never repay but we can enjoy it, day after day after day!

God is so incredibly faithful He will not give up on even one of His kids. I’ve been praying for three prodigals in our family to come home to Jesus. But it won’t be my prayers that change their minds! My intercession is valuable, it helps me stay in love and not judgment – but Christ’s death and intercession changed eternity … for everyone, now and forever!! I exhort you to stand on that and pray from that place! I hold His faithfulness up to Him like a banner and remind Him about the things I have learnt about Him. Christ died for what He believed. Now I live for Him in response to what He already did.

I put the above excerpt from Nehemiah in the blog today because it shows the incredible, over-the-top kind of commitment Father God has toward His kids. It blew my mind! The Israelites were so terribly unfaithful, but our God stands by His word. And He doesn’t just sort-of-kind-of put-up with all us now either  — He totally removed the sin barrier between us and Himself, at incredible personal cost. Now we can get to know Him, personally, intimately even though we will never deserve it. He wants to be near us.

That’s why we no longer live this life as the unwise do. Instead we’ve learnt to cherish what we have been given. Christians seek to treat other people like they are Jesus, whether they are nice or not …it’s part of the life of God we inherited. And when we don’t or feel we can’t live that way – we repent!  We treat reconciliation the same way Christ treated it – He did not come to earth and pretend to take our sins away – He simply prayed like mad and went and did it.

Because He chose to do that, God’s power to overcome evil in this life has been released into the earth to save all mankind. We cannot afford to keep other people captive by pretending to be nice, or smiling with plastic smiles and fake attitudes, or insisting that we are OK, when we know, deep inside, we are not! That’s not faithfulness toward Him, that’s called self-preservation.

You and I have the power to live sacrificially, as a son or daughter of the Most High God. He is worthy of any sacrifices we might make along the way. His compassion, and reliability, His goodness, His trustworthy heart are so patient and kind. We are the ones who know, firsthand, that we don’t deserve any of it. Jesus continually stands faithfully beside His Father praying for each one of us, because He knows what it is like to be human.

We live this life choosing to tell other people about God’s faithfulness in a world that is overflowing with disobedient, imperfect, unkind, unloving people – even greedy, grabby, deceitful, murderous ones. His faithfulness is our great blessing.  Bye 👋

P 2759 🎼🎶 I’m walking with Jesus …

/ DVH

…walking all the way, walking every day. I’m walking with Jesus, walking with Him alone.🎶”  No! You have not tuned into Children’s Church, kindergarten class – it’s still me, writing today’s blog. Jesus left this earth but He sent back the Person Who helped Him with this life – THE RESIDENT EXPERT. When I walk with the Holy Spirit, it is the same as walking with Jesus, just like the disciples did way back when.

Living this life dead means we will suffer. When we make the choice to follow Him, it will hurt me, because it will uncover my selfishness, my agendas, my unwillingness to live this life not being in charge of the things I do. The Holy Spirit isn’t with us just to help us do what we want to do – He was sent to us to help us do what JESUS wants us to do! He is, without a doubt, the most undervalued, underestimated Person in the whole bible. Learn to value Him! Learn how He speaks to you. I often find that I have to listen very carefully, I have to pay attention to Him.

There are times I get so tied up in my own stuff – the day to day things that cloud my hearing – that I end up centred on what this world is saying. So I repent.  Recently I asked Him about something that is going on in this world today that really scares me – He simply said: “I am not bothered about that.” Now, I have His word on that matter so whenever it comes up, I simply remind myself about what He said. If you want a scripture for that…”In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”John 16:33b. BTW I didn’t choose that verse, even though I remember it, He reminded me of it.

Editing my blog every day can be difficult sometimes, I actually have three editors. My hubby edits it, then I read it and edit it until I’m thoroughly sick of it, and then — the Lord edits it … He is incredibly specific about the way He wants me to write things but that’s not to say I think I always get it right, BTW!  Part of my daily walking with Him includes me talking to you. He wants all of us to understand that this life we are now leading we live by faith in the Son of God …“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.

I pray all the time as I walk with Him. I’ve done this since I was born again. I just talk to Him as I go along. I wouldn’t call it “praying without ceasing” because that seems much too grand for the likes of me!  But I consult Him about absolutely everything, as I go about my day. We do stuff TOGETHER. As I live like this, I’ve learnt that He will go anywhere — HE even went to hell for me! And I’m so-oo-oo much better off when I listen to His advice. He has my back and He is brilliant at it. The Holy Spirit is so real to me, simply because I walk with Him. I’ve studied Him, loads of times. When I get out of His way – HE works everything out for everyone’s good. But He defines GOOD – we don’t!

You and I have a Helper, Who lives inside us. He walks with us, He will guide us, teach us, show us the way we should go. This means that every single day I present my body to Him as a living sacrifice. The bible says: “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…” Romans 12:1&2a. 

Did you get that? There’s a way to worship God and not have to sing!! Singing on the train or at work might be kind of misunderstood. But this kind of surrendered worship is called the true way to worship. Do you want to worship God every minute of every day? Yield. Then present your body to Him. When it’s the easy thing to do, and when it’s not. Even when someone is jumping on your last nerve. When you have forgotten Him and then you remember. When you are busy, or not, when you are sleeping… or not. He is always with you. 

The truth of His Presence with us is in Hebrews 13:5:“Let our character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with our present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! Assuredly not!]”

This verse contains three times, very clearly, God’s intention toward His kids. It also has a condition – don’t let the love of money rule your life. One of the ways I’ve found that helps me to meet that condition is to continually look at what He has given me, not at what I think I don’t have. If we want to walk with Jesus, every moment of our lives, we must devote ourselves to learning, from our own experience, what that looks like. No-one else can do that for you.

Bye. 👋

P 2749 Don’t settle for less than on fire!

/ DVH

I’ve been listening to a number of different things lately, all made possible by YouTube. I discovered Project of Love this morning. It consists of verses from the bible in spontaneous song. Featuring books like Isaiah, Psalms, Habakkuk, Mark, and many more – about 22 so far, and these Scriptures set to music are accompanied by the really powerful images. It was a breath of fresh air.  Xander, the guitar playing singer, heard the Lord tell Him to pick up his guitar and sing what He was reading from Isaiah.

At that time, Xander did not know God, and he had been deeply depressed, he was on suicide watch. He was saved on the spot! After watching this man’s joy in action it really convicted me that it is easy to get stuck in the ways of the past. In the days to come I think that the Lord will bring out some extraordinary gifts from ordinary people, in whatever He is going to do next. Meanwhile, maybe we’ve made worship or teaching about having musically experienced leaders, and competent musicians. In other words we look for the people with the best voices or those who have been trained. But we sing to help US focus and to bless His heart. Ephesians 5:19 – “Speaking to yourselves, in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” 

This thought meant that I asked myself some questions …  why should worship be about the sound, and not our hearts? The danger for all of us who know exactly what to say and do, is that worship can become a routine, and everything is left to the leader out the front. Yet I think we could see a day when the Lord might take members of society that the church would reject, or maybe pass over, because they don’t meet some sort of ‘ministry’ standard. He wants them contribute.

Personally, I believe God is going to gift some people in extraordinary ways, like our friend Xander! But because the people outside our churches are ‘unchurched’ they will not have the inbuilt agendas most of us cheerfully adhere to. 

Sometimes it seems that the church at large has accepted fear as a subtext, accidentally. It seems that we are afraid of wandering off into error. However, that’s when we can unfortunately trample on the very gifts God wants to raise up! It is much too easy for us to get stuck in the way that things have always worked in the past.

Here’s a thought: … muscles are developed when they are gently but regularly stretched. Maybe the Body of Christ needs to do some heavenly stretching! Is our collective faith big enough for what He wants to do next? Our trust in His ability to care for us in any circumstance, seems to have given way to the fear of making mistakes or being misled by enthusiasm. Are we settling for the known and the comfortable, the routine and predictable, because those things are regarded as being normal and controllable. Our God is bigger than that. When Jesus came into this world, He challenged the norm by His very Presence!

Does our preaching and teaching rely more on expertise and knowledge than passion? I heard someone preach the other day and they were all over the place like jam, and yet they still managed to challenge me! Is strict adherence to conformity the very reason the church has settled into separate denominations? In many churches we go along with the same old same old, because somebody more senior and knowledgeable in God sets the rules and now we just blindly follow them. Maybe this is why some people continually hop about changing churches like the pop-up moles in Whack-a-Mole? Perhaps we are shopping around for churches that make us comfortable? Who are we here for again?? HIM or us?

We all know that I’m not the biggest fan of jumping around between churches –  yet in my denomination that seems to be almost expected, as well as accepted. But it is extremely important to remember that the Lord will choose the setting He wants to place us in. A new church is not like choosing a new shirt – for us to reach our full potential we need to rub up against people who are going to annoy the living daylights out of us! If we choose our comfort over His opportunities for our growth – we will stay babies and toddlers. 

Growth occurs as we discover our own hearts have deceived us and we are convicted by our sinfulness. So, do we  avoid change because it is inconvenient or we don’t like it, or we don’t think it is necessary? Maybe we even know we are stuck but we keep waiting for the Lord to turn up and fix the mess we’ve made?  Our job is to repent, and work with the Holy Spirit — to challenge ourselves and face up to the things we don’t like. Then we need to prayerfully revise our attitudes. Change is not just agreeing with the bible, change is when we look like Jesus and act like He would.

As Christians we cannot afford to settle for anything less than being on fire! Let’s reject the comfortable same-old same-old status quo, and press in to make sure we please His heart as well as continually press in to expand our love for Him. Bye.👋

“Don’t you realize that together you have become God’s inner sanctuary and that the Spirit of God makes His permanent home in you?” 1Corinthians 3:16 TPT

P 2741 Some suggestions.

/ DVH

Just to round out what I wrote yesterday, I wanted to talk about what we can actually take with us into the secret place —-NOTHING! We cannot take anything with us into this place. Our troubles, cares, woes, our sins, other people’s sins against us, all those things need to be dealt with as they occur, or as the word of God convicts us. Glory to God we have the blood of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit’s help with our repentance, and reparation. He will uncover our selfish, sinful ways! I have written some suggestions today to help anyone who needs some guidelines for walking with Him in their daily life. That is all they are …suggestions. 

I often pray the scriptures for myself. “Keep creating in me a clean heart. Fill me with pure thoughts and holy desires, ready to please You.” Psalms 51:10 TPT. I love the ongoing tense of this version. I can’t, by myself, manage to achieve this stuff, because I fall over, all the time. I get grumpy wa-ay too many times, and I want my own way because it seems far more convenient, so I need to ask the Holy Spirit to help me – over and over again.

To me, praying scriptures like this is useful. Here’s another great one to focus on: “Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell Him every detail of your life,”Philippians 4:6 TPT. I ask the Holy Spirit to show me my heart, and reveal my sin – your sin, anyone’s sin(!) and I deliberately and permanently forgive everyone – including ME. 

We aren’t just rubbing our noses in our sins, BTW, instead when we go to read the Word with the Holy Spirit’s help, we are washed and cleansed by the water of the Word. Then our hearts are ready to hear whatever He wants to tell us for today. My advice is always read the bible, looking for stuff to do, ready to receive today’s instructions. At the same time, I ask the Holy Spirit as I read, “do I do this?’ I look carefully for clues about what Almighty God loves, what He hates, and what the bible shows me about His ways and I take those things on board.

Next I pray about my peace. I can lose it in the impatience and argy-bargy of every day life. Wherever we have left our peace we need to go and get it and repent of losing it in the first place!  it is of no use to blame others – losing our peace is a sign that we valued something else above being with Him. We are peace-makers and you can’t make peace unless you have it in the first place and you know what it looks like!

Philippians 4 Verses 4-7. These verses, among many others, show us how to get our peace back. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again:Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Wise advice.

So I hand everything I am struggling with over to Him and thank Him for His peace. And then I focus on spending time with Him, expressing gratitude for Who He is and all He has done for me, and what He has given me. Most people underestimate the value of gratitude and worship – it lifts our spirits and helps us to focus ‘on the things that are above.’  Worship is about reminding ourselves of His great worth. I give Him all of me, every single day. “Presenting our bodies …” sacrificially, is another form of worship. All sorts of nasty stuff can simply fall off when we worship, and it helps us focus on Him.

The bible tells us that:“…in His Presence there is fullness of joy.” Psalm 16:11. So if you and I want joy we need to just BE with the Lord. This joy in us grows as we give our time, on purpose – to Him. However, there are days when the Lord has other ideas about our time together, and then I do whatever He says to do, because I’m not locked in to a system … they don’t hold water. I need His water and His fresh bread, every day, it is like my life blood. Ticking off prayer and bible study, repentance, etc. as a completed task, is a fruitless empty action. We need to let the Holy Spirit take our hands and guide us into an ongoing deeper relationship with God, by letting Him take control.

One of the best parts of walking with the Holy Spirit is that He knows what is going to happen today, and He will walk me around any relationship pot-holes and stop me from running into the often on-coming traffic of this life! All I need to do is cultivate a relationship with Him, and take note of what He likes and what He doesn’t – and keep right on listening and obeying.  The secret place is not a secret club for a few special individuals who have somehow been blessed more than you and I.  ‘Whosoever will may come.’   Bye for today, I hope these few suggestions are helpful to someone. 👋

P 2737 Wound management.

/ DVH

Resentment is like dirt in an open wound. The wound may close, but we our healing is circumvented because there is still bacteria inside. I just want to mention that the wound or the bacteria may not be our fault, it may have come from somewhere else, or even somebody else. But it’s what we do with that wound now we have it, that matters. Ignoring it, or even peering at it, poking it, and making sure it is still sore, will not promote healing.  

Healing comes from thoroughly cleaning out wounds  – with some sort of disinfectant. So it is going to sting! Then we apply soothing ointment, and cover that injury with the same blood we are covered in. Our ointment comes from the Presence of the Holy Spirit – He knows how to soothe every sore place. After dealing with it, we can leave the wound to repair itself, and get on with our lives.

Resentment will often remind us that we didn’t get what we asked for – because it loves to keep accounts of wrongs. Remember 1 Corinthians 13? “…Love keeps NO record of wrongs!” Resentment will take us out of love and chuck us into a side eddy, going round and round. It can swing our spiritual lives so we are now collecting bad dead stuff. It won’t let anything good in, but it twists and turns and shades our overall POV. Then it flings all that dead stuff out into the main stream to anybody who will stand still and listen, leading to gossip. This devilish trait will never satisfy us because it doesn’t produce anything but more suffering. And like a germ in a wound it leaves even more pus in its wake!

Human beings want INSTANT answers — but Almighty God loves constantly progressing relationships! This trait must be fostered by making painful choices. We deliberately leave behind the things that caused a wound and jump back into the fresh living water of the RIVER of God. Doing this optimises our healing. Our feelings can be overrated because they are often fed by stagnant water … plus they are addictive.

Father God wants a loving functioning relationship with each one of us – He lost everything He cherished through our forebears’ deliberate disobedience in the garden. Remember, man was made in His image – we are designed to be like Him, inside and out. The Lord Himself, plus Adam and Eve, all had sweet fellowship together in the cool of the evening – every single night! Right now, He is looking for sons and daughters, who will pay the price to walk with Him again. 

That means we will have to give up any and all hidden resentments, because those things can become an occupational enemy! The Lord is longing for true fellowship with people who value HIM – not for what He does but for Who He is – people who value Him so much they will lay aside every weight that slows them down. We were saved to walk with Him, daily, in the garden of our hearts. His heart is so BIG He has room for every human being that ever lived. But resentment will subvert His plan to love on us and consume our thoughts instead. 

Our God doesn’t just hand out assignments and stand back, waiting for us to complete them – He wants to come with us! Praise HIM, He will also lend us His glorious expertise, and a fresh POV when He does. The very best thing we can do is to go everywhere with HIM!  However resentment turns our heads and hearts away from what our Heavenly Father loves most  — PEOPLE! It grows in an atmosphere that does not include Him, plus it goes hand in hand with complaining. It narrows down any fresh possibilities so we become trapped in half-truths and animosity.

Resentment is also a thief. It comes knocking at the back door of our hearts supposedly to comfort us. It wants to have a cup of coffee or tea with us and then it will point out all the bad things other people have done to us – so we can sit and stew in them! It tells us it is protecting us from future pain so we must keep those hurtful people at a distance. This thing is an evil accountant and a collector, it will keep track of other people’s wrongs!  It produces the wrong sort of fellowship, including lying and distortion. Like every thief, resentment wants to steal — our hope, our peace, our joy, our worship and voluntary service for our King. That traitor wants to hide in dark corners and snipe at others. The solution is simple – don’t entertain it.

Here are some great scriptures to think on: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”Ephesians 4:29.“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”Ephesians 4:31. “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; …” Hebrews 12:15.

Resentment is best dealt with early, because it has the awful power to reproduce and multiply. So we need to break off any suckers like that springing up in our lives,  like we would break off a plant sucker as it grows on a living tree …Break that thing off at the root. Otherwise it will steal all our joy, hope, and colour in our lives with bleakness, because it produces nothing of any worth. I urge each one of us to become adept at wound management – before any wounds poison our system. Bye 👋