As a minister I believe the only true way to study is to look at verses in the context of which they were written. These HJD messages and the scriptures are done for that purpose. Each verse listed is a link to the whole chapter. Simply click on the verse and you will be taken to the whole chapter for further reading. I chose the translation “The Message” as it is in the language of today so we can relate. I encourage you to study with passion each verse in many translations. Enjoy and I pray this blesses you over and over.
Perry
February 2nd, 2025
Happy Jesus Day!
Love = Joy!
Bird nest’s fascinate me. None more than that of a swallow. Under our carport is a swallow nest that has been there for years. Their nest is so well constructed that it can stay, for years, as a place to return to. They strategically place it somewhere out of the weather. They fasten it to the underside using mud and saliva. No one teaches them this art. As young birds they simply know how to build these amazing nest. As humans we are each born with the love of God in us. We don’t have to be taught how to love we simply know. Love is the energy that sustains the universe. God does not compete with that love instead God works in deep cooperation with everyone who loves. The point of the Christian life is not to distinguish oneself from the ungodly but to stand in radical solidarity with everyone and everything. Isn’t that what Christ was doing on the cross? Isn’t that the kind of love that was planted in us? The cross was God’s great act of solidarity instead of judgement. His greatest act of love. The cross was not about salvation as much as it was about teaching us how to love through sacrifice. Jesus did not come just for salvation. He came to bring out the love that is embedded in our hearts. He came to help us find our way to a life of true love. A life that will bring untold joy. True joy can only be found in love.
I Love You! – Perry
“I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love.
My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God.
He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
He Took on the Status of a Slave
If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.
January 26th, 2025
Happy Jesus Day!
God’s Master Plan!
He told me “you will never find a church like your vision”. I get so dismayed watching what we have turned Jesus’s love into. It’s a show. It’s about this rule or that. This lifestyle or that. When in fact Jesus’s life was about acceptance… compassion. Not condemnation or judgement! Church has become facebook in the flesh. Always putting on a good front in order to impress. Why does religion limit our Savior? When ministers sin or fall short why are they judged? Should they not be forgiven and still be allowed to lead? Why is their sin any different then ours?
I have watched as religion excludes so many of God’s children. Jesus only rejected the religious elite. Those that thought they had no sin. Women for so many years were excluded from using their talents to serve God. When in fact the women that followed Christ were perhaps the most important part of his life. Many of the people that christian churches look down on are the ones Jesus hung out with. As St. Augustine said “What is now called Christian religion existed from the beginning of the human race”. Thank about that! Were Mayans, Babylonians, and Africans, just dress rehearsals for us? Is God really that ineffective? Is Gods love really that scarce? We act as though he needed to wait for Catholics, Protestants, and American evangelicals to appear before his divine love affair could begin. God has been in love with all his children from the very beginning. Fitting into the mold that our churches have developed was never part of his plan.
I Love You! Perry
Peter and the apostles answered, “It’s necessary to obey God rather than men. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, the One you killed by hanging him on a cross. God set him on high at his side, Prince and Savior, to give Israel the gift of a changed life and sins forgiven. And we are witnesses to these things. The Holy Spirit, whom God gives to those who obey him, corroborates every detail.”
The Rescue
All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.
Jesus was abrupt: “Clear out! This girl isn’t dead. She’s sleeping.” They told him he didn’t know what he was talking about. But when Jesus had gotten rid of the crowd, he went in, took the girl’s hand, and pulled her to her feet—alive. The news was soon out, and traveled throughout the region.
“The ten horns you saw are ten kings, but they’re not yet in power. They will come to power with the Scarlet Beast, but won’t last long—a very brief reign. These kings will agree to turn over their power and authority to the Beast. They will go to war against the Lamb but the Lamb will defeat them, proof that he is Lord over all lords, King over all kings, and those with him will be the called, chosen, and faithful.”
“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he’s up to.
But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own.
January 19th, 2025
Happy Jesus Day!
Love And Grace!
Religions see certain people as the enemy. Jesus followers see sin as the enemy. All my life I have listened to preachers speak as though we are in and they are out. They speak of those within the church as being saved and the rest are not. They speak as though its a club and only a few can be found within its walls. I have heard them speak of, this religion is in, and the others are out. Jesus is not loyal to groups, countries, or teams. Jesus is only loyal to human suffering. He is present to the suffering Iraqi soldier as much as he is to the wounded American soldier. He cares as much for Mexico as he does for America. The Jesus nation crosses all boundaries. Jesus came to save everyone: Ephesians 1:9-10 / Colossians 1:15-20 / John 3:17. The gospel can not be worthy of being called “Good News” unless it is “Good News” for all people without exception. The right to decide who is in and who is out is not something our small minds can even imagine. That is why in Matthew Jesus said: “God causes it to rain on the honest and dishonest alike, and the sun to rise on the bad as well as the good” Our dualistic minds have so much trouble defending that. Our ego based way of life wants to believe that we are earning our way to his arms by following rules. Our ego wants to set a boundary, a price, an entrance requirement of some sort. Jesus simply looks to love and grace!
I Love You! Perry
As it is, you are full of your grandiose selves. All such vaunting self-importance is evil. In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it, that, for you, is evil.
I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.
The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.
The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide:
Then he said, “Go into the world. Go everywhere and announce the Message of God’s good news to one and all.
Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role.
January 12th, 2025
Happy Jesus Day!
The Way Of Love!
The question was “what is love exactly”? Love, as an action, is the only thing that has ever changed the world for the better. Love is Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi…. Love is a little girl in Pakistan named Malala Yousafzai standing up to men who said that girls shouldn’t be educated…. Love is someone protesting anything that harms the children of God. Love is a commitment to seek the good and to work for the welfare of others. It doesn’t stop at our front door or our neighborhood, our religion or race, our state or our country’s border. Where selfishness excludes, love makes room. Where selfishness puts down, love lifts up. Where selfishness hurts and harms, love helps and heals. Where selfishness enslaves, love sets free and liberates. I look around me and I don’t see much love in our country. I don’t see others letting someone in front of them. I don’t see others loving people except for friends and family. I even have a friend that can’t bring himself to say “I Love You” because he is afraid others may think he is gay. I worry about those that claim to follow the heart of Christ but can’t express love. The way of love will show us the right thing to do, every single time. It is spiritual grounding—a place of rest—amid the chaos that is often part of life. It’s how we stay decent in indecent times. Loving is not always easy, but like with muscles, we get stronger with repetition and as the burden gets heavier.
I Love You! Perry
Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.
Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what.
Make sure you don’t take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of “sacrifice”—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.
Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.
Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?”
“And so this is good-bye. You’re not going to see me again, nor I you, you whom I have gone among for so long proclaiming the news of God’s inaugurated kingdom. I’ve done my best for you, given you my all, held back nothing of God’s will for you.
We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.
January 5th, 2025
Happy Jesus Day!
Changing Our Paradigm!
A mystic, Caryll Houselander told the story of a train journey where Christ revealed himself to her in every person on the train. Those setting, those standing, those passing by. Upon exiting the train she saw the same in everyone on the street. Scientist have discovered that even in what appears to be total darkness there is still light. “Neutrinos” are slivers of light, or energy, inside each atom. These slivers of light exist in everything in the universe. As I look to the trees I see Christ. As I observe a squirrel Christ is there. As I stand in total darkness Christ is shining. These slivers of light, inside each atom of the universe are the DNA and energy of Christ. So when John in his gospel declared Jesus the “light that even darkness can not over come” he was touching on that which scientist can now clearly see. When we come to that realization why do we continue to act as though Christ is at a far away distance. Why do we pretend that everything we can see, feel, touch, or experience is not holy. Every human being, no matter who, is holy. Every creature, every grain of sand, and every tree is holy. Why do we simply consider only certain things holy when in fact Christ is found at the center of everything. Should we not care for the earth with our whole heart… care for all mankind with our whole heart? Because of the energy of Christ in everything, it means we are bound to all things. Should that not change our paradigm for 2025?
I Love You! – Perry
What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.
In Christ’s Family
In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises.
Cornelius was expecting them and had his relatives and close friends waiting with him. The minute Peter came through the door, Cornelius was up on his feet greeting him—and then down on his face worshiping him!
Walk in the Light
This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him.
You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You’re out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain.
It started when God said, “Light up the darkness!” and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful.
For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment.