From the Heart by B.Demaere

  To Zechariah, John the Baptist' father: Luke 1:13  But the angel said: " Don't be afraid , Zechariah! For God has heard your prayer, and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son!  And you are to name him John..." To Mary, Jesus's mother: Luke 1:28-31  Gabriel appeared to her and said, "Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!"  Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.  " Don't be frightened , Mary" the angel told her, "for God has decided to bless you!  You will become pregnant and have a son, and you are to name him Jesus. To the shepherds Luke 2:9-10 ...They were terribly frightened, but the angel reassured them.  " Don't be afraid ", he said, "I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! First of all, I chose to celebrate Christmas earlier.  After all it's a season of joy and celebration and yet for a lot of people it can mean loneliness and bad memories.  The first ...

  6. ...And if any of them have special skills, put them in charge of my livestock 17. So they gave their livestock to Joseph in exchange for food.  Soon all the horses, flocks, herds, and donkeys of Egypt were in Pharaoh's possession.  But at least they were able to purchase food for that year. (Genesis 47:6,17)   Pharaoh dreamed a dream.  Joseph through a chain of events was now in the land of Egypt.  Joseph interpreted it as meaning seven years of prosperity followed by seven years of famine.   Presently, the predicted seven years of famine had arrived which drew foreigners to Egypt for food.  With time, the Israelites who were the complete family of Jacob were through God's plan in Egypt.  They were shepherds.  Shepherds were a despised trade among the Egyptians.  Fortunately, for the Israelites not despised enough to be enable them to offer some service to the Pharaoh in exchange for his generosity.  Here was an oppor...

Taking Opportunities (Genesis 47:6,17)

  5. If you need wisdom-- if you want to know what God wants you to do -- ask him, and he will gladly  tell you .  He will not resent your asking.   6. But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer , for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.  7. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  They can't make up their minds.  They waver back and forth in everything they do. (James 1:5-7) Do you believe that wisdom is important?  I find that wisdom is like faith, I can't live without them.  Yesterday, I desperately needed wisdom to prepare that blog on faith.  When you ask, you have to expect an answer and it might not be according to your earthly wisdom.  It will be according to his wisdom.  We are so much into the letter of the law that we miss the Spirit of the law sometimes.  We might argue with God that faith is not like a ...

  Dear brothers and sisters, whenever troubles come your way, let it be an opportunity for joy.  For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything. (James 1:2-4) You need to understand the mechanism of faith and how it functions to accept the testing.  Faith is for me an agreement I have made with God for him to be in control of my fate.  Everything that involves my faith and myself is in His hands.  Whatever he does goes.  This reasoning saves me a lot of headaches.  When he tests my faith, it helps me to do the important thing: To obey by rejoicing through my trials.  I realize though that faith involves actions on my part, but that a different story.  For now, faith is trust. Now, let us all agree that none of us has arrived yet.  I am still learning with this.  But one thing I have found out is th...

  These are the last words of David: David, the man to whom God gave such wonderful success. David, the man anointed by the God of Jacob. David, the sweet psalmist of Israel. (2 Samuel 23:1) First of all, it is virtually impossible to separate David from God in this verse.  There was such a unity between them and an harmony.  David knew that it was God that exalted him or made him successful.  He endured a lot of suffering that no one would know, except that it had been recorded in the Scriptures.  Suffering especially at the hand of Saul and other enemies.  Indeed, no one knows the suffering someone has endured in order to be successful, except God himself.  What do you consider successful?  Being a dad who has a high position with a company?  A husband whose wife spend her time with someone else?  Who and what is success?  Life is certainly more than earning money.  You don't need to be rich to be happy.  There are a lot...

David, the successful man of God (2 Samuel 23:1 NLT)

  "And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for you to kick against the pricks. (Acts 9:5 KJV) Actually, kicking against the goads means to fight against those in authority.  It's not mentioned in this story, but in Paul's conversion story in Chapter 9 of the book of Acts.  Jesus has a rather unusual meeting with him.  In that bright meeting, Paul becomes blind.  In fact, he had been blind all his life as a religious fanatic, but this kind of blindness was extraordinary. Jesus spoke very loud and asked him: " And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for you to kick against the pricks. (Acts 9:5 KJV) Many in the history of mankind have tried to kill the Church or Israel or even the Bible.  Take for instance, the story of Joseph, young son of Jacob in Genesis 37-45.  He had a powerful dream and vision and his brothers wanted to destroy him but ...

Kicking against the pricks (Acts 9:5)