From the Heart by B.Demaere

  So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and the Prophets.  (Matthew 7:12) Are you going to be alright this Christmas?  Christmas should normally be a time of joy and peace.  Let's not kid ourselves though, Christmastime can be a stressful financial time for most people.  A time of great loss related to death and funerals and, family troubles.  Peace on earth might be a far-reaching dream. For many years, having a mental illness was for me like carrying a burden.  Over the years people saw me as another person doing my work.  Now I see people in a different light.  I see them each as a person + burden(s), I try anyway.  This Christmas with Covid-19 and other things, people around you might have lost hope just like you.  Are you selfish?  They don't need someone selfish.  They need someone with hope.  Give them hope! This is why the true Christmas message should be p...

Graceful Christmas (Matthew 7:12)

  1. Then the Lord gave these instructions to Moses: 2. "Tell the Israelites to march toward Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the sea.  Camp there along the shore, opposite Baal-zephon.  3. Then Pharaoh will think , 'Those Israelites are confused.  They are trapped between the wilderness and the sea!'  4. And once again I will harden Pharaoh's heart , and he will chase after you.  I have planned this so I will receive great glory at the expense of Pharaoh and his armies.  After this, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord!"  So the Israelites camped there as they were told. Unquestionably, this must have been one of the hardest challenges for the Israelites.  Another lesson on trust, caught between a rock and a hard place.  Except here, it was between the wilderness and the sea. Seemingly trapped with no place to go.  Ahead of it, God had it all planned, just like he has it always planned in our lives.  He knew what the Pha...

  Luke 19:5  When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name, "Zacchaeus!" he said, "Quick come down! For I must be a guest in your home today." This is the story (Luke 19:1-10), Zacchaeus heard that Jesus was coming into his neighborhood.  Since he was a short man, he figured that he had to climb a tree to be above the crowd.  Zacchaeus was also a wealthy, influential man because he was a Jew working as a tax collector for the Romans.  He also had overcharged   Obviously, this didn't give him a good reputation among his fellow Jewish friend.  He was what they called a sinner. According to common religious beliefs, Jesus shouldn't even have talked to him.  But he did out of love for him.  Jesus looked beyond Zacchaeus's fault as he does with you right now and approached him by name.  How personal is Jesus?  Jesus had just met him a few minutes ago but, in fact he knew him from the beginning like he does, yo...

When a House becomes a Home this Christmas (Luke 19:5) (Luke 19:9-10)

  (This was prophesied by the prophet Isaiah about 800 years before Jesus Christ was born) 6. A child is born to us, a son is given to us.  And the government will rest on his shoulders.  These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7.  His ever expanding peaceful government will never end.  He will rule forever with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David.  The passionate commitment of the Lord Almighty will guarantee this.    (Isaiah 9:6-7) As a child, I was expected to believe in this unseen Santa Claus and a donkey going down through a chimney.  I believed it until my parents told me otherwise and then I felt let down.  Don't you love the faith of the little children.  Just believing is God's expectation for all of us.  Believing in the unseen, such a faith to behold.  Why is it so hard now as adult to believe in miracles and the unseen.  ...

  29. Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean 38. Mary responded, "I am the Lord's servant, and willing to accept whatever he wants.  May everything you have said come true." And then the angel left. Although as humans we might think of ourselves as mighty powerful beings, we sometimes fall short in times of adversity.  It doesn't take very much to tick us off or throw us out of balance.  Frustration or confusion comes in quite easy.  It's even harder for us to admit our defeat which shows our weakness in a greater dimension. Nevertheless, as we look at this first Christmas episode unfold before us in the Bible.  We see human weakness in its entirety. First of all, Mary, Jesus's mother finds herself in a very vulnerable position not only as a single, virgin woman who became pregnant by the work of the Holy Spirit. Before this, she is confused and disturbed as she is visited by an angel in the announcement of the birth.  An...

  King Herod speaking: Matthew 2:8:  Then he told them, "Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the  the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship, too!" Warning from God in a dream: Matthew 2:12  But when it was time to leave, they went home another way, because God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.  Warning to Joseph in a dream: Matthew 2:13  After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up and flee to Egypt with the child and his mother, because Herod is going to try to kill the child. " Herod did want to kill the Christ of Christmas: Matthew 2:16  Herod was furious when he learned that the wise men had outwitted him.  He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, because the wise men had told him the star first appeared to them two years earlier. Before I start this post, let me tell you why I be...

Keeping Christ-Mas (Matthew 2:8,12-13,16)