From the Heart by B.Demaere

The Purpose of Suffering I used to complain a lot while suffering and then one day the Lord showed me that it didn’t reflect who he was and now I also realize that suffering or trials are used to teach and remind us what we learn in the Word and practice joy through the trials. The example of joy More than one church in the new testament suffered persecution.  But the church in Thessalonica was a church that still received the word with joy despite of everything that was happening to them.  The Apostle Paul visited them once and never returned.  Why?  Because Satan stopped him from going back (2:18) A couple of  verses catch my attention in the first chapter: So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you.   In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord. As a result, you have become example to all the believers in Greece-throughout both Macedonia and Achaia.   (1Thessalonians 1:6-7) Joy is a sign of maturity I

There are many lonely people in this world which is ironic since we are so populated on our little globe.   In fact, you might be one of them suffering. What is loneliness? Well, you might be all alone right now and not be lonely or you might be in a room full of people and be lonely. I describe loneliness as an almost uncontrollable feeling or craving for companionship.   Almost like boredom, maybe it comes from boredom. To me, it is a calling to do something creative.   I have been lonely many times.   You know, you can even be lonely while being married. There is a void in our hearts to be filled and we want something else in there than God.   We say, “Certainly not you God!” We would rather have a ‘real’ person with us or our phone.   Something we can touch.   Life would be wonderful then and we get it and find out the loneliness is still there.   We then turn to drugs or pornography, and we keep going in a downward spiral and it kills us. The world on the news can talk t