From the Heart by B.Demaere

Love one another with brotherly affection.  Outdo one another in showing honor.  (Romans 12:10) (ESV) WOW! That’s a new concept…Competing, outdoing one another in love.   We all like to compete, we see it in churches all the time.   We see it in children as well.   Competing for attention, but how about competing in loving our pastor more or anybody else for that matter. Here are verse 9,10 in the Message translation (A translation in English is the same verse said in a different way) Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it.   Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.   Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. This says it differently…play second fiddle means put the other before you.   Play to accompany, to uplift. In other words, God expects us to excel in love and get better and better at it.   We got to outdo, outperform one another in love.   Not comparing to the other but constantly outdo for the sake of God’s reputati

  Sibling’s Rivalry (Luke 10:38-42) Attention We all seek it whether it be from parents or peers and even from our own boss.   We are natural boasters.   There is a mature way to seek attention and a bad way.   Even from God, many people in the Church seek it by works or duties and its all by grace.   We get ourselves so windup for glory and then fall on our faces in defeat because we have missed the mark.   That is the actual meaning of sin: missing the mark.   Life could be a lot simpler if we well! Focused. Martha and Mary You can see that these two, with Jesus in their home were competing for attention from the Lord.   After all, it’s not every day you have Jesus sitting at your table and yet we do in our own way have him with us.   Only this time he was there physically.   I could have pictured Martha being busy and noisy with pots and pans saying to herself or out loud, “Look at me Jesus, I am here cooking you a meal, am I not special?” But Jesus calmly enjoyed his time tea