From the Heart by B.Demaere

  “The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world.  I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.  Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’  Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you.  If they had listened to me, they would listen to you.  They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me.  They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them.  But now they have no excuse for their sin.” (John 15:19-22) If the Christians and Christianity were part of the world system, the world would obey our teachings from Jesus.   In its own way, the world system shows us its dislike and, in many ways, does not respect Jesus Christ as they use him as a swear word. Overall, we must be more careful of what we do with the name of Jesus Christ and respect him by the way we live and talk. What makes us so different from the world has

  To answer Peter simple question: How many times should I forgive someone, Jesus gives him the answer.  Seventy times seven= an astronomical number… One day long ago, I was in prison…visiting and it made me realize the heaviness of a sentence that some men would never be able to serve and be forgiven.   They would eventually die in prison and one friend of mine did.   Fortunately, that friend had been forgiven for the sins he had committed and is in heaven today.   He became a Christian. Today, I must talk about forgiveness because it is so sweet when you are at the receiving end of it.   Imagine that you have a great debt owing…some of us do not have to go very far.   You have a great debt owing. Well, that was a reality for a man in the story of Jesus in Matthew 18:21-35 The man owed to his master a debt of several million dollars.   He certainly could have never paid this large debt that him and his family owed.   He was brought to the master who wanted at first to sell him a

  Someone once asked Billy Graham, "If Christianity is valid, why is there so much evil in the world?" To this he replied, "With so much soap, why are there so many dirty people in the world? Christianity, like soap, must be personally applied if it is to make a difference in our lives."   I feel the same way about wisdom. It must be applied personally to your life to work. Furthermore, the wisdom from Proverbs is for everyone as we read in the first verses of the book. So, whether you think of yourself to be a wise person you still need it. Proverbs guarantee you will still benefit from them. One might want to try to do just that and see what kind of results we get out from them. I suppose it would improve our lives greatly and positively. Better than any old books on positive thinking, this might eventually turn anyone into a positive person and the quality of life would be comparatively great. In other word, you can never receive enough wisdom and that is

I have noticed more than usual the coming “in” of a different Gospel portraying a “different Jesus .  In fact, it has happened for years ever slowly slithering like a snake into the Church .   We have many different gospels out there but many without the power of the Cross .  I am more aware of it in my own life .  We must go back to the Gospel of Christ .  There is a dangerous “Prosperity” gospel going around that preaches that God is “good ,” he is, but when ‘one’ goes through trials and temptations ‘one’ becomes incredibly surprised and even disappointed by this god who is “good.”  This way of thinking is very harmful since God is good and as a Father likes to discipline us to show his love for us .  He uses hardship to discipline us, and the Apostle Paul was not rich even though he preached the Gospel .  Christians might find themselves in adverse situation to prosperity and it makes me wonder; What would Jesus be like if he came to today’s world?   “But I am afraid that as the s

  The Cross: Defeat or Victory To many the Cross has been portrayed as a defeat, but not to God.  It means victory over death and sin. To some people, anything that looks like a threat is a defeat, but not to God or God’s peoples at least it should not be.   I believe these verses speak of Jesus at what would be his Crucifixion much later: Isaiah 50:4-9   (I will write down only the verses that means the most of what I want to say) Verse 5 The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away.                                          Verse 6 I offered my back to those who beat me,                                                       My cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;                                                        I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting                                           Verse 7 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,                                                        I will not

  Moment of Truth (Luke 23:38-43)   Many times, while Jesus was condemned, he was challenged on his ability to save himself if he was…the king or the Messiah (v.38,39) Because of ignorance, many did not know the purpose of Jesus was to save the world, namely you and me.   He came as the Saviour of the world, and he was not going to deviated from that mission.   Now that he was on that Cross with some criminal, he had to die to fulfill that mission to completion.   This was nothing more than a temptation from Satan to stop him short of his goal.   Do you find that Satan tries that one on you too stopping you short of your goal sometime? You see, you are not alone in your temptations, the whole world and especially Jesus had to go through them as well. The one criminal who was crucified with Jesus did not fear God or respected him at all.   He was the one who challenged Jesus to save himself if he was the Messiah. But the other criminal acknowledged Jesus’s innocence and was sa

  Jesus being the Son of God had never experienced death before that the time of the crucifixion at Calvary.  He had never experienced suffering at this level.  He became acquainted with it as it says in Isaiah 53:3. This whole chapter talks about him in the future.  For death as well it was a new encounter.  What a surprise it would have been when life gushed out of the tomb on the third day.  Death had never seen such an adversary like Jesus.  Death was beaten and defeated.  At the Cross, death thought it had won but at the Resurrection it was defeated for sure.  What a victory over anything that claimed to be associated with death like sin, sickness, and infirmities. Now in this world of enmities and injustice, it looks like death is still victorious but not so fast.   God has reserved a time for Justice to take place and he will indeed have to last word.   In the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ and at the end of your Bible he has already written the last chapters.   The

Great crowds were following Jesus.  He turned around and said to them, if you want to be my follower you must love me more than you own father and mother. wife and children, brothers and sisters---yes, more than your own life.  Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.  And you cannot be my disciple if you do not carry your own cross and follow me. But don't begin until you count the cost.  For who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking to see if there is enough money  to pay the bills?  Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of funds. And then how everyone would laugh at you.  They would say, 'There's the person who started that building and ran out of money before it was finished!' Salt is good for seasoning.  But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again?  Flavorless salt is good neither for the soil nor for fertilizer.  It is thrown away.  Anyone who is willing to hear should li