From the Heart by B.Demaere

  The Fruit of the Spirit   A while ago you may recall the we talked about the fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, peace etc... I just decided that a few others were missing and now I am adding them in continuing with kindness. “But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others],  joy [inner] peace , patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting],   kindness, goodness,  faithfulness,  gentleness,  self-control.   Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)(Amplified) Kindness is a Seed Do not misunderstand me I know that it is a fruit but like any fruit kindness has a seed enclosed in it.   When you sow the seed in people’s lives you will reap the benefits of it.   Maybe a harvest of kindness in return.   Kindness softens the ground in which it is planted.   We ought not to be kind with others who are kind only to us but...

                                                  Creating a Need in You God is Spirit and he is also the God of the Impossible.  Whatever is impossible to mankind is possible to God.  We, therefore, need something extra to be able to understand him.  So, he gave us faith, which is the ability to walk without seeing, just believing.  Each being has that ability. From this, we must approach God with this perspective, the perspective of faith.   It is impossible to understand this with our mind. The life we have is a gift from him and every situation and trouble we face is a call from him to come a little closer to him or to draw our attention away from ourselves unto him.   At the same time since he is so imposing, he is very approachable and does accept us as we are. Do not withhold your compassion and tender mercy from me, O ...

  Our Heart’s Cry (Isaiah 63:7 to 64:12) First, let’s start at the end of this long text.   We will understand better the heart of God toward his people.   In this case, it is Israel.   But for New Testament people, it is the born-again Christians who are God’s chosen people.   God’s people have throughout history been known to rebel at times. Isaiah 64:11-12 “Our holy and beautiful house where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins. Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord?   Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?” We can see clearly that the prophet Isaiah is concerned with the house of worship, in our world today it would be our church or the Church of Born-again Christians. Now at the very beginning of this passage in Isaiah 63:7, he wants to remind God’s people of the goodness of the Lord and our motivation for praising him.   Have we forgotten how good he is and...

  Heart Mining It has been about 2 weeks now since we moved into my parents’ old home.   The primary purpose was obvious.   To move there to reorganize the place.   But the secondary or subsequent purposes are not as obvious.   We have been through almost everything in the kitchen, not without a struggle, and almost everything has a memory.   Everything has a discovery of characters attached to it. For example, my Mom’s old deep fryer was left with memories of fresh homemade fries cooked twice and crispy just as only a Belgian Mom could cook them.   I just want to let you know that we, Belgians at heart, are very proud of our French fries.   No one will take this away from us.   So, with a memory is always linked to a relationship.   I related to my mother most through cooking and even I became a baker/cook.   Now I can make fries the way my mother used to.   With memories come possibilities.   You can see that followi...

  Love surpasses Religion (Luke 7:36-50) Simon, the Pharisees had welcomed Jesus in his house.  After all, it made him look great in the eyes of his peers and his disciples.  A woman of poor reputation, probably an adulteress or prostitute came in the house.  (God often uses ‘sinners’ to test religion’s authenticity and this situation is no exception).  This woman opened her heart to Jesus and poured all the love she had for him.  It was worship at its highest degree.  She knew who Jesus was and she didn’t care about her own reputation anymore.  She had none left.  She had probably spent all her love on men to no avail.  Now she fell empty of self at Jesus’s feet with the most expensive perfume she could find.  She had made lots of her money through prostitution and now she was not willing to use it on herself but on Jesus the only one who could save her soul.  What are you using your money on?  What was this Pharisee us...

  Voracious appetite A lot of diets are happening these days.   We want to be trimmed for our summer looks.   We try to suppress our appetite and look at our neighbour waistline and wish ours was thinner.   We do exercise and work hard on our bodies or get discouraged by our friend’s   high expectations of us.   We just don’t measure up to society’s level of expertise.   Unfortunately, what I have described happens often. We look outward for solutions to our problems, but, we are being eaten up by envy from the inside.   What is eating you up?   Come on, let’s be real? Do you have friends or family members who are doing better than you in life?   How do you feel about them?   Is that envy eating you up?   There is so much envy in this world.   Nations at war with others, for what?   Families fighting amongst themselves, is that not envy?   What about divorces?   Envy and jealousy are such an ugly t...