From the Heart by B.Demaere

  How Much Does it Costs? Decisions, decisions! Sometimes are hard but not if it is something worthwhile.   For example, Grace is free, but it is not cheap because the sacrifice Jesus made, makes it worthwhile. In Matthew 8:18-22, Jesus sets the bar high but not unreachable if we do it his way.   Religion is easy; it is just a habit.   Living the life Jesus lived is a matter of the heart.   Even repeating words to improve your life and make yourself a better person is easy but identifying and putting yourself in the shoes of your Teacher becomes much more difficult unless you follow him with all your heart. Block by block and precept upon precept following Christ is a relationship. In verse 19, the scribe or teacher of the Law came and told Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”   In his own language this religious leader probably didn’t even look beyond the wall of his synagogue like most religious people do today in the church.   But f...

  Priorities of Eternal Purpose (John 6:25-30) At the beginning of this chapter, Jesus had miraculously fed 6000 people with 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread.   Do you think that this would have been enough of a miracle for them to believe? Not really.   They wanted more.   More of what? Of Jesus or the miracles? Apparently, more miracles.   They wanted to believe in Jesus, but he did not do enough for them to believe in him. (John 6:30) He gently corrects them by telling them in the rest of the chapter that the bread he has which is his body is more than enough for them to believe because it is eternal in purpose.   Miracles Are only temporary and once you see one you must have another one.   The food they need must be eternal. It must be eternal if it is going to bring them spiritual satisfaction. As their human nature must have been fixated on the work of miracles that they would have to do Jesus points them out to God’s right expectation for ...

  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...

  Am I a Victim? Should I be treated or feel any different because I have a disability of any kind?  In my case, it is mental illness. The answer is a ‘no’ and ‘yes’.  In terms of extra support, people might need some financial assistance if there is.  As far as being considered different because of disabilities, not at all.  Even self pity has its limits.   Anyway, we must find a way to manoeuvre through this world or it will swallow us.  The world does not really care about you, each wants a paycheck at the end of the month.  That is the sad reality. It took me a while to figure it out, but now I know.  Only a few make the exception!   The Victor   We have many choices to make in our life and the result of the sum of those choices will either make us a victim or a victor .  No one wants to be a loser and everyone wants to be a winner.  The majority of people are unfortunately showing signs of deterioration....