From the Heart by B.Demaere

  My wife and I went to church last Sunday to a wonderful service.  The worship was great! The preaching was on Hebrews 11 one of my favorite chapters in the Bible.  On the exploits of men and women of Faith. After the service I talked with someone and became increasingly depressed.  I could not understand why. I had compared my life to those heroes and felt lousy.  What was wrong with me?  Why did I not measure up to them? 1)     The whole picture: I should have known better.  There was a blind spot and I felt like prey in the enemy's hands.  I had not gone into the details of these heroes' lives.  Some look very humans and like Elijah I was depressed when I did not get God’s perspective on the subject. I had looked at their victories, but I missed the part where it said that some did not receive what was promised   In fact, I remember when the pastor expressed jokingly his displeasure at the word “But” in verse 35 w...

  The Seed must die first   I got so excited about the deep subject of death that here I am again bringing it to you with renewed vision.   Most people out there are excited (maybe a bit) about life.   They ‘want a better life’. In John 12:24 Jesus seems to present it from a different angle: “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel Of wheat falls to the ground and dies, It remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”   To me, it simply means that to experience the true life you and I need to figuratively die (Be careful here I did not mean literally).   It just means that your self-desired life must die first before you can live a life where you will be truly satisfied.   Not seeking self, but God’s desires for your life.   The seed must die in the ground before there is an explosion of life producing a plant and fruits.   Just think of what will become of you when figuratively you will die, and life eternal will co...

I am just an average Joe, but I know enough to know that if you invest time and effort in the people around you.  It will be a worthwhile investment that will bring great returns in your life. Treat them with respect and dignity and you will get it back several folds.   I have made a lot of mistakes in my life, but God by his grace has covered my many faults and given me back for the little obedience I have given him. We hear a lot about ‘invest your money in this and that’ and those deals might not be always good and even scary looking. But invest yourself in people and they will go out of their way to serve you. Soon or later it will happen. Like I said, I don’t have much but the little I know, or have I invested it around me, and it grows on its own.   My wife has invested in her garden time and effort, and she is enjoying the return of a beautiful crop.   Should she have left it growing on its own would she have the same results?   I doubt it. ...

  This morning, I did not know where my inspiration would come from but then this day began to unravel.  I always start my day by reading my Bible in French.  I read out of Luke 9:23 which begins:   “If someone wants to come with me, he needs to stop thinking about himself, he must take his cross daily and follow me. ( transliterated from the French Bible ) The Grossest thing ever Now use your grey matter and think of the grossest thing you ever did for someone else.  Well, that can be part of a relationship explained.  To lower your self to help someone else. Soon after I read this passage I was put to the test.   I plugged the toilet all by myself.   Furthermore, we have been travelling and we are in a motel.   There is, of course, no plunger and so I grabbed the closest thing to a plunger that I could find…. Took a deep breath and stack my bare hand in the toilet.   I forgot to mention that my wife needed the toilet, so I ha...

When the Son of Man returns, the world will be like the people were in Noah's day.  In those days before the flood, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came to destroy them all. And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot.  People went about their daily business---eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building---until the morning Lot left Sodom.  Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.  Yes, it will be business as usual right up to the hour when the Son of Man returns.  On that day a person outside the house must not go into the house to pack.  A person in the field must not return to town.  Remember what happened to Lot's wife!  Whoever clings to this life will lose it, and whoever loses this life will save it. Have you noticed in your country or town a renewed confidence in the economy?  Or are they still prot...