From the Heart by B.Demaere

  These are the last words of David: David, the man to whom God gave such wonderful success. David, the man anointed by the God of Jacob. David, the sweet psalmist of Israel. (2 Samuel 23:1) First of all, it is virtually impossible to separate David from God in this verse.  There was such a unity between them and an harmony.  David knew that it was God that exalted him or made him successful.  He endured a lot of suffering that no one would know, except that it had been recorded in the Scriptures.  Suffering especially at the hand of Saul and other enemies.  Indeed, no one knows the suffering someone has endured in order to be successful, except God himself.  What do you consider successful?  Being a dad who has a high position with a company?  A husband whose wife spend her time with someone else?  Who and what is success?  Life is certainly more than earning money.  You don't need to be rich to be happy.  There are a lot of people out there who are rich and unhappy. Obviously, th

David, the successful man of God (2 Samuel 23:1 NLT)

  "And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for you to kick against the pricks. (Acts 9:5 KJV) Actually, kicking against the goads means to fight against those in authority.  It's not mentioned in this story, but in Paul's conversion story in Chapter 9 of the book of Acts.  Jesus has a rather unusual meeting with him.  In that bright meeting, Paul becomes blind.  In fact, he had been blind all his life as a religious fanatic, but this kind of blindness was extraordinary. Jesus spoke very loud and asked him: " And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for you to kick against the pricks. (Acts 9:5 KJV) Many in the history of mankind have tried to kill the Church or Israel or even the Bible.  Take for instance, the story of Joseph, young son of Jacob in Genesis 37-45.  He had a powerful dream and vision and his brothers wanted to destroy him but God came through

Kicking against the pricks (Acts 9:5)

  Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed...(Romans 4:18) Since I have a mental illness, it would be normal for me to advocate for mental health.  Unfortunately for me, I sometimes am passionate about it and take it to the other extreme of supreme importance.  Thus, my wife and I had an interesting discussion about suicide and Covid-19.  Yesterday, on my birthday of all day!  Romantic, n'est ce pas?  (This discussion took place because of the increased restrictions here in BC and Manitoba) Now in order to minimize hate, I would say this.  I might not have been rational in my reasoning, but it helped us work things out. Just in case you are wondering, I discovered that the rate of suicide was higher than the rate of death by Covid-19 cases. ( lifesitenews.com ) My wife's defense was that suicide is a choice and I agreed to a certain point.  Covid is not a choice!  I agreed! I said, 'up to a point' for this reason and it's this.  People who go through suicidal thou

Perseverance and Suicide (Romans 4:18)

  31. But because Leah was unloved, the Lord let her have a child, while Rachel was childless.  32. So Leah became pregnant and had a son.  She named him Reuben, for she said, "The Lord has noticed my misery, and now my husband will love me."  (Genesis 29:31-32) Have you been weary, lately?  Weariness is very common these days,  especially during this pandemic.  Visibly, a lot of us have become weary of all these restrictions and its endlessness, but take heart.  God is still in control. Apart from that, how are you doing?  How will you feel loved?  In your own words, what does love feel like?  Not all of us can become pregnant and men in particular can't relate to Leah.  I realize that! Nevertheless, my question to you is:  How will you ever know you are loved 'enough'.  After having born three children to Jacob, she was still  unsure of being loved.  Here we see God's great love toward the 'unloved', the 'depressed' in society.  Obviously, Go