From the Heart by B.Demaere

From the Heart by B.Demaere: The Seed must die first (John 12:24) :   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...

  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 come to you in its fullness.   In life’s princ

From the Heart by B.Demaere: A Deep Subject :   A Deep Subject Death is the deep subject.  I do not know if it is because my mother passed away last month or because I am getting older...

  A Deep Subject Death is the deep subject.  I do not know if it is because my mother passed away last month or because I am getting older and all of you are getting younger or both. Life seems shorter as we get older, and we know death is nearer.   Which is stupid to think that death is nearer now than when I was twenty years of age.   Death is nearer to us all the time.   Beware of thinking that you are immune to it.   Death is inevitable. Why do I talk about death so much?   Because it is a fascinating subject.   It is a subject that causes the depth of philosophy to open before us.   I am especially interested in people’s last words as they face death in the face.   Somehow, in every word their soul reveals their souls. Of course, we should not keep our thoughts constantly on death and forget about life. It is just that thinking on death gives us a certain wisdom that was not there before. Death for some people is a warning and to others it's a call Life is short, l

From the Heart by B.Demaere: The Crisis of Loneliness : There are many lonely people in this world which is ironic since we are so populated on our little globe.   In fact, you might be one of the...

There are many lonely people in this world which is ironic since we are so populated on our little globe.   In fact, you might be one of them suffering. What is loneliness? Well, you might be all alone right now and not be lonely or you might be in a room full of people and be lonely. I describe loneliness as an almost uncontrollable feeling or craving for companionship.   Almost like boredom, maybe it comes from boredom. To me, it is a calling to do something creative.   I have been lonely many times.   You know, you can even be lonely while being married. There is a void in our hearts to be filled and we want something else in there than God.   We say, “Certainly not you God!” We would rather have a ‘real’ person with us or our phone.   Something we can touch.   Life would be wonderful then and we get it and find out the loneliness is still there.   We then turn to drugs or pornography, and we keep going in a downward spiral and it kills us. The world on the news can talk t

Throughout the Bible, we are not only encouraged to not do evil, but also to not associate with it. Look at King of Judah, Jehoshaphat for example.   One great king who was after God, he had of course just a few flaws.   He had some friendship with the world. For starter, his son Jehoram married Athaliah, the daughter of king Ahab who was an evil king. We see him here where he helped king Ahab in chapter 18 and escaped fortunately from getting killed himself.   King Ahab was killed in the battle.   Since Jehoshaphat was a good king God protected him that day.   In 2 Chronicles 19:2 a prophet comes to him and corrects him on having helped king Ahab and associated with evil. The prophet tells him that he has helped one who hated the Lord. Furthermore, the prophet also tells him that because of what he did, God’s anger is against him. Sure enough, in the next chapter 20 we see him associating with the king of Israel Ahaziah an evil king as well.   While Jesus put his relations