From the Heart by B.Demaere

  "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

Leah, the unloved wife (Genesis 29:31-32)

  36. "Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?"  37. Jesus replied, " 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.'  This is the first and greatest commandment. 39. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40. All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:36-40) Yes, although as believers we are no longer under the law, yet we obey the commandments based on the two first ones.  We obey them through obeying the Holy Spirit within us. It's like a bottle full to the rim.  The air can't come in and the same is when your life is full of God's Spirit.  Your life will be so full of him that nothing else can enter in.  This is what putting God first mean.  Temptations can't come in.  Neither does sin.  The bottle is full and won't be broken.   God wants to use a full bottle, bu