From the Heart by B.Demaere

  Grace is Free… …To anyone who comes to Jesus and accepts him by faith. “For by Grace you have been saved through faith…it is a gift from God.” (Ephesians 2:8) But to live by faith will cost you everything if you walk by it.   But then, you will have joy because at last, you will have freedom. To Abraham, faith costs him his son although in Genesis 22:10-11 he got him back through the intervention of the angel. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said: “Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, “Here I am.”   Read also: (Hebrews 11:17)   It costs God his Son Jesus but through the Resurrection, his Son was made alive again. Mark 16:5 “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.   He has risen!” There is a principle here… Abraham got his son Isaac back with a new life… God got his Son back through his Resurrection… And as you become a born-again Christian you h

  Simple as Faith Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality-faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experiences by the physical senses] Hebrews 11:1 (Amplified Bible) Many people wish that they had more, but God only wants us to operate first in the faith we have, then as we do it he will give us more. Hebrews 11:1 tells us what faith is.   Apparently, if you are a born-again Christian this is how you started.   Faith was already there in your heart, and you acted on it. What is faith? It is the certainty of what you hope for.   You were certain of what you hoped for and that was Jesus.   You acted as if you had always known him and went forward with it. Well, faith is that simple, so simple a child understands the concept.   With that assurance put your best foot forward and trust God.   He will carry you through. Faith is the reality of what you

  Words of Comfort As the past days have come and gone, now I receive words of comfort from the Bible of course.     “This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing office, but he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever . Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:22-25) These verses particularly brought comfort to me because as I was reading from the French Bible I was greatly encouraged by the word ‘Toujours’ which means ‘always’.   I underlined in the text the words in English which mean ‘always.   Aren’t you glad that Jesus’s priesthood is one that lasts forever and endures through everything?   To make it easier to understand, I not only like certain products for their brands but especially for any long-lasting guarantee.   Th

                                                      This must be a Phase. Grieving must be a succession of phases?    Going from one extreme to the other emotionally. My day today was spent seeing my dear wife go through several years worth of clothes that had belonged to my dear mother. She had not only kept every purse but every pair of pantyhose she had owned.   My mind cannot comprehend it, and I want to cry because not only had she kept it but also had moved from the old country with it to Canada.   Can I give a word of advice to parents today?   Get rid of your stuff before your children must.   I am dealing with mental health issues in my own life and that is the last thing I want to face right now. Some of the things my parents had were old expresso makers.   It shows that they liked their coffee, but they did not involve me with their passion for coffee. One other advice I would like to give to parents today.   Share your hobbies with your children and involve them

  Back to Healing This blog has become more personal than I intended it to be but, maybe God ordered it to be that way for your sake.  I wonder how much of what we put out to people as a façade is to hide the hurt in us.  Do we sometimes use a “spiritual façade” of some sort? What about you? What is your face saying? This morning I felt depressed, deeply depressed to the point of staying in bed all day, but I didn’t.   I could never do that.   I am an 8 O’clock riser, not an 11 am riser. The day started very purposelessly which I hate.   Part of the day was spent in the basement of what used to be my parents.   My wife and I looked through it and found “old treasures” of the past.   I finally had to eat something and made it to the kitchen.   My wife came up with an old poem made into a card I had drawn as an adult for her birthday and another poem I had given her on Mother’s Day.   She had kept them.   I noticed that one written in French had a spelling error.   Knowing that my

  Heart Mining It has been about 2 weeks now since we moved into my parents’ old home.   The primary purpose was obvious.   To move there to reorganize the place.   But the secondary or subsequent purposes are not as obvious.   We have been through almost everything in the kitchen, not without a struggle, and almost everything has a memory.   Everything has a discovery of characters attached to it. For example, my Mom’s old deep fryer was left with memories of fresh homemade fries cooked twice and crispy just as only a Belgian Mom could cook them.   I just want to let you know that we, Belgians at heart, are very proud of our French fries.   No one will take this away from us.   So, with a memory is always linked to a relationship.   I related to my mother most through cooking and even I became a baker/cook.   Now I can make fries the way my mother used to.   With memories come possibilities.   You can see that following a primary purpose is a secondary purpose and that purpose dee

  Thought Infestation (Jeremiah 4:14) Are we taking God seriously?   Could there be any bad or evil thoughts in us even though we are saved?   Are we immune?   Are we clean?   We need forgiveness, oh but we are forgiven.   What about confession and repentance?   Could God be looking at us and see maybe even a little bit of fault in us?   Are we too proud to admit that we need his help? When I read this verse out of the Amplified version of the English Bible, it is very close to the French translation that I read. “O Jerusalem, wash your heart From wickedness, That you may be saved. How long will your wicked and Immoral thoughts Lodge within you?   I know some of you like me are saved, but why do we let evil thoughts lodge within us (Ouch!)   In fact, in the first part of the verse in French, it says: “Jerusalem, if you want to be delivered wash or clean your heart of its wickedness. How long will you be indwelled by evil thoughts?” And verse 15, does not leave