From the Heart by B.Demaere

  The Beauty of Community (Acts 2:42-46) “The believers devoted themselves to the apostles ‘teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. A sense of awe came over everyone.   God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. All the believers were united and shared everything. They would sell pieces of properties and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. Every day, the met together in the temple and ate in their homes.   They share food with gladness and simplicity. Before anything in life, you have to appreciate the beauty of it.   With community, you must dig a little deeper in details.   Close your eyes and see a family or community getting along with each other and sharing everything in common.   That would be quite an accomplishment!   Then seeing this, people come for a visit into your house and rejoice at what they see.   It would be a dream come true in any homes, but what about in the Church. Community would not

                   “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, Before you were born, I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’   You must go to everyone I send you and say whatever I command you.   Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you.” declares the Lord . (Please read the rest of the commission in your Bible)   When the prophet Jeremiah was called by God for his life’s mission, it was serious business.   God made sure that he would listen only to Him.   People could have given him an opinion of what they thought of him but the message that Jeremiah was to give stood out. When Jeremiah was led by God.   He used the excuse of being too young but that did not impress God much.   The call on his life was so strong that he had to persist and give the

  Just to Let everyone know that I usually post on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays .  I will try to keep posting during Christmas as well on those days.   Is It a Blue Christmas? For those people who are fortunate to not grieve right now please bear with us.  My mother passed away last May.  I am living now in her house with my wife.  If my wife was not with me, I would find this very difficult.  Being in this house is so emotional and everything reminds me of what it used to be when I was with my parents.  Sunday morning the pastor preached on one of the attributes of the son that was to be born to Mary and Joseph about 700 years after the prophecy in the book of Isaiah 9:6. This one name that Jesus bears is “Wonderful Counsellor” which means that he is too wonderful for words. It was explained that a counsellor is only effective when people come to him for counselling.   Have you gone to a counsellor?   Has it helped you?   God is a wonderful counsellor, and I was encour

  Focus on One I was prompted to look at something shiny and precious and low and behold, the word “Focus” came to mind. We all need to focus, not on our wealth but on the One who made it.   Shiny things and wealth and wealthy people will all disappear into eternity and be gone like grass in the wind. I was watching a short video about someone wealthy retaliating against what people were doing to him.   He was speaking to his audience with a few chosen words I would not want to repeat here.   Because of his foul language, I valued him less than I did before.   The language a person chooses de-values someone’s character very fast.   I am not saying that everyone should change their language to be a good person.   It must be a matter of heart about who you focus on while you speak. I am certainly not saying that you must focus on pleasing everyone around you.   No, you must focus on pleasing only One and that is God through Jesus Christ.   It takes a lot of the pressure off, and

  Our Heart’s Cry (Isaiah 63:7 to 64:12) First, let’s start at the end of this long text.   We will understand better the heart of God toward his people.   In this case, it is Israel.   But for New Testament people, it is the born-again Christians who are God’s chosen people.   God’s people have throughout history been known to rebel at times. Isaiah 64:11-12 “Our holy and beautiful house where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins. Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord?   Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?” We can see clearly that the prophet Isaiah is concerned with the house of worship, in our world today it would be our church or the Church of Born-again Christians. Now at the very beginning of this passage in Isaiah 63:7, he wants to remind God’s people of the goodness of the Lord and our motivation for praising him.   Have we forgotten how good he is and have we forgotten the importance

  Rich or Poor? (James 2:1-13) Discrimination in the Church does not exist, right? Wrong! It might have to do with choosing between the rich and the poor.   There are other categories we might want to put people in like: business owners and farmers or employers and employees.   Even disabled physically or mentally vs. able people.   Just to name a few.   Whatever your conscience accuses you of.   If your conscience bothers you about anything, is it now time to repent? Life is full of small choices that bring us either closer to or further from God.   In the book of ‘Song of Solomon’ in your Bible. (Chapter 2:15) encourages us to take care of the ‘little foxes. It is more intended for a married couple, but it could apply to anyone.   “Little foxes” could be anywhere in the body of Christ (the Church).   Little foxes can be in families between a husband and a wife or between siblings. In various relationships at work of otherwise.   Do you have a ‘chip’ on your shoulder?   Foxes

  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