From the Heart by B.Demaere

  Immanuel There you have it, the simple message of the Gospel in the baby Jesus.  The promised Messiah, the Son of God.  The prophets foretold his birth some 600 years prior it happened. “Behold the virgin shall be with child and give birth to a Son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”--- which, when translated, means, “God with us"   (Matthew 1:23) Now this might seem obvious that any god could be with us.   But this Almighty God is living and almighty. Have you heard the story in the Bible in 1 King 18:26-29 where the prophet Elijah along with the prophets of Baal called on their false gods to get some attention from them but obviously since they were not real, they never responded. (verse 27)   At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry out with a loud voice, for he is a god, either he is occupied, or he is out or he is on a journey.   Perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened….   In the end, the living God is the only One who responded by fire and burned the sa

                                                  Creating a Need in You God is Spirit and he is also the God of the Impossible.  Whatever is impossible to mankind is possible to God.  We, therefore, need something extra to be able to understand him.  So, he gave us faith, which is the ability to walk without seeing, just believing.  Each being has that ability. From this, we must approach God with this perspective, the perspective of faith.   It is impossible to understand this with our mind. The life we have is a gift from him and every situation and trouble we face is a call from him to come a little closer to him or to draw our attention away from ourselves unto him.   At the same time since he is so imposing, he is very approachable and does accept us as we are. Do not withhold your compassion and tender mercy from me, O Lord; Your lovingkindness and your truth will continually preserve me. (Psalm 40:11) (Amplified)   But again, in the French (courant) if I transla

  What’s your Silver?   Is it of a good quality?   If you were the silver would God want you? “They are the worst kind of rebel, Full of slander. They are as hard as bronze and iron, And they lead others into corruption. The bellows fiercely fan the flames to burn out the corruption. But it does not purify them, For the wickedness remains. I will label them ‘Rejected Silver,’ For I, the Lord, am discarding them.”(Jeremiah 6:28-30)   Let us be honest with God.   Are we as good as we claim to be, or do we put lots of makeup on our brokenness? God looks at us like an appraiser of metals.   He wants quality in his silver.   He wants to see his reflection. He wants to see Jesus in us.   We are his showpiece to the world, let’s not have too high an opinion of ourselves. What’s your silver? Too many impurities?   Too many foreign metals in it?   No, not good enough!   God wants the purest kind of silver, nice and supple. Jesus said that he is coming soon and that

  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