From the Heart by B.Demaere

  Well, the baby, we were waiting for has arrived.   We are proud Grandparents now and we are looking forward to the growing years of this new child.   This was pretty well the highlight of this Christmas season.   We have of course enjoyed the deeper meaning of this time. I have kept reading my French Bible, In Isaiah 59:9 I read in French about the reason God does not give us always what he has promised to us right away.   We seek for one thing, and he gives the opposite. Voila pourquoi Dieu met du temps a intervenir pour nous et repousse a plus tard ce qu’il a promis Nous esperons voir la Lumiere, Mais c’est partout l’obscurite. Nous attendions que le jour se leve, Mais nous marchons dans la nuit noire.   The same verse in the Common English Bible is:   Because of all this, justice is far from us, And righteousness beyond our reach. We expect light, and there is darkness; We await a gleam of light, but walk about in gloom.   Have you ever been in a situ

When I struggle, there is a scripture that I go back regularly and read.   It is Psalm 37:1-4 Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass And wither like the green herb.   Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, And he will give you the desires Of your heart.   No matter in what kind of situation we might find ourselves in among people, our vertical relationship with God should take the precedent over our horizontal relationships.   We cannot change people anyway and we must trust God for them and with them.   We cannot be jealous of them because they are getting away with so many things.   We must find our comfort in the fact that we in the end have the better end of the stick.   The end with the honey.   Our hope is that sweet compared to the pleasures of sin.   Even people around let themselves slide into complacency I

We have some exciting news coming in our family.   My wife and I will have a new grandchild who will be born either at or after Christmas day. The date is December 27 or earlier. I cannot imagine what the atmosphere would have felt like in Mary and Joseph’s family when baby Jesus was about to be born.   We have a glimpse in the Gospel according to Luke after his birth. Life must have been very different after his birth as it will be for our daughter and my son-in-law.   A baby has somehow a way to bring newness of life into the home. It got the Magi on the move.   It got Herod worried about his kingdom and he wanted to kill him along hundreds of other children 2 years old and under.   Just think, that every time a baby is born a whole household change.   Each one of us carry around an ‘influence’ ready to potentially turn the world upside down.   But why does it not always happen this way> When even one of us make a change in our life, our entire family could be changed and

  And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him as did John, and said, “Look at us.”  And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold , but what I do have I give to you.   In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God…. (Acts 3:2-8) Obviously, the lame man was happy to see the apostles coming at him because he saw them as humans able to give him money.   But God had other plans for that man, and he made sure to let his servants know of them.   Life

  Many in this world claim that Jesus was only human, but like in the following passage,   He is not just a carpenter.   He looks like one but maybe looks are not everything and again faith does not walk by sight.   It walks by believe. Mark 6:1-6 v.3-6 Then they scoffed. “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon.   And his sisters live right here among us.”   They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.   Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family.” And because of their unbelief, he could not do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them.   And he was amazed at their unbelief. I often wonder about the state of the world at present time.   For us to have any faith we must have a balanced view of who Jesus Christ is.   Is he just human or just fully spiritually divine?   Either of these beliefs are

  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