From the Heart by B.Demaere

  God is fully aware of what you either care or worry about.   He also wants you to let him know how you feel about it.   Are you angry about it or not?   He wants to know even though he knows.   He wants to know for your own sake.   You need to vocalize your feelings.   Prayer is super healthy for you mentally and physically.   I am not just saying that I have not been sick in a long time.   I don’t want to be. In Psalm 139:1-3 “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways.”   Is it not great to know that God knows all this about us and still is merciful with us to allow us to worry about it all?   Would it not be easier to simply trust Him and “Cast all our cares upon Him for He cares for us” (1 Peter 5:7).   I know but I still do worry occasionally.   The older I become the more I realize how futile and wasteful it is

What if there was a period of decision for humanity?   Would not that be great?   Just picture this – Let’s say God has a plan for each one of us and in the end, he let each of us decide what we should do with it. That is what I think this following verse means…You all have been told what God’s plan of salvation is.   The bible says elsewhere that we don’t have any excuse.   Now this verse: He who is unrighteous-let him be unrighteous still, and he who is filthy-let him be filthy still, and he who is righteous-let him be declared righteous still, and he who is sanctified-let him be sanctified still: And lo, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to each as his work shall be; (Revelation 22:11-12) In the context of these verses, we are required to leave the words of this prophecy alone and not add or take away from this. All through the Bible God has given the free will to choose the end of their story.   In other words, each one of us must choose the end of our

Wherever you are in this world, I hope you have had a good start.   I challenged myself about this year being for me an “I can do it” year based on the Bible. I Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Simple is it not? This is my personal challenge.   Not to do all kind of things but do those things for which Christ gives me strength. To be able to trust him to give me these things without fretting about them and for his strength to enable me to do them without fear. My prayer is for me and you to be able to do those things with his love which will represent not just actions but actions with love as an impact.   Our motivations will be very important this year.   I realize more and more as I grow older that my motives behind my actions matter more than the actions themselves.   I am persuaded that when someone cooks a meal the very love they produced in making the meal, can be tasted for many years after the meal has been digested by the people

  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