Reflection

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Whoever offers praise glorifies Me ..

HE WHO SACRIFICES THANK-OFFERINGS HONOURS ME, AND HE PREPARES THE WAY SO THAT I MAY SHOW HIM THE SALVATION OF GOD Psalm 50:23

On Saturday the 16th of April, Ludo went to sit down at night on the edge of his bed, and he felt something darting into his groin and thigh bone.
When he wanted to sit down, he had to stretch his leg, otherwise it was too painful. Ludo prayed for it immediately and he proclaimed the Word of God over his body.

Violent pain in wrists dissappears like snow before the sun

Since the Christmas period Nathalie was suffering from pain in both her wrists. It started with a stiff feeling, as if she had sprained or overburdened both her wrists. Yet there wasn't any indication for that. When Nathalie wanted to do something practical, such as cooking, serving the food or to do some gardening, it became still worse. Even writing gave her trouble!

Werner and Nathalie love to dedicate themselves to the Kingdom and they help wherever they can. It is their dream and wish to start a project in Africa, where they want to go and feed the children. Whenever she was in pain, also this kind of thoughts came: "I'll never be able to do that...".

John, the disciple Jesus loves

For me and for many others, this is a stumbling block in the Bible. What to do about it? So Jesus seemed to love one of the disciples more than the others. Some even claim that Jesus had a homosexual relationship with John. But if you really want to understand the core of this verse, you just have to think twice and read carefully what it says. What's important is that it's not Jesus who makes this statement, but John. And nowhere in the Gospels do we read that Jesus says that He prefers one to all others.

So the saying and the conclusion come from John himself. Did he receive a special revelation? As far as I'm concerned, over the years it happened occasionally that someone said: "God is happy with you". It was a statement that I kept in mind because I was used to hearing sometimes "God loves you". But according to me there is a difference between loving someone and being happy with someone.

Recently an elderly lady came up to me after a meeting and said God told her to tell me He is happy with me. Usually I forget such a sentence quite quickly. But this time I began to think about it. I did not have a special revelation, but I did have the Word that clearly states that God loves us and is happy with us. So I decided to just accept that word.

Maybe the same happened to John. Maybe he was so proud that Jesus loved him that he felt the need to make it known, while the other disciples weren't so concerned about telling it. Nobody knows exactly how it went. It seems clear to me that Jesus did not love John more than the others. But one thing is for sure: John knew for sure that he was the disciple Jesus loved.

I just wanted to bring this to your attention and hope you will think about it. I wish you a lot of blessing with it.

Hugo, the disciple Jesus is happy with.