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Testimony Danny – Theater weekend

In January a whole team from our church went to the theatre weekend of Carla Veldhuis in the Netherlands. This has become an annual tradition...

Danny, who went with us from the start, tells us part of her story:

"In 2015 the three of us decided to go from Belgium to the theatre weekend of Carla Veldhuis in the Netherlands. I was a bit nervous about it and also a bit worried that we would be among the oldest attendees, even though I was very hungry for more. Arriving on Friday evening our suspicion was immediately confirmed: our grey hair stood out among that of many other young participants. I saw a somewhat older couple and immediately felt a little better. Later on, these people turned out to be no ordinary participants, they were part of the prayer team.

A spectacular beginning ....

A spectacular beginning is very much protected ...

On the 2nd of January, in the evening, Carine took Patrick by car to the bus... for Patrick had to work on the nightshift. Just when he got out, the bus passed them... Carine drove quickly after the bus, with flashing lights and sounding the motor horn... the bus stopped and Patrick went across the road. He still said: "careful when you drive back..." Carine drove into the drive in front of a house in order to turn back. When she was driving for a while on that road, she suddenly saw a dead red cat lying on the road. She swerved to the right and turned rather quickly again to the left. All of a sudden the car started to drive her, instead of she driving the car... Carine kept her eyes meticulously on her traffic lane and tried to adjust her driving... there was an oncoming car which she was in imminent danger of making a beeline for... it passed her... Carine cried to God for help and she came to a standstill on the other traffic lane, just behind this car that had been oncoming... Thanking God for His protection, she came home wide awake... her year had started in a really spectacular way...!

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.