Reflection

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Resist the devil and he will flee from you

Some two months ago one day François got up and felt a strong pain in his right foot. He could barely stand on it and he couldn’t bear having his shoelace tied. It was a biting, sharp pain. It reminded him of the pain he felt once when he broke a small bone in his hand. François prayed over it and at home he wore open slippers, outside he wore loose fitting shoes. The pain was on and off and bothered him a lot. François didn’t want to go the doctor for fear they would give him a plaster and he didn’t want that for his job at church. The funny thing was each time he was working in church, he felt no pain. Once home, the pain would come back. Two or three weeks ago he got so fed up with the situation, he became really angry at the devil and commanded him to release his foot. The pain left and never came back….

Three healthy baby's each with a normal delivery

A little while ago Maria sent us a thank you note she received through the mail from a friend. She had forgotten all about it but several years ago she put a prayer request in the prayer box.
The daughter of this friend had several treatments and a brain surgery while pregnant with her first child. A congenital defect was discovered after she complained having often headaches.
This might prove dangerous with a spontaneous childbirth. In the meantime she gave birth to a third baby, three times she had a normal childbirth without any problems.

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.