Reflection

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Giving and receiving

Theo and Maria needed wood for this winter. Theo, at present 74 years young, healthy and strong, had already looked around here and there. One day in beginning of April that year he prayed for it. He remembered God His promise in Malachi 3 where stands “that you can test God when giving tenths and sacrifices”. He prayed frankly: “Lord, I give You faithfully my tenths and sacrifices; You promise that in that case You would open the windows of heaven and pour blessings in abundance over me. I ask this only once: I need wood badly”.

Also small healings are big miracles

Also small healing are big miracles!

For some weeks already, Elly was suffering from a wound on her gums. In fact she was constantly in pain, but when she was eating or drinking it still increased. Very embarrassing... On a Sunday during the worship in church Elly stood waving a flag. On a certain moment, Ann told God was going round healing and she spurred the people on to receive their healing. At that moment, Elly was not occupied at all with the wound in her mouth, but she joined in, pronouncing aloud that she was receiving her healing. Back home, while eating, she suddenly noticed that the wound on her gums was entirely healed...

On a Saturday Elly was extracting weeds amidst the sunflowers. Although Elly is wearing glasses, a sunflower leaf hit her eye. This was very painful, and the eye became visibly inflamed and red too. On Sunday after the meeting Elly asked for prayer. In the afternoon the pain had got much better and the next morning all trouble had gone!

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.