Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

“67 Before I was afflicted I went astray,     but now I obey your word. 68 You are good, and what you do is good;     teach me your decrees. 71 It was good for me to be afflicted     so that I might learn your decrees. 72 The law from your mouth is more precious to me  than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. Psalm 119: 67 – 68, 71 – 72 ” The story of my life. Before I have fibromyalgia I went astray, but now (many years later) I obey your word. Some people find hard to accept what the world may call fate. I say that sometimes it is teachings. We all should learn something new, every day. What new have you learned today? Were you able to hold your tongue? Or even your thoughts? Did you regret anything? Someone said something to you that made you stop and think? Or you are the kind that you think you are always right, that you have the right, that you deserve, because… But when something bad ...

Faith. What is it? Some might say it is illusion, or insanity, or lack of what to do or despair. I think otherwise. For me, faith is something you cannot have if you don’t have your mind straight. It is something that you must be aware of, you ponder, you calculate, you have some evidence even if the evidence is not yours.   But you cannot be crazy when you decide to believe. Because you decided.   And the decision-making process is in our pre-frontal cortex, a neurophysiological process. Crazy people are not aware of their doings. Faith, you are aware of it. It is not something disconnected from reality. You must be aware. Yet, some people lose their minds over it, but it wasn’t because of too much faith, but because of a lack of wisdom. Lack of ponderation. If I tell you “A tree fell right now in Amazonas Forest”. Do you believe me? You know that I am not in Brazil, there is none of that in the news, but it is likely to happen because of the defor...

What do you think people think of you? Do they recognize you as a Christian? Why is that? Do you even know why you are a Christian? Or why not? Let’s suppose that you have answered yes, you are a Christian. Why? Have you decided for yourself or you say that you are a Christian because your parents have you baptized when you were little? Or your parents took you to church since you were little then you learn that you were a Christian because you go to church? Neither of that makes you a Christian only if you chose for yourself. Now, let’s suppose you are convicted that you are a Christian. Do people around you are also convicted that you really are a Christian? What do you do to make people know that you are a Christian? Did you tell them? Or they did notice your actions and compassion towards others. Let’s suppose you didn’t tell anyone that you are a Christian because your line of work is not well seen, or you were ashamed. How to make people know that you are ...

“Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but who hates bribes will live” Proverbs 15:27. Power. Money. Fame. Every human being has a weak spot for them. We are always running toward these things, deluded that those things will bring some peace, security, love. Why are we like that? Because all started when God starts telling us the story of the world, He created for us, there at the very beginning, we human beings had everything we needed. But he who was, and still is, envious, malicious, disgraceful and disgusting convinced Eve that she didn’t have anything. God could have made us without this desire of choosing our own path. He could have made us with no choice, with no free-will. But God wanted true love, that kind of love you choose, you go for it, you die for it. Because this is His kind of love, He has for us. Instead, we, human beings, chose to go another way. The devil played us. He made us believe there was...

She would not agree with me. Ela não concordaria comigo. Paul once wrote (2Timothy 3:16 – 17) “that the word of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” I have been dedicating myself to know every day more and more the Word of God. And I do not consider myself as much. I have made many mistakes in my life if I had known the Word as I understand it now, I would not have done them. The problem when we don’t spend much time in the Word, we tend to take it lightly and summarize the meaning of the Word and, don’t realize how badly we have sinned daily without noticing. Example: “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. (James 4:11). What do you u...

Imagine if all our accusers dropped their stones! Imagine se todos os nossos acusadores largassem as pedras! Everybody knows the story of the woman who was caught in adultery and then Jesus said, “let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7). But what about this situation? Let’s see. Who was that woman? Was she married? Was she a prostitute? Was she single? If she was caught in adultery, where was the man? The law says to stone both of them, yet they just brought the woman. If we want to widen our interpretation of our days, who do you think would be that woman? Who that woman is representing? Only those who commit adultery? I don’t think so.   In my humble opinion I think that woman represents all people who are judged by their sins, whose sins are visible; sins that cannot be hidden and are easy to be judged. So, yes, we all sin, but there are those who cannot hide their sins. After Jesus had sai...

Is there a person that is hard for you to get along with? That person really gets on your nerves and you don’t even know why exactly? Or you haven’t given much thought about why. You might even know some saying to justify the fact that you don’t get along with that person. Do you know what I think? I think you are jealous of that person (your thought goes like this: absolutely No. No way. What? Impossible. There is nothing that person has that I would like for my own, and so on). But deep down that person does have something that you don’t, and you wish; it can be anything, something that you might think it is ridiculous. But it is there in your heart and you know it. And next thing you know that person is out of the sudden not trustworthy, or posh, or infantile, and your list of flaws for that person runs miles away. You just can’t stand that person. You sometimes think about how to get rid of that person, or at least the sight of her (him). You fe...

I checked online the meaning of religiosity. From Cambridge Dictionary it says, “ religiosity means – the quality of being very religious, or reminding you of religious behavior, often in a way that is annoying ” (link ). And I found in another site ( link ) an interesting definition and I’ll quote here: “ Religiosity" is a term used to refer to excessive involvement in religion or religious activity. Such involvement goes beyond the norm for a person of similar faith and is often driven more by individual beliefs than the content of the actual religion. Though a bit different, legalism is somewhat akin to religiosity. Both Christians and non-Christians use the term "religiosity" to refer to those who have replaced their God with their religion. In Christianity, religiosity occurs when people focus on church activity, rules (which often go beyond actual biblical commands), tradition, and pet doctrines rather than on relationship with God...