Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

So, Jeremiah didn’t go to Babylon, instead, he stayed in Jerusalem for while; then some of the people who had stayed wanted to go to Egypt; Jeremiah had told them not to go there because God had said so. They went anyway and took Jeremiah with them. But, in the meantime Jeremiah got depressed. This is my impression by reading the book of Lamentations. Who wouldn’t? He worked so hard to warn people to do what God had been saying for so long, but people just didn’t listen to him. And then he saw everything happening. All the destruction of Jerusalem, people being taken captive to Babylon. It is quite depressing to watch all that. Can’t you imagine? Some bad disturbing things happen in our country and we get sad, imagine your whole country and all the people being slaughtered and taken captive to another country! Although Jeremiah knew that all those things would happen, because God had said it, still. Pretty sad, huh? I can’t imagine the size of his sadness, but...

Em todas as coisas, seja um bom exemplo de boas obras This weekend I read the letter from Paul to Titus. And I am amazed by this short letter. It contains instructions on how to behave, and why to do so in a simple and plain form. There is no space for doubts in there. First, I noticed that in this letter Paul really wanted to stress the SELF-CONTROL issue. Let’s be honest. It is an issue until in our current days. Why is it so hard to control ourselves? When we less expected we did what it wasn’t supposed to, or, in the middle of a talk, we say something that it wasn’t supposed to. We think, “that didn’t come out as I wanted”, or “I don’t know why I did that”, or “I wish I could have thought better before acting”, so many “I should have” that we lose counting. Why can’t we control ourselves? Why can't we avoid getting into unnecessary problems? In this little letter, Paul speaks about self-control six times. It is a very small letter, only 3 short ...

A geração do Eu, Eu, Eu Wow! I’m always amazed when I read this passage, especially during these days when we see so many riots around the world and so many bad behaviors that we can’t understand why people act like that. But, as many doubt the Bible, everything is written, although few can understand it. Paul wrote to Timothy a second time, and this letter seems that never gets old. Just like the Manifesto of the Communist party. So old but so current. “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who...

We don’t like taking risks, right? No, we don’t. We like to know what we are doing or going and what is going to happen. We like controlling. Although, we also like saying that we obey the voice of the LORD. We are no different from the people of Israel. After most of them were taken to exile in Babylon, some stayed in the land, and of course, they were worried about what would happen to them. They had the desire of obeying the LORD. But only the desire is not enough, we have to do it. Our words or intentions cannot save us if we are not willing, from the heart, to obey. We’re guilty of desiring to obey in many things, but not actually doing it. Why? So many reasons, one of them for sure is the urge to controlling the outcome. The people of Judah who stayed in the land asked Jeremiah to inquire about the LORD about what they should do. The LORD told them to stay on land, that He would take care of them, however, if they left the land and went to ...

Regulações, códigos,  regras,  padrões,  orientações,  conformidade In the book of Jeremiah, the prophet, who was being persecuted, was called into the presence of king Zedekiah. I realized that Zedekiah knew the word of God and believed it. However, he was afraid of what the people would say and do if he obeyed the word of God, he thought the people would kill him; he would have been known as a coward or a traitor. But the prophet had said that his life would be spared if he surrendered to the king of Babylon, as God had said. Having his life spared seemed not enough for him, I guess. Sometimes, what people think is more important than to obey the word of God. We know what is right, and what we should do, but somehow, the world standards don’t accept that, and we have probably led astray from God because of the false concepts of the world. Besides the fear of rejection and shame, we end up doing just the opposite of God’s will for our life. Y...

So, is money all you can think about? Can money buy all your needs? If you have all this money, and you are always making more money, can’t you give it away? What about your time? If instead you giving money, you give time, would you be less rich? In these days that we live, I would probably incentivize you to give time more often than money. Disconnect your devices and connect with people. Why do you have so many friends on Facebook and none in your home? How often do you talk to your friends personally? Have you tried to make new friends lately? Anyway… How rich the Bible is with wisdom! I was here studying for my bible study, and I read a passage that I’ve read so many times. But this morning something caught my eye. The question was: how often are you willing to give away? Or should I ask how much are you attached to your own things? The bible talks a lot about sharing and giving away. Have you noticed that almost every month you probably say “if...