Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

 (Eu estou cheia do amor de Cristo!) What kind of religious person are you? This kind? (gif) Que tipo de religioso é você? Desse tipo? (imagem) “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. (…) If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1: 22 – 24, 26 – 27)   What is James talking about? If he had the New Testament in his hands, I would say he would be talking about Jesus’ sermon on the mount. Because that is what the Law and the Prophets are all about. Jesus taught how to...

Do you know that parable that Jesus told after Peter asked him how many times we are supposed to forgive, and Jesus answered him seventy times seven? There… I bet that every time you read that following passage (Matthew 18:23 – 35) you are appalled by the servant’s behavior. But slow down a little bit, let’s take a look in the mirror. We often feel horrified and think about that we could nev…, couldn’t we? We try to justify our actions and feel good about them even though we know that a little bit of mercy wouldn’t hurt, would it? Because we don’t know why that guy acted the way he did.   But why don’t we know anything else about him? Jesus gave us no detail about the man’s life. I am going to quote here what I’ve read in a book this morning.   “In effect, the parable allows no excuse for such behavior because it does not grant the servant an opportunity to explain it. But that doesn’t mean the unmerciful servant did not have one or two or more...