Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

When you are in trouble, or worried or even depressed, not knowing what to do… feeling hopeless or tired of this life, what do you do? Where do you go? Who do you talk to? Does it help?    Jesus once said in Matthew 6:34  is “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Don’t you think it is obvious? It is obvious, but why don’t we believe in it? You see, maybe you didn’t understand it well. Tomorrow will worry about itself, which means that tomorrow or in a month or a year the problems of today will be gone, it will be solved. Isn’t it true?    For better or worse something will happen. Tomorrow another set of problems will come… What Jesus wanted you to know is, why worry about tomorrow? It is inevitable. You have already enough problems today. So, why spend time worrying about something you don’t even know if it’ll happen?    Like the AA preaches: “one day at a time”. We ...

(1) o poder de fazer escolhas livres sem restrições de agências externas; (2) a característica de julgar com sabedoria e objetividade ; (3) saber como evitar constrangimento ou angústia; (4) refinar o gosto, o tato. It is very good to read the Bible first thing in the morning. Jesus did, and Juan does… so I am giving it a try. For me, it is not the very first thing, because I have this cat, called Joy that insists on waking me up very early… because she thinks she is starving to death, and I am to blame for that.    Anyway… getting to the point. I was reading 1 Chronicles 22:12-13 “Only, may the LORD grant you discretion and understanding, that when he gives you charge over Israel you may keep the law of the LORD your God. Then you will prosper if you are careful to observe the statutes and the rules that the LORD commanded Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Fear not; do not be dismayed”.   I’ve just realized that only in these two verses I can talk a lot about...

I want to believe that I am not the only person who thinks it is hard to find a lesson from the books of Kings, besides the fact that every bad deed will catch up with you eventually. And that God sees everything and forgets nothing.    The kings of Israel, not Judah, were all bad. Not one of them did what was good in the sight of the LORD. They were all about power and idolatry. Power, we understand today. Idolatry I don’t think everybody gets it.    God is not a difficult person to understand. He sets everything on the table pretty clear. Nothing is obscure about what He wants from us. God let everyone know that He is God and there is no other. What people don’t get is there are a lot of other gods, and we don’t see them as such. God does.   I am not referring to images or paintings, although they also can become idols to people.  But in the 21 st  century, what does God consider other gods?   The Bible treats gods as everything or anything that...

As únicas pessoas com raiva de você por falar a verdade são aquelas que estão vivendo uma mentira. (autor desconhecido)   Are you a truth-teller? A loving-showing kind of person?  I had this friend who used to say that she liked me because she knew that I wouldn’t lie to her. That’s true. I am not in a habit of lying. Thank God for that. I don’t see a reason for lying. Lies bring nothing more than sadness, and disappointment… even when people say “It was a white lie” or “I said it to protect you”. They are in a habit of lying and don’t realize the harm they are doing to others and to themselves.  I said once to someone very dear to me: “Hey you need to show some kindness to people, smile sometimes, break the ice with small talk, and say at least good morning.” It worked. People started seeing him with other eyes, people started wondering what in the world could have happened to him, and they told me about the changes. I was very glad to see the responses.    Are...