Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

  “And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles”. *Matthew 5:41.   Let’s rest our thoughts on this for a minute.  We live in a selfish and egocentric culture. It is widespread. Who in this world would go one mile extra? What is the purpose of that? We can think about many things.  Jesus was talking about retaliation, an eye for an eye kind of thing. When we learn that at first seems fair. If you break my leg, I’ll break yours. Right? Fair. Someone has to pay the price. And nothing fairer than the same price. I agree.  However, God’s way of seeing justice is very different. Why? Because He is a merciful and patient God. When we don’t retaliate, when we show mercy and forgiveness, it causes something different in people’s hearts. They don’t understand why show mercy.  We don’t understand so much evil and crimes and violence in the world. It seems that the good guys are losing badly. I also get that feeling sometimes. It all seems hopeless. B...

  I hold nothing against my father but I wish I had had a father who had sat with me and taught me the fear of the Lord. Like this father did with his son in Proverbs. But my father did what he thought it was better. He trusted in the church where he was taking me, and I am grateful for that.    Even though it wasn’t my father who taught me that, I have learned to love and read the book of Proverbs my whole life and I am always seeking wisdom and understanding.  The fear of the LORD is not something easy to wrap our minds around.    It is easy to picture the fear of our parents. We see them, and we know what they are capable of. We know when they are angry at us. We fear them, therefore we want at all costs to avoid their anger. This doesn’t make us love them less. No, we learn to respect them for that and respect others too. This is love.   Even if we don’t really see the LORD, we must revere and acknowledge His presence, and if we are able to get tha...

Again Psalm 23. I can’t get enough of this Psalm. It is so rich in details and blessings. Let’s see it again from a different point of view. A Psalm of David. 1 The L ORD  is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2   He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3   He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4   Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5   You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my ...

Here I am, at home, making dinner to my husband and I was remembering how shocking it is to talk about religion when the god of the person is the Self-god. When you have a god (any god), the most important thing is to please this god. I have my God, the One I believe He is the only God. I would die if necessary for him. I follow His commandments and I read His words and I believe that He hears me and answers my prayers. So, my God is this Supernatural, Almighty, the Great Creator, maker of the heavens and earth. There is nothing impossible for Him. This is the God I believe in. I trust Him with my life.    We know the relationship between a person and his/her God (any god) is like this. We know the Muslims also die for their God and the Jews also have died for God.    People who have the Self-god don’t understand any of this. They don’t understand the laws, the love, the charity, the respect for one another. Because their god is themselves. They only want to please t...

Are you insane? Have you ever had somebody call you insane? Why would somebody call you that? Maybe because you’ve just happened to say “I believe in God”, or “Yes, I am a Christian”.  Maybe you’ll lose some “friends” over this subject. But I can say, it’s okay. You’ll survive.   The Bible tells us the story of a great king, the king of Babylon. God allowed him to conquer Judah to punish and fulfill His promise. God had said to the people of Judah and Israel if they made other idols, and follows other gods, they would raise God’s wrath upon them and God would expel them from the land that HE had given them as He promised. So, He is a just, faithful, and true God. His words are true and whatever He says he would do, He will do. So He did. And Nebuchadnezzar was the guy who destroyed Judah and took a bunch of people to live with him in Babylon. Anyway. Cutting the story short, through Daniel (a good guy from Judah, whom God chose to use) the king got warned about his practices a...

  “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1: 27) “And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this way was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11)   The culture of self lately has destroyed so many lives. Self-indulgence is at the top of the list. Solomon indulged himself in everything we can possibly imagine (the guy was loaded, so he could do whatever… he had 1000 women.. to say the least), and yet he couldn’t find the point. He concluded it is chasing after the wind. Meaning, you won’t get anywhere by self-indulging. I would say people have mistaken self-indulgence for happiness. The “I do whatever I want ...