Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

  Naaman, the commander of the army. It is a great title for a person, right? Commander of the army of the king of Syria. It is just like today having those letters before our name when we send an email, or someone is going to address us. Dr. Hertz, would you mind stooping down to check me out? Hehehe Yes… no one has ever addressed me as Dr. Hertz. Why would they? I have never introduced myself as Dr. Hertz, although I have a Ph.D. degree. To me, this isn’t important enough, if they get my name right it is a plus.   Anyway.. the story goes like this 2 Kings 5. ‘ Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram.  He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded because through him the   Lord   had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, BUT he had leprosy ’ .   The guy was all good and great full of valor but. It had a BUT. But he had leprosy.  He was a leper.     Do you know what it meant to be a leper those days? It meant to be an outcast, although he

  The point of noticing the sins we have been doing is to repent.    If you don’t know that you have sinned, you can’t repent.  If you can’t repent, you can’t be forgiven. If you are not forgiven, you can’t be co-heir with Christ in heaven.     So, because of this, Jesus Christ came to the world. This is the gospel. The good news. “…Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). Before Christ, you and I and everybody else were condemned. Why: Because no one could get it right. We can’t get anything right if not for God’s mercy.   Look, Jesus was tempted because he had to prove that he could do it. He was human and God at the same time. He couldn’t let the devil win. The devil will never win.    13  “Enter through the narrow gate.   For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.   14  But small is the gate and

  In what ways are you most tempted by Satan?   Usually, this kind of question makes me think harder. But not today. Today the answer came right out of my mouth. I argue. You know this old habit of arguing about everything. I think it is a woman thing. We all love arguing. It doesn’t matter if we are right or not. But to challenge our “opponent” is something that somehow gives us, at least for me, a pleasure. My husband is not a good opponent. Either he doesn’t believe why I am arguing with him, or he doesn’t have the words to argue with me. So, he does what I most envy. He stays silent. He gets to stay silent until I realize that I am talking to myself, and have said a load of things that I shouldn’t have. Then I ask for forgiveness. Thanks be to God who didn’t gave me a proud heart. I am very easy to ask for forgiveness.    Well, that is my problem. What is yours? Something that it is hard to resist. You fight? Or is it your mirror that keeps saying things back to you? Is it money? Y

Is heaven to everybody? Well, as I was watching my favorite pastor preaching on YouTube, he said something that I already knew but today made me think about it more seriously. Why? Because we all have people who reject the gospel and yet we still love them, pray for them, and hope to see them saved as we are, free as we are.   The Bible is very specific about the answer to that question. Several places in the Bible discriminate what kind of people Jesus wants in his place, in his kingdom.    People today don’t like the word discrimination. Because immediately they think about racism. The word also means  -  recognition and understanding of the difference between one thing and another . You can also think about using this word as categorizing, separating, distinguishing.    Anyway... I hope you got the point.  God made heaven and earth. Don’t you think He is the only one who has the right to say who enter into His place? He even made it easier. He let us choose. He told us what kind of

  A couple of years ago I heard something “Christianity is offensive”. Have you thought about that?  Have you ever given thought to why you reject so firmly Christianity? Do we look too righteous for your like? Or do you think you passed to the point of no return? Do you think God doesn’t like you? Or do you hate Christianity because it shows how many flaws you have, and mistakes you have made?  Nobody likes being pointed out as “you are wrong”, “my way is better than yours”, “my God is the only one”, “Jesus is the way, the only way to God”, “He is the Truth. The only one”.   Funny thing has happened lately. Everybody wants to hold the truth. The Truth is not relative.    Let’s give an example: I say, the sky is blue. Can you agree that is true? If someone comes around and says, in my eyes the sky is green. I see a green sky. What would you say about this person? At least, I would say, very politely (or not), go see a doctor. Clearly, your brain is playing tricks on you (like Green Day