Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

  In case you can't read, but can listen. Click here.  Reflection Em caso de não poder ler, mas pode escutar. Clique aqui.  Reflexao Buying Peace with Holy Things Recently, I found myself thinking about something in the history of Israel and Judah that I had never fully considered before. Many times, in the Bible, kings took gold, silver, and consecrated things from the temple and used them to buy peace with their enemies. At first, it can look like a simple political decision: they had a problem, they used what they had, and they found temporary relief. But when I thought more deeply about it, I realized how serious it was. What Belongs to God To consecrate something means to dedicate it to God. It is set apart for Him. When a person consecrates their life to the Lord, they are saying, “My life belongs to You.” In truth, our lives already belong to Him, but consecration is a surrender—a vow of devotion and trust. So when the king...

  The Moabites and Ammonites, with some of the Meunites came to wage war against Jehoshaphat. Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the Lord in the front of the new courtyard and said: “Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? (…) Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”   Then the Spirit of the LORD  came on Jahaziel (a Levite). He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem ! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of th...

  Ecclesiastes 9 3This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil, and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. 4 Anyone who is among the living has hope[b]—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion! 5 For the living know that they will die,     but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward,     and even their name is forgotten. 6 Their love, their hate     and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part     in anything that happens under the sun. 7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days...

  The brain is so much more powerful than A.I. O cérebro é muito mais poderoso do que a inteligência artificial. Lately, through social media, we hear all sorts of things. Things that please our ears, and things that displease us profoundly. What should we do about that? Well, as the first chapters of the book of Proverbs recommend seeking wisdom, seeking understanding, and seeking knowledge. Three things that, in essence, are very different.   The internet offers us a bunch of “knowledge”, for soon after to find out they are all false. We look around, we see a world deceiving and being deceived every second. The newest is the illusion that A.I. comes to facilitate our lives. Really? Really? In what sense? I don’t understand how a computer built by men, filled with information provided by men, so you and I can access this information faster, instead of going through the best computer ever designed.   A computer that doesn’t need...

  I feel very disappointed when I can't make myself understood. But there are people who just don't want to try to understand. They are set in their own opinion, like a closed door. There is nothing you can say that will change that.  I am not asking for you or anyone else to agree with me. I don't think that I ever cared about what most people thought of me. However, there are a few people whom I don't even want to care about, but I care. Because there are some people in our lives who were made for us to care about them in everything they do or think.  But can I honor that when I am always being misunderstood? When all my explanations go down the drain without a single consideration? Or sometimes a few words are picked up and thrown back at me, like I said, with the sole purpose of offending? Have you ever felt that way? There is an order in the universe that we can't change. Unless one comes to this world broken, defective. We were made to please God and honor our...

  Psalm 77: 19  “Your path led through the sea,    your way through the mighty waters, Though your footprints were not seen.”   How is the sea? Sometimes it is calm, sometimes it rages with huge waves. Sometimes we can see through the water the sand, but most of the time, we can’t. And when we are walking by the waters, the waves come and undo our footprints. The sea is like our lives and God’s will.  Our lives can have calm times, turbulent times, we can be certain where we are going, and most of the time, we can’t know for sure what we are supposed to do.  God’s ways are not like ours. We need to see what is ahead of us. We plan for the future, but we can’t see the future, and yet we still plan it. When things don’t go the way we planned, we find a way to blame someone or something. But how can we plan for something we cannot see? It is like being sure of a way in the dark. Thinking that we will be successful, trust...