Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

How do we look like the people of Israel? I can assure you, a lot. We are ungrateful, we have no word, no decency, we have a very short memory and we only care for ourselves. In chapter 32 of Exodus, Moses had gone up to the mountain, and it took a while for him to come back. People got anxious and hurried to make a golden calf as their god; they sacrificed a burnt offering to it and said that was their god, the one who had brought them up out of Egypt (Exodus 32: 1 – 5). Isn’t that crazy? I always thought so. How? How could they do such a thing? Haven’t they seen enough of God’s power? How could they put the glory on a golden calf? (stop here and let this information sink in). Can you relate? Let’s see. If the time of God doesn’t coincide with the time that you want the answers of your prayers, how quickly do you turn to something else? It was only 40 days that Moses was away; we think we don’t have 40 days, or 4 days, or even 4 hours. We want it and we want it ...

Quantos de nós já fomos pegos de surpresa nas mentiras de alguém? Você gostou? Como você se sentiu? E que tal do outro lado da mesa, você já foi pego na mentira? Qual foi sua reação? O que aconteceu com esse relacionamento? Valeu a pena? Você por acaso acredita que existem “pequenas mentiras”, “mentiras brancas”, “foi para o seu bem”. Deixa-me te dizer uma coisa: mentira não tem tamanho. O que tem tamanho é o estrago que ela faz. Mentira é mentira em qualquer lugar em qualquer momento. E vai causar um prejuízo em você e no outro. Então, quando você pensa no tamanho das suas mentiras, você realmente acha que vai funcionar? Que ninguém vai descobrir nunca? Eu digo a você, alguém vai saber e vai voltar para te morder a língua.  Mais cedo ou mais tarde. Os primeiros capítulos de Provérbios, Salomão está nos chamando para buscar sabedoria. Por que? Porque vale a pena e é honrável. O título do capítulo 8 diz: As bênçãos da sabedoria. E nos versos 4 -14 diz: 4 "A ...

Você já notou como Deus descreveu detalhadamente a construção do tabernáculo? O que eu e você podemos aprender com isso? Nós, na maioria das vezes lemos esse tipo de texto as pressas, até porque não vamos construir nenhum tabernáculo, certo? Mas, o que isso nos revela do caráter de Deus? Deus é um Deus de perfeição, detalhes. Se você é da área de biomédicas ou biologia, você pode ter notado a complexidade da natureza, do corpo humano ou mesmo na física e na química. Eles são todos tão perfeitos. Nenhuma criatura conseguiria replicar isso a partir do nada. Olhe em volta. Você achar que a natureza é feia? Você acha que a forma que o corpo humano funciona é feio? De jeito nenhum!! Tudo é tão perfeito. Moisés achava que conhecia a si mesmo até Deus dizer a ele o que fazer.  Moises achava que ele não conseguiria (Exodus 4: 1 – 17). Ele se viu com tantas imperfeições; mas Deus conhecia ele melhor que ele mesmo. Agora, veja até onde ele chegou. Ele conseguiu. Ele ...

Chapter  7 of Proverbs talks about the adulteress. It is a serious warning about this kind of person who acts like an adulteress. We all are aware of “You shall not commit adultery”. We too remember what Jesus explained in the sermon on the mount about it ( Matthew 5: 27 - 30 ). Even if you think about it you have already sinned. Because the sin starts in the heart. If you your eyes make you sin, Jesus said to cut it off. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. Of course, I imagine half the world blind and the other half about to be it. But what He meant was sacrifice what makes you sin, if it is your eyes just close them, quit looking, go to do something else. Pray for forgiveness, for example. Solomon gives us some sense about this subject. What I want you to look in this chapter 7 of Proverbs is the way he describes it. She, the adulteress, is a beautiful woman, comes easily, with no difficulty, ...

Please, meditate in this Psalm today. Make a little prayer before reading it. Then, read it slowly, thinking about every word and its meaning. Then, think about your life, what you have endured, how many victories and how many defeats, or even how many nights you have spent crying to the Lord and very soon your prayer was answered. Thank him for everything. Psalm 30[a] A psalm. A song. For the dedication of the temple.[b] Of David. 1 I will exalt you, LORD,     for you lifted me out of the depths     and did not let my enemies gloat over me. 2 LORD my God, I called to you for help,     and you healed me. 3 You, LORD, brought me up from the realm of the dead;     you spared me from going down to the pit. 4 Sing the praises of the LORD, you his faithful people;     praise his holy name. 5 For his anger lasts only a moment,     but his favor lasts a lifetime; w...

Once someone said to me, “Do what I tell you but do not do what I do”. What a hypocrite! Right? In chapter 23 of Matthew Jesus woe the hypocrites; In verse 3 Jesus said, (…) for they preach, but do not practice. Over this chapter, Jesus called the Pharisees and the scribes of hypocrites about 6 times. How do you think He was feeling? I think He was pretty upset, angry and disappointed. Would you like to make Jesus feel that way? I don’t think so. Sometimes we are very quick to judge but slow to look ourselves at the mirror. Nobody likes being judged by others, not me and certainly not you. So, why sometimes you and I are tempted to judge? Why sometimes we say people to do something that we are not willing to do ourselves or we know we cannot do it ourselves? Jesus compares our heart with a cup. He said in verses 25 – 26, Woe to you, scribes Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence....

It is amazing how God talks to us when we are really seeking his presence. No matter what, every day God has something to tell you, to tell me. I’ve just opened my Bible in my daily readings, the words of the bible seem to jump out of the book to my mind to tell me. It is the Spirit of God making sense those words to me. I’ll let you know in a minute. Before that, I will contextualize you. I’ve been struggling with some internal issues that sometimes people don’t realize, but sometimes they can plant doubts in our hearts; I know most times is unintentional. God knows me better than anyone else, better than myself. God knows human nature. Oh hey! He created us!3 Of course, He knows. But sometimes, it seems that we want to know better than God. We think we know what is best for us. Tell me something, how many times you have made a decision based on what you think is best, and in the end, it wasn’t? One thing early in the morning came, ‘let the Spirit lead you’. In...